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Bargains Abound for Buyers???
August 25th, 2007 categories: Buyer Info, Charlotte Area News, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate News
You hear a lot right now about the real estate market. I pointed out last week that even in a solid market like the greater Charlotte area, there are plenty of reports about the market getting soft. Couple that with tons of information being broadcast from the news about the overall national market and if you are a buyer, you may be getting very excited.
Let’s look at that a minute. Last week I wrote about secrets savvy sellers use in this environment. Well let’s go to the flip side and consider a few things prudent buyers should be doing:
1) Pre-qualification – This is absolutely essential in any market. Don’t start you house hunting without first speaking to a lender. Today it is even more important. Even if you have spoken to your lender a month ago, you must talk to them again. You might not have been following this too closely, but the mortgage business is in the midst of a major shake out. Even if you have stellar credit, the rules have changed in the past 4 – 6 weeks. Before you could qualify for a nice home with little to no down payment. Without going into all the gory details right now, the bottom-line is that you might be thinking you can buy that dream home with only 5% down because you have great credit. Maybe you still can, but chances are good that you can’t or if you can, your interest rate will be higher than you previously thought. You don’t want to go down the road and find out your payment is going to be a lot higher than you calculated a few weeks ago.
2) Homework – Your mother always told you to do this. It’s still true. This is a great time to buy (and sell for that matter), but don’t get too impatient to jump on a “deal” without a thorough understanding of the neighborhood values and the neighborhood market. A good real estate agent can help with this.
3) Patience – One side benefit of our Charlotte market is that it has not been as steamy hot as other areas like California for example is that homes typically don’t sell in a few hours. I like to sell a home as much as anyone, but often counsel clients to “…take a deep breathe..” before jumping. especially if they are letting emotions rule. If you are interested in a home, there are ways to “keep your foot in the door…” without too much risk of someone coming in behind you a snatching it away. Not to imply that this is risk-free tactic, but it can be okay….
There are always bargains out there…you just have to look and dig through the many non-bargains…..
Remember – You can contact me anytime for free, no-hassle, no-pressure answers to your real estate questions…
Happy buying…
August 28th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I would take it a step further and advise buyers to get a pre-approval, whereby their credit has been run and it has a value, much closer than a pre-qualification.
Rebecca D. Levinson- http://www.connect2agent.com
August 29th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Rebecca,
Very good point. I should have said that… thanks