Feb. 20, 2006 - USING THE INTERNET TO BUY YOUR NEW HOME
I have recently been enlightened on how grossly inadequate many of the home viewing sites are, and how misleading they can be.
Maybe I should have known this before, but frankly, those sites rarely come into play in my everyday life. I use the mls and clients use me. I truly haven't considered until recently how people use the internet in the home buying process and why they do that.
Now that I am viewing the world through your eyes a bit, with the help of my most recent clients, I would like to give back by making a few suggestions on how to use the internet more effectively.
Do not use a site that does not give you both Active listings and Offer STI listings. My site does do that, but I wish it would also give you Pending and recently Sold listings as well. This is why. If you base what you want on what is for sale, you will be buying the barking dogs of the marketplace. Dint get sucked into that.
Here's an example. Go to my site and do a realistic search, not homes you personally can't afford. Look at all of the inside photos of a few Active and Offer STI properties and you will quickly see that the Offer STI properties look a whole lot better than the Active properties, by and large. That is because the very best that life has to offer you in your price range is more likely to have been sold yesterday or be listed tomorrow and not Active today.
(Agents who want to yell at me right now for telling people this, don't waste your breath. I know how you feel about my telling people not to just let you open doors and say "Do you want to buy this one?". Get over it, we both know I'm right. Buying a good property is more about the next one out the gate, than the one that is easiest for you to find and sell.)
I really didn't realize that most people didn't know this until I started paying attention. My clients over the last 15 years have just depended on me to know this, so they didn't have to. But if you are using the internet in the home buying process, you really do need to learn this very quickly or you will be buying all of the homes that agents are not selling to their clients. We all have buyers in that price range, but we are saying don't buy that one for some reason, or it would be sold. That's just common sense, isn't it?
They are not for sale for weeks and weeks with no good reason, and most are not bargains even if you negotiate them down. A few are simply at the wrong price, but if you rely on that fact, then look over your price and not at it, or you will be buying a lesser home than you should. Not the best strategy, but better than buying a home you will later have trouble selling. Hold out for the better ones and don't touch a stale one until you really, really know why it is not sold. Don't guess, don't, don't, don't rely on the seller's agents advice in that regard, and look really hard for the monster that is causing it not to sell.
Multiple bid situations are not created because the market is hot. Multiple bid situations are created because most times the property listed an hour ago is better than all of the ones no agent has sold yet. We all jump on it at the same time like cats on a mouse. Because it is better, priced right, and in the best location.
We (at least those of us who understand that "we represent people" for a living and do not sell houses for a living.) are overlooking most of those homes you might be buying through that really cool site. They are just not good enough for our clients for some reason. Do you really think that some companies have removed their liability for selecting the home, without good reason? If a company is going to sell only from the Active pool of homes, and not look for the next best one out the gate, they make you the one primarily responsible for the selection of the home. That's good business for them, and bad news for you.
Did you really think with all of the agents in this marketplace that you found some treasure on the internet that we all missed? Get real. If you are using the internet to buy a home, do it with some smarts. Use that RSS feed thingie that Robbie knows how to do, and catch the next one out the gate. Look at the STI listings really, really hard, and know that you want the next one like THAT and not just the best of the leftovers.
If you do not have an agent who is looking hard at what is coming on market, versus just what happens to be for sale today, dump them. If you look at 8 homes and they don't hate 6 of them, dump them. A good agent isn't the one who does what you tell them to do, it is one who refuses to let you be your own worst enemy.
A dog has 6 pups. Four people on the waiting list rush in and grab the four best ones. You get there and there are two left. Do you take one of them? Or do you put your name on the waiting list to be the first in line for the pick of the next litter? Think about it.
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