Some
day I’ll sit down and write a pamphlet about buying real estate.
It
will not read normally. What fun is that?
We’re
looking for a home now in anticipation of our move this fall. We’d like to have
everything lined up so that the new dwelling is ready for us when we arrive
with the moving van. Yep, we’d really like to have that happen. Then again,
that would be the normal approach.
This
devotion to real estate began with a simple conversation one Sunday morning
when my wife declared that we would be unable to live in California after her
retirement. We’d have to give up eating, she said.
This was an excellent point and it began a long
process wherein we selected the site of our future domicile. We eventually
selected a city and state that fit our requirements and then began our
unconventional career in real estate.
The
first time we bought a house, my wife and I searched some neighborhoods with
our realtor, failing to find a house we really wanted. But, a few weeks later,
a very dear friend located a good candidate and the realtor looked at it for
us, giving the thumbs up.
Making
a long story short, I made the trek across the country, liked the house enough
to make an offer and finished the negotiations after arriving back home in
California again. We arranged a temporary power of attorney for me to complete
the deal in my wife’s absence (she stayed home to work) and I flew east again.
After signing both names to about 200 documents (that’s about 400 signatures,
try it yourself sometime), we had the house.
That’s
right: My wife bought a house without seeing it.
I
thought that was odd until someone I work with regaled me with the story of how
he bought a home he hadn’t seen, his wife hadn’t seen and even his realtor hadn’t seen. It’s a great story,
but until he starts his own blog, I am sworn to secrecy.
I’ll never forget the
bank’s loan officer for our first real estate purchase. Before the signature
circus began, he attempted to convince me to agree to an adjustable rate
mortgage instead of the 30-year fixed plan we had already negotiated. The
conversation went something like this:
Loan
guy: You’d have a lower payment.
Me: No.
LG: You’d save money.
Me: No.
LG: I’m trying to help
you.
Me: No.
Finally, my realtor
asked the loan guy, “Are you trying to blow this sale? This guy’s about to walk
out of here.”
She was right. My wife
and I had an agreement that if I didn’t like anything about the agreement I
would stand up and walk away. I was preparing to stand up when our realtor made
the banker see sense. He shut up, I signed the paperwork and we had a house a
while later.
Nowadays,
things are different from the way they were when we bought our first home. The
loan programs are different and the application process is a lot more involved.
The bizarre method we used for generating a down payment last time would not
work now.
The
methods we use to choose real estate seem simple but the rules we’ve developed
are the result of experience. In the interest of giving first time swimmers in
the real estate pool a chance to survive against the sharks, I offer the
following rules to live by:
Don’t fail to find a
high-quality realtor.
Don’t buy a house in
which the previous owner kept pet snakes.
Don’t buy a house with a massive hole
in the basement floor.
Don’t buy a house in which the
basement’s walls are crumbling and imploding.
Don’t fall in love with a property
until you are certain all of your furniture will fit inside.
Got kids? Be sure to check the
performance of the schools in the area of any home you consider purchasing.
Even if you don’t have kids, the schools are important because they can impact
the resale value years down the road.
Don’t buy a house for which you can’t
afford the monthly payment.
Don’t take a loan that is better for
the bank than it is for you.
Don’t be afraid to say ‘no
deal’ if you can’t afford to buy the house. Really, it’s better to continue to
rent than to get into a mortgage you can’t handle.
These rules work
for us. I hope they help you as well.
Thanks for reading.
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