Ten Real Estate Mistakes, Part 1
Given that we’ll be moving in the coming months, I’m always on the lookout for good articles on buying and selling houses. Here’s one from Bankrate.com that covers ten real estate mistakes to avoid. Today we’ll cover the first five…
1. Not understanding the length of the buying/selling process – This is the scariest one for us… The home-selling process can often take a surprisingly long period of time. The article recommends giving yourself and extra couple of months. But we don’t have an extra couple of months!
2. Exposing your hand – Never let your love of a house cloud your judgment, and always contain your enthusiasm. You don’t want to let the seller (or their agent) know that you’re hooked.
3. Skipping the loan preapproval step – Preapproval gives you an idea of how much you’ll be able to borrow, and it shows the seller that you’re a serious buyer. And in a hot market, sellers will demand proof of preapproval before they’ll accept your bid. Otherwise they might be wasting their time.
4. Assuming the appraisal equals actual value – Appraisals should be an objective estimate of your home’s value, but it’s critical that your agent do a comparative market analysis to get a reliable estimate of your home’s value just to be sure. And if you’re buying, be sure you get similar “comps” from your agent before making an offer.
5. Timing the bubble “burst” – Throughout most of the country, the real estate bubble remains ‘intact’. And bubbles such as these usually don’t burst, they slowly deflate. Your best bet is to treat real estate as a long-term investment, rather than a way to make a quick buck.
See also: Ten Real Estate Mistakes, Part 2
[Source: Bankrate.com]
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Modified on March 26th, 2006 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Real Estate
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» From the Archives – (March 16th – March 22nd)» The Best of FCN – Selections from 03/06
» Ten Real Estate Mistakes, Part 2
» One Year Ago This Week (March 18th – March 24th)
» Real Estate Sign of the Times
» One Year Ago This Week (September 17th – September 23rd)
» One Year Ago This Week (July 2nd – July 8th)
» More About Real Estate Investing
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
4 Responses to “Ten Real Estate Mistakes, Part 1”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Bonus Miles: Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel after you spend $500 on the Card within the first three months of Cardmembership. Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The SimplyCash(R) Business Card from American Express aims to help your business succeed with a generous cash-back rewards program. Many businesses can benefit from cash back categories such as U.S. office supply stores, wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and U.S. gas stations. This card not only offers a low introductory purchase APR but also doesn't charge an annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Buying Furniture off the Back of a Truck
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
How to save money on insurance
- Can you afford an international retirement living?
- How to help your family after you are gone
- Will Social Security be gone before I retire?
- Refund, or no refund?
- This battle of the sexes has no winner
- What to look for when buying an energy-efficient home
- The hidden savings in a rent payment
- How to save money on vacations using social media and new technologies
- How to budget without regular paychecks
- What do you do with your windfalls?
March 21st, 2006 at 1:16 pm
I’ve been reading David Bach’s Automatic Millionaire Homeowner that FMF has been giving away like crazy, and it definitely helped reverse my decision to wait for that “bubble” to burst. While prices in my area seem to be going down a tad, according to Bach, not once in the last 50 years has the average home price been down for the year. And with all the people being born and entering the country through other means, I’m starting to see the light that is home ownership.
Good luck in your search for the perfect home. I look forward to reading more about your journey so that mine won’t be so difficult!
March 21st, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Re. David Bach, I don’t have the book handy but I think he says the national market has always been going up– but local markets can go down for several years at a time, and Bach does stress that you should worry more about your local market, as that is where trends will most directly affect you. But still, as long as you’re planning to own the home longer term, you’ll always come out ahead by owning, regardless of the state of the market when you buy.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:46 am
My experience buying four houses and selling three is that the length of the process is usually overstated, especially if you are focused on making it go quickly.
My last two houses listed, sold and closed within two weeks. That may be atypical, but it can be done.
Also, every house I’ve ever purchased I’ve negotiated an “early move-in” deal, where I get to move in before closing. That makes the deal *seem* much faster. It means I can just move my stuff house-to-house and only impose on friends once. I’m a bit mystified that more people don’t know about that, or think it is odd. You simply pay the pro-rata of the mortgage as rent per day early you move in. It is basically free money for the sellers, and they usually leap at the chance.
March 28th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Bruce: We’re actually hoping to do the opposite… Sell and close on our house, but negotiate to rent back from the new owners for a little while. That way we’ll have the money in our pocket, and will be in a better position when it comes to buying our new house — no contingencies based on sale of our house, no funny business relating to bridge loans, etc.