Common mistakes made by buyers these days range from falling in love with the decor to trying to time the market. Whether you’re a first time homebuyer or a seasoned buyer – make sure that you aren’t making any of these mistakes!
- Timing the market: Many buyers were holding off until prices dropped further last year, then all of a sudden, prices started rising – and incredibly quickly! The age old question… how to time the market so you buy low and sell high? Well good luck – if you figure that out, you’ll be rich… or you will have found the world’s first working crystal ball! The truth is – analyzing the trends, digging into the statistics, and listening to the advice of your wise Realtor will help you navigate the market. While even they can’t time the market, they can help to ensure you’re finding the right home and at the right price.
- Don’t settle for the wrong area: Each area has its own personality and demographics so be sure to do your research on the items that matter to you. For example, if you’re a devout vegetarian, you may want to ensure that there are plenty of grocery stores within the area that provide really diverse and fresh produce. Since most real estate professionals recommend that when you buy a home, you should stay at least 5 years to recoup the costs of purchasing that home, its pretty important that you find the right area to call home!
- Don’t buy a fixer-upper if you don’t know how to fix it up: This is a tough lesson to learn and some of us can’t be persuaded otherwise until they experience it for ourselves! The actual costs of renovations can be overwhelming and oftentimes the true costs aren’t explained up front, once you’re knee deep in a project, you figure out all the additional items that are required – or highly recommended – and suddenly you’ve blown your budget! Before jumping into a contractor special, be sure you’ve spent some time with a local house-building group or help out a friend with a project in their home.
The market is constantly changing and navigating through a home search can be quite overwhelming. By working with a good Realtor, they can help you narrow down your search and provide you with data so that you can make an informed decision.
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Great info and I wanted to mention another mistake people make when purchasing a home is not using a mortgage payoff calculator. Using a mortgage payoff calculator can help you determine which type of mortgage, how fast you can pay it off, how large of a mortgage fits your budget etc. Many people end up with less than desirable mortgages when they don’t use this tool. Cheers to a great article
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Great info on common mistakes and another one I wanted to mention is the mistake new homeowners make of not using a mortgage payoff calculator. You can figure out how much of a mortgage fits into your budget comparing and contrasting different types of mortgages, different amortization schedules etc and most importantly how fast you can pay off your mortgage with different payment amounts. Using a mortgage payoff calculator gives new homeowners critical info so they can end up with a more desirable mortgage then just taking whatever the banks offer first.