Five Powerful Albuquerque Home Buyers Strategies
Albuquerque home buyers should use these powerful strategies if you are buying a home in the Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Corrales, or the surrounding area.
- Get Pre-Approved instead of Pre-Qualified Get pre-approved for a mortgage is a great strategy for Albuquerque home buyers to make sure you strengthen your negotiating position early in the home buying process if you want to get the best house at the best price. While price is always a key component in negotiations, it may not necessarily the most important one. Albuquerque home buyers credit worthiness is extremely important in a tight credit market to a seller. The seller’s risk of getting the house sold is lessened when dealing with Albuquerque home buyers that are pre-approved. Most Albuquerque home buyers get pre-qualified by a lender; however, sellers are aware that such certificates are not near as good as a pre-qualification letter. None of the information used in the pre-qualification has been verified, activity such as recorded judgments, late child support payments, credit report inaccuracies, verification, and seasoning of down payment monies and a host of other factors often go unreported, only to pop up late in the financing process. For most Albuquerque home buyers to have leverage with both seller and lender, the best way to make a strong offer today is to get pre-approved, which essential means all your financial data has been verified and you are actually approved as the borrower on the loan. While this process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on your situation, it remains a very powerful tool for Albuquerque home buyers. I recommend all of my clients have a pre-qualification letter in their arsenal.
- Sell Your Home First Then Buy Your Next Home. Smart Albuquerque home buyers make sure to secure a buyer BEFORE finding your next house if you need to sell your existing home. If you make an offer on a property contingent on the sale of your current home, the seller may not want to risk passing on an Albuquerque home buyers who is ready to move into the home immediately. Even if the seller does agree to the contingency, they may demand a full price offer from you in exchange. In either case, you may end up paying more for the house than you would have because of the contingency. In addition, now you have to sell your house quickly, or you risk losing the new house. As any seller will confirm, such a predicament usually results in accepting a lower offer than you would have accepted under different circumstances. Buying before selling is a high risk move that may cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Another tactic is to make the sale of your home “subject to seller finding suitable housing. Adding this phrase to the listing means that when you do find buyer, you will have some time to find the new place. This way if you don’t find anything to your liking, you aren’t committed to selling your present home. This tactic has some down side as it may make it more difficult to sell your home for maximum value.
- Skin and Bones of Homes. Smart Albuquerque home buyers know the difference between the skin and the bones of every property you see while house hunting. The bones are aspects of the home that cannot be changed such as the location, lot size, surrounding noise, school district, and other fixed features. While most Albuquerque home buyers find it difficult to find exactly the bones they’re looking for, this guideline helps them make better choices. The skin of a house represents superficial qualities such as carpet, wall paper color, front lawn, backyard characteristics, window coverings, and paint color. These can be easily modified; don’t let them influence your decision. Smart Albuquerque home buyers always buy the house with good bones because the skin can always be changed to meet their needs. One useful tip is to imagine every house as if it was vacant; this will help you consider the property’s underlying merits, and not the seller’s decorating skills.
- View Several Homes A good real estate professional should show Albuquerque home buyers all available properties that meet your requirements. Ask your Albuquerque real estate professional to show you a complete list of homes that meet your requirements, you may want to meet with your real estate professional and review homes on the Multiple Listing System together. Do not make a decision on a house until you feel that you’ve seen enough to pick the home that best meets your requirements and budget. From 2005 to 2007, homes were selling fast, usually a few days after listing. In a seller’s market like that, real estate professionals advised their clients to make an offer immediately if they wanted any chance of buying the house. This was good advice for a seller’s market, in a buyer’s market there isn’t always the same urgency unless a home is drastically underpriced. If you have viewed several homes, you will know a great deal when you see one.
- Be Cautious of Advertisement Properties It’s a widely known tactic in real estate, real estate professionals create ads solely to make the phone ring and attract potential Albuquerque home buyers. Some of these homes have flaws that are not mentioned in the advertisement. You should be cautious when reading ads, keeping in mind that the party behind the ad is representing the seller’s interest, not yours. The best way to protect yourself is to have a real estate professional on your side. Your real estate professional will be better equipped to assess the property and how well it meets your needs and budget, as well as be able to point out any negatives of which you should be aware.
Five Powerful Albuquerque Home Buyers Strategies
