Tips for Home Buyers

Now may be a good time to buy a home. Interest rates are low, and buyers have more properties to choose from, so there’s room for negotiation. If you play it smart, it’s the perfect time to buy that house you’ve had your eye on. Here are a few strategies for getting the most for your money. R.L. Brown has stated that Phoenix has bottomed.

Know the local market:
With the housing market in transition and prices fluctuating, it is important to understand what’s going on locally. Prices in some neighborhoods are being reduced; others are as hot as ever. In a changing market, it’s important that the data you look at is current. Properties that sold six months ago may not represent the value of a comparable home on the market today.

Identify what you want:
The good news about a moderating market is that there are more homes to choose from. Buyers have the luxury of being specific about what they’re looking for. Now is the time to draw up your Dream Home wish list.

Be ready to buy:
While more homes are on the market than a year ago, attractively priced homes are still selling quickly. Make sure you’re preapproved for a mortgage and have a home inspector lined up. If you find a home you just love, don’t wait too long for the seller to reduce his price. It’s better to get a fairly priced deal than miss out on the home of your dreams.

Use new-home listing aggregators Courtesy of the WSJ
There are multiple online tools for searching home-builder inventory. For example, RealLiving.com offers a new-construction portal where visitors can look for newly built homes using identifiers like property type, location, size, price and school district. iNest's Web site (which offers 1% cash back on the purchase of a new home to its buyers), Move.com, American Home Guides and Newhomeguide.com are other sites that aggregate listings of completed or nearly completed homes. In some cases, new-home listings on these sites include details about buyer incentives, such as a new home in Dublin, Ohio, that is being offered with five hours of consultation with an interior designer. On American Home Guides' site, shoppers can look for spec homes by searching in its "Quick Delivery" section.

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