Buyers.... Do You Want to Steal a House or Buy a Home for Your Family.

In the area just north of Boston, Massachusetts we are starting to see the low end of the real estate market start to heat up. Buyer's, especially first time home buyers are losing homes they want due to competition among buyers. It is not necessarily the buyers market, that buyers have been led to believe by the media.

The real estate market in a community can vary drastically with-in price brackets. A $400,000- $500,000 price bracket can be absolutely dead in a community while the $150,000- $250,000 market in the same community can be flying. see an absorption rate spreadsheet A good buyer's agent, can provide you with market information that will help you make an informed decision.

As a buyer, you need to decide:

Do I want to steal a house?

or

Do I want to buy a home?

If you want to steal a house, it is definitely possible in this market, but you need to realize that you can not steal a home in great condition, in a great neighborhood priced fairly. You can definitely steal the properties that need a ton of work, in less than desirable locations or a property that has languished on the market for ever because it was overpriced. Most buyers, I believe, are trying to buy the perfect home... not steal any old house and try to make it work because it was a steal.

A well known fact among agents.

Real estate agents know, that if you underprice a house between 3-7% below the low end of fair market value, as it enters the market for the first time, you will flood the home with showings and create competitive bidding among buyers, driving the puchase price above the asking price and eventually sell for fair market value. All we have to do is slightly underprice a home that has been on the market overpriced to get the seller fairmarket value for thier home.

So what does this mean to the buyer? You are not going to get a good house(good condition, good location, priced fairly) for 30% or 20% or even 10% below fair market value. If you want to steal a house, sure, go ahead make a low ball offer. If you are out to by the perfect home, understand what fairmarket value of the home is and negotiate accordingly with the expectation of buying the home in the range of fair market value.

The longer you drag out the negotiations, the more you aggravate the seller and the more oppurtunity goes by for a better offer trump your offer. Another little secret to remember, you can aggravate a seller enough that they will accept an offer that is similiar to yours and they will not even go back to you and give you a chance to be in the negotiations again. And, oh boy, isn't that buyer shocked and angry when that happens!!

In the past several weeks, I have seen several buyers lose properties in the negotiating process, only to have the property scooped by another buyer. Some of them are on their second or third time of losing a property, because they feel they need to "steal" the property. Meanwhile, they have opened the door for another buyer to walk in and purchase their ideal home out from underneath them.

Understanding the real estate market for a given community and price bracket is important to buying the home you want for a fair price.

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This post was provided by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate In Tewksbury MA. If you are looking for buyer or seller representation, you can contact Kevin by email at kevin@kevinvitali.com or call 978-360-0422.

I pride myself in the quality of my work while helpingbuyers and sellers make dreams come true.

Real Estate Services in the northeast Massachusetts, around the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire including the towns of Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Merrimac, North Andover, Newbury, Newburyport, North Reading, Rowley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington, West Newbury