Fsbo

Now is a great time to buy a house. Prices are falling, and so are mortgage rates. Millions of houses are for sale, and sellers are getting anxious.

Alternatively, you could say: This is a bad time to buy a house. Prices and rates might be lower in a few months. With more than 4 million houses on the market nationally, and more being added daily, sellers are bound to become desperate. Why not wait them out?

In many places, it’s a buyer’s market in real estate, with sellers outnumbering potential purchasers. The resulting downward pressure on prices makes buyers cheerful. But it complicates matters for buyers, too. In some markets, there are simply far too many choices. Even more bewildering, buyers wonder if they should wait a few months.

Buyers worry that if they buy too soon and the home prices reduce by the time they go to settlement, they will have negative equity in their new home. Regardless of these worries, in every market there are people who are serious about buying and don’t get sidetracked by market forces that aren’t under their control.

There is always a percentage of our population that gets divorced, gets relocated, dies, retires, downsizes.

For home buyers, experts have some advice:

• Get pre-approved for a mortgage.

• If you find the right house at the right price, buy it.

• Put technology and a buyer’s agent to good use.

• Negotiate effectively.

• Ask for incentives from the sellers — such as buying points on a mortgage.

As for the first: Work with a lender who pulls your credit and verifies your assets before you start looking. This will give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Imagine that you have found the perfect home, which has the features and amenities you want. The odds are likely another buyer is out there looking just as you are. If you have a mortgage pre-approval in place you can act faster than a buyer who does not.

That could be the difference between getting an offer agreed upon and losing that perfect home.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 5:45 am and is filed under FSBO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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