NO Secrets!
I just finished reading this post from Trulia, Surprising Insider Secrets for the 5 Stages of Buying Your First Home. The author, Tara-Nicholle Nelson, is a real estate broker in San Francisco, CA. She makes some excellent points, but ONE jumped out at me more than the others; your family and your friends can cause you to lose your dream home! This is NO secret to real estate professionals here in Ocean County, NJ, but to our potential first time home-buyers; you may need to get your “believers” fixed.
Stage Four: Negotiations
Insider Secret: Your family and friends can cause you to lose your dream home.
Why: With so much information on the web and the news every day about the recession and the buyer’s market, everyone seems to be an armchair economist/real estate savant. But much of that news is national and based on medians, averages and trends. That is, it might not necessarily apply to every home on the market in every city, and more importantly, it might have nothing to do with “your” particular home.
I remember, way back in 1999, when I was sophomore sales associate, helping a young lady find her first home. We found it; a cute 2 bedroom home in the Money Island section of Toms River, NJ, listed at $99,000. This home needed absolutely no work and was perfect for my young, first time home-buyer. We wrote up the offer and agreed on a “negotiation strategy”; we offered $90,000 and agreed on eventually meeting the Seller in the middle at $95,000. I presented the contract, in person, and obtained the “expected” counter-offer of $97,500. Long story short; my buyer decided to “dig in” at $92,500, after discussing it with her mother’s boyfriend…we lost the house over $2,500. Today, even after the “housing market collapse”, that home is worth over $150,000!
So, here we are again in Ocean County, 12 years later. The local housing market is poised for a recovery; home prices and mortgage interest rates are at historic lows and their is an abundance of homes to choose from (limited by price range of course). Let’s learn from history and not repeat it; your friends and family may mean well but they just may cost you the home of your dreams. Trust and listen to your real estate professional. Unless, you want to live with mom and dad for the next 12 years!
Photo purchased from istockphoto.com
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