How to Nail a Great Deal when Buying a House

Getting a good deal on your dream house requires you to be informed on current rates, and educated when it comes the buying process. Whether you want to buy your own home or an investment property, remember: whenever you can, avoid settling for the existing market-price.

Buying a house isn’t rocket science and neither is it mathematics, so there is no standard formula for doing it right. Just like a good massage, getting the best deal on your dream house is all about hitting the right spots. It’s important to find a good deal when purchasing a home, because it can mean the difference between a financial burden and growing your future wealth.

Learning all the secrets behind a successful home purchase is difficult and the real estate agent you will be working with won’t tell you all the tricks they use in the real estate business. But don’t worry -– our goal here at Home.loans is to provide you with enough information that you’ll be leaving your lender’s office knowing you made the right decision. Below are some simple tips that will help you get a great house at a great price.

Be the last…or the first

Oftentimes, you are in a better position of getting your house if you’re the first person to make an offer. In this case, you can start with a low bid and increase it if there are counteroffers. The bidder with the highest offer might have more money, but if they take too long to send in their offer the seller is likely to go with you.

You can also look for houses that have been on the market for a long period of time -– those are more likely to sell for a cheaper price, since the owner is often tired of waiting for a buyer and is ready to take any offer that comes their way.

Take advantage of foreclosed homes

Here’s how foreclosure works: when a homeowner doesn’t make payments on time, the lender removes occupants and the bank repossesses the house.. The property is then listed for sale. Banks are not interested in managing property, therefore they often offer huge discounts so that they can return their money quickly.

It’s like in the wild, when a cheetah kills a gazelle, only for a hyena to snatch it away. It might sound cruel, but you must be the hyena! This is one of the easiest and best deals you can ever make on a house. As a result, you’ll often be competing with other buyers, which can make the process tedious and nerve-wracking. To ease the frustration, consult an agent to get information about existing foreclosures.

Expose yourself to many deals

To find a house at a great price, you have to be willing to do a lot of research and expose yourself to as many deals as you can. Don’t make an offer on the first house you see just because you think it’s priced below the market level, or your real estate agent keeps telling you it’s a killer deal.

Go out and see as many houses as you can. Be open to all the possibilities on the market. As the saying goes, “not everything that glitters is gold.” Buying a house at a good price is a numbers game, so you need to talk to as many agents as you can and keep doing research online until you find the perfect deal. After all that work, if you still haven’t found what you’re looking for, don’t settle. Keep looking and researching –- the right house is out there for you.

Private conversations with absentee owners

There are a few reasons why it can be difficult getting a great deal on a house when you live in a country like the U.S. -- not only is the real estate market highly competitive, but people also buy houses for a living.

You can better your chances of getting your dream house at a good price if you’ve a good financial track record, great credit score, and references in hand when looking for your potential home. To avoid getting discouraged you can also search only for houses that are directly listed by the owners –- the bonus is that you can talk to them directly, avoiding any middle-men. If the seller resonates with you, not only is it more likely that they will accept your offer over other offers, but working directly with the seller also facilitates the buying process and has lower closing costs.

Another tip is to target absentee owners because they don’t live in the houses they own – so their main goal is to sell the house as soon as possible with less work. Now the question is – how do you find them?

Aggregate-list websites like ListSource.com and AgentPro247.com are perfect for purchasing public record lists. You can also look for vacant houses by driving around and then tracing the owners using online records. Alternatively, you can use Craigslist to access mom-and-pop landlords, and call them about buying instead of renting.

With the tactics we have listed above, you are ready to hit the market. Good luck! And give the home.loans team a call if you're struggling -- we're here to help future homeowners make sense of things.