Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Good Morning Everyone,

Today's post is dedicated to the Buyers or Potential Buyers who are in the marketplace today.  Looking for property and making an offer on property is an exciting thing.  The process to get from the day you make the offer to the day the sale closes is not so much fun.  There are a lot of obligations to be met by both the Buyer and the Seller and there are bound to be bumps in the road that will have to be overcome during the buying process.

As a potential buyer you must put yourself in the sellers shoes for just a few minutes and realize that the seller wants to sell his/her home just as much or more than you want to buy it.  But He/She may already be taking a hit on their value because of the massive inventory of homes out there.  Sellers may WANT  to sell.  They may even NEED  to sell.  But they many not  HAVE  to sell, and here is where we are running in to difficulty in the market today.  

There is a prevailing attitude that the seller will be so grateful for an offer that they will do just about anything from taking a low ball offer to completing massive amounts of repairs and upgrades to the home just to satisfy a buyer.  The fact is that while that seller may be willing to assist in helping you buy the home in the form of contributions to closing costs or taking a lower offer than they would have liked, they will not, or may not be able to, meet all of your demands or expectations during the course of the transaction.   They will go as far as they can to help you but at some point they are going to say NO MORE.  Take it or leave it.    

Okay, that sounds easy, you just leave it right?  Sure you can do that if you feel you have good cause, but keep in mind that you are going to be left with expenses relating to the purchase that will have to be met.   You may already be out of pocket the cost to do a couple of  Inspections, maybe an appraisal too.  In most markets those things alone could add up to $1000 or more.  If you are a buyer in Arizona, those costs are buyer obligations according to the terms of the contract and you are going to have to pay those costs whether you buy that property or not.  The seller may be out out a couple of weeks of time on the active marketplace, you as the buyer are going to be out hard cash if you walk away from the sale. 

The point is that despite what you may hear on the news or in the various forms of media, it may be a Buyer's Market in that there are a lot of properties to choose from.  That does not mean that a seller is going to be willing to give away the farm to you just to sell a property.  If you go in with the attitude that it is all or nothing, the later is probably what you are going to have, nothing.  And it could prove costly as well.  You need to go in to the sale with the idea that the seller will meet you 1/2 the way at least, if you are very lucky they might meet you 3/4 of the way, but if you get carried away with your demands on that seller or your demands are unreasonable, there is going to be a point where the seller simply says "NO".  

So find what you want, make a fair offer for the property, be prepared that you may get what you need to meet health and safety concerns and what your lender may require, but that seller is not going to build you a new house or fix every little thing that needs doing, just to sell it.  Keep the excitement alive in that you are getting a property you want, at a price you can afford, and know that there will be things left undone when you move in.  That is okay, part of owning a home is taking care of it and there will always be something else that comes up after you get there.  Nothing is perfect and no home is without flaws.  In the end, you will have a place to call your own, for your and your family to enjoy, and it will be "Your Home".

Have a wonderful day. 

SANDRA & BRUCE PAULOW

Your High Country REALTORS®