First Time Home Buyer Pitfalls

Pitfalls For First Time Home Buyers

 

Buying your first house doesn’t have to be as challenging as many people make it out to be. Although it can be scary making perhaps the most costly expenditure of your life, it can also be one of the most rewarding if you take the time to proceed with caution. By avoiding the pitfalls of home buyers from the past, it will be easier to navigate these waters and get to closing with little or no issues.

These are a few of the pitfalls the first-time home buyer should avoid.

 

Choosing an Agent Based on a Picture

 

The biggest mistake a potential first-time home buyer can make is not putting enough effort into choosing the right agent. There are too many ways to really research a Realtor online today to simply make a choice based on a bio picture in a realty magazine. Start your search online by looking at local realty offices and searching their listings for the Realtor with the most experience. Usually, the realty broker with numerous selling awards is the busiest, the perfect choice for a buyer with little experience buying a home.

 

Use social media to narrow down your search based on how followers rate the agent’s service, how fast they reply to general questions, and how professional they hold themselves when addressing questions or concerns of customers.

 

Not Giving the Realtor Enough Information

 

Wasting time looking at the wrong properties takes the agent away from finding you the right house, and it can also allow another person to come in and put an offer in on your dream house while you’re looking at all the wrong properties. Help your real estate agent find you the right how by providing them as many details as possible at the start so they aren’t bringing you to houses you would never be interested in.

 

In addition to your budget, give the Realtor information about the size of house you need, the area you prefer, amenities you want or don’t want, and how soon you are ready to make this purchase.

 

Getting Too Excited About the Property

 

Once your broker finds a house that meets all your criteria, let the agent do all the talking at the house. Too many potential buyers cost themselves a small fortune when they walk in the door and exclaim to the seller that this is the house they have to purchase. When you get too excited about this being the perfect house, you limit your bargaining power because the seller knows that you are emotionally connected now and will pay the full listed price. The seller can reject a lower offer because they know that you are going to follow through with a contract.

 

Keep your excitement to a minimum and don’t discuss anything about the house until you are back at the realty office away from the seller.

 

Not Having Your Financials in Order

 

When a person is going to sell a home, they want to close on the deal as quickly as possible because time is money in this case. The worst thing that you can do is find a house that you are crazy about, put in an offer, get the seller all excited, and then discover your financials are not in order and the process is going to be severely delayed. Not only is this a waste of your agent’s time, the seller will certainly become frustrated and immediately look to another potential buyer to close the deal on your dream house.

 

Even before you call the Realtor, make certain your credit is strong, your deposit money is in order, and you have a commitment from the mortgage company in hand.

 

Not Asking For Help Getting to Closing

 

The offer is presented to the seller and accepted, the home inspection and closing dates are set, this isn’t the time to just blindly find your way to the closing. This is the time you need more help than ever, so don’t be afraid to ask. Your agent has connections with many of the services you’ll need in the near future, like a handyman, moving company, and even realty lawyers.

 

If you have any concerns or questions, ask your realty broker and they will guide you so that you don’t have problems as the day of the closing approaches. This is your first time buying a house, something your agent has assisted with dozens of times this year. Use their experience to help you to buy this house without issue.

 

Even avoiding just one of these pitfalls is going to make the home buying process that much easier. Be sure to interview your real estate agent, do your research, and trust the process, you’ll be able to buy a home with little issues along the way.