Sapan Behar

First time home buyers, looking for Fraser Valley real estate, should put their emotions aside and follow some basic guidelines.

Investigate the Fraser Valley area you are interested in

Get as much information as you can before buying and it does not take a lot of time to do your research. Investigate various neighbourhoods as well as types of housing you may not have previously considered. And find out how far your dollar will go in the neighbourhood where you would like to buy.

A lot of information is available on the Internet, but you should hire a real estate agent to help interpret it properly and dispel any real estate myths.

Hire a Fraser Valley real estate agent

Hire a Realtor that knows the area, so for buying property in Surrey or Langley, you would want to hire a Realtor that knows these areas. Without something called a Buyers Agency Agreement, you are essentially in a customer-beware situation. A Buyers Agency Agreement makes you a client, and with it your real estate agent will owe you a higher level of accountability.

While the agreement obligates you to use a particular real estate firm over a specific period of time, the firm, in turn, is required to work exclusively on your behalf — to help you find the property you want to buy. It also means the agent is committed to giving you the full benefit of his or her expertise.

Consider your lifestyle

A lot of the time buyers want to get everything in the first home that they buy. You should look for a property that satisfies your lifestyle today and for the next few years. When a limited budget prevents you from getting what you want in a house and location, it’s time to start looking at less spacious but more practical options, such as smaller houses, townhouses or condos.

Watch that offer

You’ll only insult the seller if you offer $450,000 for the sake of bargaining when similar houses in the same neighbourhood have sold for $500,000. In these cases, buyers never end up getting the property that they are interested in. If you really want a house, offer as much as you can possibly afford based on what you think the home is worth. You never have to pay more than the house if worth to you. And show sellers you are serious by offering a solid deposit along with your offer. With so much on the line, sellers want to be sure the buyer won’t get cold feet.

I have been meaning to do a blogpost about my Fraser Valley real estate site for sometime now. This site has been in development for a while and was recently launched about two weeks ago. Site offers something for both the buyers and sellers in the Fraser Valley real estate region.

The buyers can visit the buying resources page and read articles and tips on the buying real estate in Surrey or Langley, or anywhere else in the Fraser Valley. The "Search the MLS" feature allows buyers to search for any property listed with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board. The map search feature lets buyers browse any property listed from Whislter to Hope on an interactive map of the three real estate regions.

Buyers can also learn about the various Fraser Valley communities and browse through all real estate listings in each community. For example, the Surrey Real Estate page will give users a brief history of Surrey and some information about the local real estate market and provide links to every Surrey property listed on the MLS, be it a condo, townhome, farm, acreage or single family detached residence.

Sellers looking to sell their Fraser Valley property can read about tips on selling real estate in Surrey, Langley or the other areas in the Fraser Valley real estate region. They can request a CMA, and browse through properties listed to see what's for sale in their area and do a quick comparison of prices.

New content will be added to the site on regular basis and I am open to any ideas or suggestions. Be sure to leave me comment about what you thought of the site and what changes would you suggest or any ideas you'd like me to incorporate.

I recently came across some promotional material in my office mail that made me think about disclosure and how some Realtors fail to disclose some very important information. While this was still in the back of my mind, I came across a blog post by another Realtor questioning why he should show a particular property to a buyer when the commission to the buyer's agent is not enough for him. First thing that popped in my mind is "Because you should and its your job".

This had me thinking about doing a blogpost about disclosure and ethics in general. Here is a link to this post:

http://www.realestate-fraservalley.com/2008/01/27/is-your-local-fraser-valley-realtor-ethical/

Hope you enjoy the post and be sure to let me know what you think or if you have come across any situations that made you wonder where someones ethics were?

Recently I was having my car serviced and got delayed as the technician decided to go on lunch while my car was up on the hoist. Argh!

I figured I'll just kill time by looking at some of the newer cars on the lot. That 2008 CTS sure looks nice!

I ran into the salesman that I dealt with when I leased my car and we started chatting about real estate, specifically blueberry farmland in and around Fraser Valley. Apparently someone the salesman knows is in the blueberry business and had commented to the salesman that there was no money to be made in blueberries anymore.

My reply to this was: Either this person was lying or had no clue how to farm blueberries successfully in the Fraser Valley. Blueberry business in the Fraser Valley is booming, farmland values are through the roof.

This little conversation however served as an inspiration for a post on the future of blueberry farming in the Fraser Valley. Be sure to check it out.

I recently did a post on my blog on Fraser valley real estate market outlining the increase in prices in the South Surrey - White Rock market. You can find this post by clicking the link provided below. With the increase in average price of a detached house in the Fraser Valley, more and more buyers are looking towards condos and townhomes. Most first time buyers have been squeezed out of the more desirable areas.

http://www.realestate-fraservalley.com/2008/01/16/white-rock-south-surrey-average-price-hits-800k/

Sapan