Are You Making These Home Buyer Mistakes?..Deerwood Realty and Friends…Ep. 40

Intro: Did you know we real estate agents read real estate articles too? It helps us understand what home buyers and sellers are being told so we aren’t surprised when they call us.

Today we have my reaction to an article written that details home buyer mistakes people might be making in this seller’s market.

The list with commentary

1. Trying to get a deal. This is true. The hottest market in history, and you are going to try to lowball the seller when the house has been on the market less than a week? While you are at it with your terrible offer, there’s 30 other offers above ask, with some waiving contingencies and all cash. Why are you wasting everyone’s time?

2. Insisting on an inspections contingency or dragging out the inspections contingency period. This can also be true. However, I recommend all buyers get a home inspection, regardless of the market. I’m not familiar with dragging the contingency period out in the offer though. In our St. Louis association purchase contract, we usually have 10 days for inspections, then 10 days for an agreement…but there’s nothing that says you can’t submit the inspection early and work towards a resolution earlier. The key is that your offer needs to be a strong one, and that means that if you junk it up with a bunch of contingencies, you are writing a contract that is less desirable to the seller.

3. Failing to work with a Realtor I can’t answer this without the bias I carry as a Realtor. I see people buy houses without agents all the time and get burned. However, I’ve also seen people buy houses with great deals because the seller refuses to work with a buyer agent. Do I think people should try to buy a house without an agent? Nope. Will people still do it? Yup. Something has to be said about the quality of your agent, however. Some agents aren’t worth anything in a transaction and others are easily the best decision you’ve ever made.

One way I could see it working out for buyer and seller is if neither has any clue as to what they are doing. In that case, it’s the blind leading the blind and they might actually work something out on their own. It’s very rare though.

4. Not being prepared. Definitely true. Before I show buyers any properties, I need a pre-approval or a proof of funds. Why? It’s because I don’t want to spend days of my life showing people houses they can’t ever purchase. Is this selfish of me? I don’t think so. It would be the same thing as you going to work for a week without pay. You still do the work, but you don’t get paid for it. That’s what it is like when you spend time as an agent with someone who doesn’t have the funds to buy.

Side note, why wouldn’t you get a pre-approval? You are going to have to show proof of funds with an offer…you’re just putting off the inevitable. I know you might be thinking that the seller should just trust you. They don’t. They shouldn’t. They trust the people who have pre-approval letters or proof of funds with their offer.

5. Being Inflexible. Yes! This is true. There are two times this presents itself.

1. In the offer. If you junk up the offer with off the wall demands, you look like a buyer the seller isn’t going to want to work with. They will reject you for someone who doesn’t have a terrible offer.
2. After accepted offer. Look, some things just happen during the home purchase experience. Seller could forget a date, buyer could miss a deadline. It happens. It stinks. However, if the seller did one thing wrong, and is acknowledging it…don’t be inflexible. There may be a time during the course of the deal that you will need the seller’s generosity…and they will be much less likely to give it at that time if you have been inflexible earlier.

6. Getting Discouraged Somewhat agree.
a. I find that buyer’s fatigue is real. That is, buyers just get worn down in the home purchase search. They finally “settle” on a house not because they want it, but because they’ve given up the search. This is hard to understand intuitively as a buyer’s agent because you take people to look at houses every day. You think, “why would a buyer get tired of looking at homes?”
b. There’s a side part of getting discouraged, and that’s the mental prison of wanting to buy a house, but then never setting appointments to see the housing stock in the area you want to buy. You will NEVER buy a house if you don’t go look at them in the marketplace. You’ve created discouragement by simply not following through on setting appointments.

Bonus Mistakes

a. Thinking that the listing pictures are in any way relevant to the house that you will go see. Typically the pictures will be much better than the actual house.

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Source: https://www.realhomes.com/news/the-biggest-mistakes-home-buyers-make-in-a-sellers-market

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