The last article showed you how one would not benefit by procrastinating the home buying process, once you are ready to buy a home. But you know nothing – or perhaps you know so much that you do not know what to believe and what not to.

I’ll try to help you with this dilemma, Sometimes, not knowing something is better than knowing too much.

When you shop for a home, you see it for 15 minutes, may be 30 minutes or an hour. Or, you may have couple of visits before you make a big decision of your life – one of the most important decision of your life, one of the biggest financial commitments for next few years – if not 30 years, at least 5 to 10 years. Would you not like to seek a professional help?

15-30 minutes is not enough time to make a sound decision. In fact, it is an emotional decision that may turn out to be disastrous one. I have heard the stories of buying a home at Open House – at the best price (for seller, of course). May be, you did not notice a disclosure at Open House that says that the agent represents the seller and works in the best interest of the seller, not buyer. There are some agency relationships that we may look into details in some other issue. I’ll talk about how the buyer’s agency would benefit you, once you have decided to buy a home.

Many of us believe that there is a great negotiator in us. It’s true as far as getting the best deals at Macy’s, Filenes’ store closing or at the supermarket. What about negotiating while buying a home? Believe me; all homes are not priced to sell immediately. Many of them sell at lower price than what they are listed at, but some do sell at asking price or more. How will you decide what is the right price? Don’t you think you need a help from a professional who would provide you with this information?

Price negotiation is just one aspect of buying a real estate. There is a lot more to buying a home than negotiating a price (or getting cash back towards closing cost from some of the agencies.) The terms and conditions for the purchase are as much important as the price. And did you think about the right loan and right time for closing? You do not want to wait for few months to buy a home – just because the seller is looking for an appropriate deal for the home he/she wants to buy! By then, the interest rates may have gone up by a quarter of a point or your rate-lock may have expired. What do you do then?

Not so surprisingly, home buyers often feel disappointed and disheartened when they move in and realize that this is not THE HOME they have dreamt of. There are simple reasons for that – the most important one is not seeking the professional advice.

Here’s the statistics from NAR (National Association of Realtors®) –

More and more home buyers are seeking a help from a real estate professional. Encouraging, huh? About 74% of the buyers use Internet in their home search and many of them used the real estate agent, too.

Don’t you think you should be working with an Internet savvy real estate agent? (Don’t laugh – there are realtors® who DO KNOW the technology and have embraced the new trend.)

And, here’s another fact - Most home buyers do little or no research before they invest in their nest egg.  Doesn’t it make sense to become as completely informed as possible before you buy a home, be it your first or fifth?
 
To conclude this article, here’s small story of Anuj and Sunita.

When Anuj and Sunita first saw a 2,000 sq ft town house, they were thoroughly impressed by the open floor plan and cathedral ceilings in the master bedroom. They immediately contacted the listing agent and made a full price offer that was accepted instantaneously. There were nothing negative about that home! But once they bought the home, they realized, the floor plan was too open and neighbors were mostly, renters only. Despite the real estate agent’s assurance, the high tension cables woke them up due to hussy sounds on rainy nights.

Now, Anuj and Sunita were ready to sell their home. Not with the same realtor®, though, I guess.

What do you want to do? Do you want to be a lone ranger or work with a real estate professional? A professional, who would work for you – for almost free in most situations.
 

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