Stop Following This Bad Home Buying Advice

When dealing with a decision as stressful as buying a home, especially during economic turmoil, it's understandable that you might become receptive to any and all advice. Of course, following bad advice will only make an already difficult process even harder, so it's important to filter out the valuable information from the noise. In this post, you can learn about some of the bad pieces of advice which often hold buyers back from making the right decision in their home search.

"You can't buy in winter"

This oft-repeated line comes from the belief that the increased inventory in the warm months will make it easier to find your new home. While there are significantly more options in spring and summer, there is also far more competition from other buyers. The result is that home prices are pushed higher, and landing your dream home becomes more difficult. In short, there's no need to wait.

"Look for the perfect house"

Speaking of dream homes, you should be careful when establishing what the term means to you. Yes, you want to find a home which fits your needs as far as space, bedrooms, etc., but even more important is the location. Remember, you can always renovate ugly bathrooms or repaint the exterior, but you can't change how far the house is from the grocery store or how much crime there is nearby. Plus, unrealistic expectations about what condition the house should be in can cloud your ability to judge the home's potential.

"Always start with a lowball offer"

You can get away with this strategy in a buyer's market with lots of inventory and little competition, but the vast majority of the country now finds itself in the opposite scenario. Because of the strong buyer competition, many sellers will simply ignore a lowball offer rather than bother trying to negotiate. If you think the asking price is too high, then feel free to offer a lower amount, but it should be backed up by market conditions and comparable homes.

"Building new is the only way to get what you want"

With the cost of construction materials rising in the wake of the pandemic and the supply chain issues that are hitting constuction companies very hard it is not always a realistic to build a home from scratch. Builders are making product substitutions to help defray costs and keep builds within budgets that have been set. If you are willing to work with your builders and deal with possibly changes to the plan and budget it could work for you but you need to go into the process with your eyes open. It is also possible that your "dream home" might be out there and all you need to do is put in a bit of renovation work to make it what works best for you and your family. 

Ignoring these will go a long way toward helping you find your new home! You can read some more examples of bad advice to watch out for at realtor.com. Of course, there's one other piece of advice that is more important than anything else: remember to always make a decision based on your circumstances, not based on the expectations of others.