It is not uncommon for a buyer to tell me, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we are under contract and buying this property already. How did this happen so fast?’ The answer is it didn’t. Real Estate buyers start the search long before they even realize it. Here’s what you can expect from your property shopping experience, and how to get the most out of the process in order to find the right property for you:
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Figure Out the Benefits: Are you buying your first home and this will be much better than renting? Are you buying a second home or investment property so you can enjoy the beach without wondering where you will be staying each time, and realize the appreciation down the road? Whatever your goal, you should have weighed the benefits and decided the purchase option is the best decision for you. This is a major hurdle overcome, and you are now focused and certain.
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Talk To a Local Lender: Determine the price you can afford so you don’t waste time searching for a property only to find out it is too expensive, or you could have afforded more and got that extra amenity or bedroom you wanted. Most sellers in today’s market will be more negotiable in the purchase price if the offer is not contingent on financing.
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Define Your Search Parameters: What is important to you…gated community, near work/school, Gulf front or Gulf view, rentability, age of property, available amenities, etc…
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How Long Should it Take to Find What you Want? Depending on your goals & needs, with the amount of inventory on the market it should only take a couple weeks to find the right property. This is if you have done your homework in reviewing the area’s comparable properties and recent sales and have realistic expectations.
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How Many Properties Will You See? The average number of properties I show on a given day to any buyer is seven. Any more than that and the brain is on overload. Therefore, don’t expect to see 20-30 properties at one time. It may be physically possible to do so, but you won’t remember details about any of them. If you have a list this long it is helpful to do drive-bys of the properties first to determine if you like the property from the outside.
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The “Perfect Shoes” Experience: Women will relate to this one. Say you need a new pair of shores. You go to the mall. At the first store, you find the perfect pair. You try them on and they fit perfect. They are glamorous, exactly what you had in mind, and the best part…they are priced right! Do you buy them? Of course not. You go to every other store and try on all shores until you drop from exhaustion. Then, you go back to the first store and buy the perfect shoes, as long as someone else didn’t buy them already. Don’t shop for a property this way. When you find the perfect property, buy it. There is a reason you like this property, and other buyers will like it to.
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How To Rate & Compare Inventory: Bring a camera and start at each property with a close up of the house/unit number. Take notes of unique features of each property. Pay attention to surroundings-what is nearby? Do you like the location? Immediately after leaving each property, rate the property on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highest.
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View Top Choices a Second Time: After viewing properties for a few days, you will probably know which ones you would like to buy. Go back and view those again because you will notice elements you didn’t see the first time. At this point your agent should find out the motivation level of each seller and double check to see if any offers have come in to make sure the property is still available.
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Make the Selection: I can usually tell out of a list of choices which property a buyer is going to purchase. But I do not want to steer them in any direction, it is our job as agents to provide the facts so the buyer can make an informed, educated decision. I do, however, like to point out any defects so we can utilize this in our negotiating.
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Write the Offer: I use an online forms program that makes it very simple to put together an offer in the most professional manner. So, with just a few pieces of information and about 15 minutes we can present our offer in the best light.
How do you make your offer the best? Find out in next month’s newsletter, or call me at 850.428.0243 to discuss.
Dana McIntosh, REALTOR
dana@eimersgroup.com
800-775-5914 Main | 850-428-0243 Cell
