Making the Most of a Buyers Market

Here’s what you need to know in order to make the most of this buyers’ market:

Get a Great Real Estate Agent

A real estate agent can be an invaluable resource in helping you find and buy the perfect house. Agents work on your behalf to locate potential homes for you. While you can certainly use the newspaper and the Internet to search for homes for sale, agents specialize in learning exactly what is out there at any one time and can do the searching for you. You just let your real estate agent know your criteria and he or she will provide you with a list of possibilities and will set up walk-throughs so you can take a look at the promising listings. Once you find the house you want, the agent can do all the bidding for you and walk you through the buying process. And best of all, a real estate agent is paid a commission out of the profits of the sale, so you don’t end up paying for the services out of pocket.

Don’t Wait If You Find the Right House

There is a lot of hesitation in a buyers’ market because buyers often get scared that prices will keep going down and they will miss out on better deals, or that they will experience negative equity. While those scenarios could happen, the truth is that it is impossible to predict whether the market will keep falling and there is even a chance that prices might start to rise before you find the "right" deal. The best plan is to aggressively search for a home and only buy one you can truly afford, no matter what the market is doing. Most home prices will appreciate over the long run, so in the end a little negative equity at the beginning will not hurt you if you start out in a sensible, affordable home loan.

Use Your Negotiation Power

In a buyers’ market, sellers are often times very eager and sometimes even desperate to sell their houses. This gives you enormous bargaining power to negotiate for a really good price. This is especially effective if you’ve done your homework and know how similar real estate in the area you’re looking in is priced. You can let the seller know you have found lower prices elsewhere and ask if they will match them. In most cases, there is plenty of wiggle room when it comes to the selling price.

Look for Real Savings, Not Gimmicks

In hard times, sellers will try to offer incentives to get buyers to close the deal. New home sellers will often advertise free big screen televisions, cruises, and even new cars to those who buy their homes. Yet keep in mind – you are not in the market for these things; you are trying to buy a house. Instead of taking the "door prizes," ask the seller to take the value of those incentives off the price of the home. Or if that is not an option, make sure the bonuses are things like free upgrades or landscaping. These types of incentives actually add value to the real estate and make it a better purchase for you

If you have any questions or comments about these tips for making the most of a buyers’ market, use the comment link below and we’ll get back to you with answers to any questions you might have.