It’s a Candy Store for Buyers
Working with a new homebuyer, we looked at our first house yesterday. It was a bank foreclosure and needed about $20,000 to $30,000 in repairs: new roof, new floors, lots of additional work that would add up quickly. Time was of the essence since the listing agent informed me that she already had another offer.
He wanted badly to immediately write a contract because bidding against someone else causes a desperate sense of urgency that is not always necessary. We took this morning and looked at six more homes - all of them were equal or better than the first one and didn’t need a lot of work.
“Buying a house should not be like buying a candy bar in the check out line of a grocery store,” said Michael Hendrickson, a property manager and real estate agent in Middle Tennessee. “A lot of buyers see something they like and immediately want to purchase it without due diligence.”
Michael compared buying a candy bar with buying a house, “An attractively wrapped chocolate bar is high in calories, cholesterol, and fat and definitely not good for you in the long-term. That’s the house a buyer sees, but there are many more houses (and candy bars) on the shelf. You do your research and find that a peppermint patty is better because it has no trans-fats. And there are a lot of peppermint patties on the shelves too.”
The same goes in today’s housing market. You might see one you like, but it’s important to look at all the information on the wrapper. Just down the road could be a new construction that’s move-in ready for just a thousand dollars more than what you’ll ultimately pay for remodeling the original home. The benefit? You won’t have to put on a new roof, new carpet, new paint yourself, and can probably get a builders warranty and be comfortably settled in your new home within 30 days.
When you go to the market, everyone looks for sales but sometimes bubba cola can not replace the real thing.
It’s a candy store for buyers. Shop wisely.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:29 pm
[…] It’s lollipops and gum drops out there, people. […]