It happened again!! A first time buyer who recently relocated to this area called me about a house that had just come on the market. We went to see it and it seemed perfect!! It had the desired number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a good floor plan, and an ideal location. It appeared to be in good condition. And best of all, it was in my client's price range. But they didn't get the house!!

In fact, my clients did not even submit an offer for the house, even though they knew and I knew that this kind of opportunity does not come along every day. The problem was not with the house. It was because they were not prepared.

I had contacted them several times to ask if we could meet so that I could review the purchase contract and the basic disclosures with them and explain exactly how this market works, what they should expect, and what would be expected of them. I make it a practice to do this with all of my clients as early in the process as is possible. Unfortunately, in this case we never did get around to it. There were always reasons why we could not meet ..... we are all very busy people, and when you try to juggle family life with jobs and then add in extras (like buying a house) it can be overwhelming. However, when faced with the huge pile of disclosures and inspections, not to mention the actual purchase contract and the short time period in which they had to absorb all of this, my clients simply just could not do it. They were not prepared. And it is a shame.

It does not matter if you are a buyer or a seller. As soon as you start thinking about making such a big move, you should start to prepare for your journey. For buyers, many of the disclosures are generic and non property specific. Those can be reviewed ahead of time so the only new disclosures when you do find a property are the property specific ones. Also, the contract consists of 8 pages of fine print. It is important to understand all of it, and 1 hour before offers are due is not the time to do this. For sellers, there is a lot of preparation prior to putting your house on the market. If you can spread this out over several weeks or months, it is much less stressful.