Purchasing
- Your first home
- Your next home and move
- An investment property
- A vacation home
Refinancing
- To tap your home equity
- To save money
- To avoid rate increases
- To lower monthly payments
Home Equity
- Loans and lines of credit
- Finance major expenses
- Consolidate Debt
- Invest
New market buyer tips
By Justin Hunter
The U.S. real estate market
is currently becoming a buyer’s
market once again. Sales are falling
faster than Randy Johnson fastballs
and median home prices are threatening
to follow suit.
But this buyer’s market is different
form ones in the past. You have to be
a little more deliberate and decisive.
The U.S. has never had a market like
the one that just passed (2000-2005)
where sales and price appreciation rates
broke records right through the rooftops.
There are definitely questions about
how far the market will slow and for
how long. Unfortunately no one can accurately
predict the future of the market but
you can prepare.
Bankrate.com columnist, Holden Lewis,
explains a few ways to ensure a safe
yet lucrative purchase
in this emerging new market, in his
October 5, 2006 article, “4 tips
for buying a house in a buyer's market.”
It all depends on how you view the market
to determine if it is indeed a profitable
buyer’s market.
You may think it is a great time to
buy a house because prices and mortgage
rates are dropping while seller are
desperate to get rid of one of millions
of available homes for sale.
Contrastingly, you may also think it
is a bad time to buy because prices
and rates may be even lower in a few
months or a year, and sellers will become
even more desperate.
Regardless of what you think about the
current status of the market, there
are four things that may help you buy
that house
you’ve always wanted.
If you find the right house for the
right price, buy it. “If you're
serious about buying a house, this is
both the first step and the final goal.”
You will most likely ensure a better
deal if you are active. Find it and
buy it. You are probably not going to
have your dream home fall in your lap.
“To put it more precisely, you
have to decide whether you will actively
shop and then negotiate a fair deal,
or if you'll just passively browse houses,
hoping to stumble on a steal.”
If it is in your price range, don’t
worry about if you can find a better
deal somewhere else; you will probably
end up passing up a great opportunity.
The next thing you should do is utilize
your agent
and technology. Your agent will be able
to provide you with the necessary knowledge
you need to conduct a positive home
search and buying process. It is helpful
to have as much knowledge as possible.
Technology such as the Internet can
provide you knowledge and more, from
up-to-the-minute MLS listings to instant
mortgage approvals.
You also need to know how to negotiate
effectively. “Right now, ‘there's
more room for negotiation’ in
most housing markets because the sales
pace slows in autumn, and prices have
been falling, says Steve Habetz, president
of ARCServ, a network of real
estate attorneys.”
But Habetz stresses the importance of
how to negotiate. You need to make the
seller feel like they have to lower
their asking price.
“‘You have to be able to
defend that offer as much as the seller
has to be able to defend the asking
price,’ he says. ‘If you're
not making a full-price offer, it's
not enough to pull a number out of the
air. You should be able to show that
this neighborhood has 20 comparable
homes for sale, and, although I like
your property, it's priced 6 percent
above the other properties. That gives
you a better footing for establishing
an objective and reasonable negotiation.’”
The last tip to help you in this new
buyer’s market is to avoid gimmicks.
You are shopping for a home that you
plan on living in for the majority of
the rest of your life; it’s not
a car. A home purchase will probably
be the most expensive and most important
transaction of your life. It should
not be decided by any gimmicky incentives
or commercialized advertisements.
“If they're willing to subsidize
it with a $500 TV, ask for $500 off
the asking price.”
Do your homework, listen to your brain
and be confident in your purchase.