Avoid these three common mistakes when you buy a home.
It’s so exciting to be back in the office in the new year! I was recently thinking about my buyers—more specifically, the kinds of mistakes they’re liable to make in today’s market. I’ll share the three most common of these errors so that you can avoid them when you enter the market to buy a home:
Mistake No. 1: Not getting a pre-approval letter prior to looking at homes.
In our current market, you need to find your money before you find your house. After you sit down with your Realtor for your consultation, figure out where your funds will come from and how you’ll obtain them. That way, you can confidently walk into any home within your budget and decide right then and there whether you want to make an offer. Pre-approvals will even lend your offer a competitive edge simply because it lets the seller know that your finances are in order.
Listen to your Realtor’s counsel so that you can get the home you desire at a price that is fair.
Mistake No. 2: Waiving too many contingencies.
Many buyers are going the carte blanche route, waiving all their inspections and contingencies and offering way above asking price just to have a better chance of getting a home. This is risky, and we never advise buyers to waive everything. If you do, you limit your ability to accurately assess the quality of the home you’re buying, and you might miss some major issues. Additionally, you’re putting your earnest money at risk—you could lose thousands of dollars.
Mistake No. 3: Disregarding the market when making an offer.
Don’t make an offer far above the asking price just to get it under contract. If you do, there could be appraisal issues down the road that ultimately prevent you from getting the house. If the home doesn’t appraise for the amount you offer, you may have to renegotiate by bringing extra cash you hadn’t budgeted for to the closing table to fill in the gap. The goal is to find a home for you and your family, and we want to make sure that you can carry that through to the finish line. Listen to your Realtor’s advice regarding the home’s comparable sales and what the projections look like for 2022 so that you can get the home you desire at a great price.
Don’t let these mistakes happen to you. If you have any further questions or need any assistance, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to help you.
