First Time Homebuyers

Recently I read some statistics on Real Estate and advertising. Apparantly, more and more people have access to the internet and less and less people read the newspapers. Makes you wonder why we keep telling our sellers that advertising dollars is the way to go! Another Real Estate Myth...busted! It is like telling your sellers that you'll do an Open House for them when we all know that the purpose of an Open House is to get more clients for the Agent.

I posted an ad on Craigslist for a small townhouse that I had listed. It was priced at $123,900 and located near NCSU but in a neighborhood that is very desirable, more young professionals, less partying college students!

I received a number of responses to my ad. No surprise there.

I wrote an offer on my listing, the $123,900 townhouse but while negotiating this offer, had another offer come in. Offer #2 was better in many ways and even though I had personally written up Offer #1, my buyers weren't able to make their offer better so we lost out on that townhouse.

We then began the process of finding another townhouse, price range from $100,000 to $125,000.

In the last 2 weeks, I took my clients to see 14 townhouses in this price range. This is right about the time the interest rate dropped. It became very clear to us that this price range was HOT. As we looked at townhouses and tried to make a decision, I was getting call after call from listing Agents telling me that the townhouse had an offer. Sometimes I was called to cancel the appointment because they had accepted an offer that day!

My buyers realized that the only way they were going to get their home and be able to take advantage of the low interest rate was to write up an offer as soon as we saw a townhouse that they liked.

The day we wrote up an offer on the townhouse of their dreams, the Agent called to tell me that he had THREE AGENTS telling him they were going to write up an offer. We immediately wrote up our offer (not even full price), submitted it, with the stipulation that we must hear back within 3 hours or we were going to withdraw.

While we were busy getting the paperwork signed by the sellers, another offer did come in. However, it was too late for that offer.

So...to the first time homebuyers out there...NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!!! Be persistent, be ready with your pre qual letter from your lender and your earnest money check in hand and take some advice from your Agent when she tells you that no seller in this market and in this price range is going to sell for 10% off no matter what your mom and dad in Florida tells you!!!

Vicki