Buying a New Home? Here’s How To Create Your Own Price Reduction

Buying a new home? In many areas there are lots of them on the market and with mortgage interest rates at or near historic lows, it can be an ideal time to consider buying that new home. But home buyers today want more than a good home… they also want a great deal on that home. Here’s a very common scenario in today’s market:

Buyer looks at several homes in a beautiful suburban area and, after much deliberation, decides that one particular place fits their needs the best. The home seems to be priced in line with other competing properties, but the buyer feels that, for whatever reason, they would like to offer less.

The problem in this common scenario is that many times the buyer feels that the best strategy is to wait and see if the seller will lower the list price to the point that it’s more in line with what they are thinking. While this may ultimately happen, more often than not when it does, there will be other buyers, just like them, who are also waiting for the same thing. At that point, the dynamics of buying this home have changed dramatically, and the circumstances may dictate that the successful buyer will end up paying more than they originally wanted to.

Here are some tips to avoid this common dilemma:

• Use a real estate professional and focus your efforts on finding the right home.
• Don’t be shy about making an appropriate offer for the home, even if it’s below what you think the seller will accept. Don’t talk yourself out of success!
• Explain, in writing if necessary, why you feel your offer is reasonable based on current competition, market conditions, the terms of your offer, etc. Be specific.
• Do not try to run the property down as part of your strategy – it makes no sense. Instead, be willing to praise the property while at the same time, explaining why your offer is appropriate and why you want to buy it.
• Have all your financing ducks in a row and use that as leverage to make the terms of your offer more attractive to the seller.
• Be willing to walk away if the seller is unwilling to accept reality.

We recently helped a couple from North Carolina relocate to Boulder, CO. Their new home was listed for $750,000 and we negotiated a contract that closed at $655,000. We used all the above in making this deal happen. It was not a short sale or a foreclosure, just a motivated seller who listened. If you are interested in buying a Boulder home, please feel free to contact us.

Phil Boren is a 26-year veteran real estate Broker and Realtor with RE/MAX of Boulder, the #1 RE/MAX office in the U.S. We offer extensive free Boulder real estate resources online at http://www.boulderhomeresource.com. These resources include our free monthly E-Zine, relocation videos, information on Boulder schools, Boulder neighborhood profiles, the ability to search the Boulder MLS for active and sold listings, foreclosures, short sales, Boulder open houses and more.

(c) Copyright – Phil Boren. All rights reserved worldwide.