5 Mistakes Home Buyers Make and How to Avoid Them
By: Christopher Kromer, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker, Halstead Property, Village Office and co-host of Beat the House on HGTV.
1. Chasing a “deal” at all costs - We all want to save money, but focusing only on getting a deal (or, for some unrealistic buyers, a ‘steal’) can cause you to make low-ball offers that end up alienating the seller. You could then lose out on a home you might have been able to get otherwise, which will end up costing you money in the long run. Instead, I encourage my clients to focus on finding value and not necessarily on scoring a deal. Good value bought today will look like a great deal in hindsight.
2. Not getting representation - With so much information about real estate available online, many people assume they can buy a home without a real estate agent’s help, but this strategy often backfires. A savvy agent knows the ins and the outs of the market much better than an uninformed buyer with an otherwise full-time schedule. Why would you choose to navigate making the largest investment of your life without an expert in your corner? As they say in the legal profession, ‘a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.’ The same can be said about the complexities of a real estate transaction.
3. Making a low-ball offer just to see how low a seller will go - Any serious bids should be the result of your and your broker’s independent market analysis to come up with the value you see that home at, and then devising a strategy to secure the home as close to that value as you can. Unreasonably low offers tend to turn sellers off and you may not even get an answer, or counteroffer in return.
4. Meeting and saying too much to the seller - I never encourage a meeting between buyers and sellers. Both positive and negative comments can hurt you later on. Sellers are often emotionally attached to their homes, and an off-handed comment about the things you’ll need to fix before you can live there will likely offend him/her and make them think twice before selling their home to someone they perceive as being inconsiderate. On the other hand, remarking about how much you love the home can have equally unfavorable results, as a seller may pick up on this and believe they can get more for their home because you ‘love it so much.’ Keep the transaction at ‘arms length’ by letting the agents do the talking.
5. Not thinking like a seller - Right now you’re a buyer. While that three-bedroom home on the sixth floor of a walk-up that’s been sitting on the market for some time might look like a steal, remember that there’s probably a reason why it hasn't sold. And someday you might need to sell that home; properties like this can be hit the hardest when the market is soft and there’s more inventory for buyers to look at – if it took a long time to sell in a strong market, it will probably take even longer to sell in a softer one.
For more expert tips be sure to tune in to your local HGTV network every Tuesday at 11 PM sharp to catch all the action. Learn more and connect with Christopher at Halstead.com/ChristopherKromer.