6 Mistakes Home Buyers Need To Avoid - East Bay Real Estate

A great read for Home Buyers

I just finished Ilyce Glink?s book,?Buy, Close, Move In!, where she tells readers everything they need to rebuild their financial lives in order to wade back into the housing market. ?In this excerpt she posted on CBS MoneyWatch, she identifies the biggest mistakes that prospective buyers are making.

By Ilyce Glink:

With real estate rules, laws, and fees changing daily, it?s easy to make a mistake when shopping for a home or a loan. Here are some of the most common mistakes buyers are making in the new housing market ? and some tips on how you can avoid following suit.

1. ?Not Understanding the New Rules

What?s changed in real estate? The details. While you still go out and shop for a home, make an offer, find financing and close on the property, the details of how this process works today are vastly different from the way we went about buying real estate five, 10, or 20 years ago.

2. Failing to Build a Top Real Estate Team

If you buy and sell property for a living, you know that it?s a team sport. Even if you?re a real estate agent, you?ll still need a good lender, inspector, title or escrow company, and attorney to assist you in completing this purchase successfully.? Taking the time to build a great real estate team will pay off in spades. Not putting this team together ahead of time is a mistake you don?t want to make.

3. Not Responding to Your Lender?s Requests

Lenders have tightened up credit requirements?and are taking the time to verify every piece of information you submit. In fact, when you apply for a mortgage today, you should expect to provide reams of documentation both with your application and during the verification process.? When additional requests for information come in, you should take them seriously and respond quickly. If you don?t, you could be putting your financing in jeopardy.

4. Not Cleaning Up Your Credit in Advance.

One of the ways lenders are tightening credit requirements is by raising the minimum credit score necessary to be approved for a mortgage. Prior to the credit crisis, lenders might have charged one interest rate if you had a 680 credit score ? today you might need a credit score of 720 to get the same rate. ?That?s why is extremely important that you spend time cleaning up your credit history and score?before?you apply for a loan.

5. Paying Too Much

Although home buyers are enjoying the strongest buyers? market in recent memory, some buyers are paying more than they should for properties. Why? There seems to be a fear growing in some areas of the country that if you don?t buy now, you?ll miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ?get in at the bottom.?? We now know that property prices can tank as well as soar. The trick is to understand what the real value is in a neighborhood and not overpay for property. Don?t be pressured into making a move before you?re ready.

6. Forgetting to Buy Owner?s Title Insurance

When you purchase property, your lender will require you to buy a lender?s title insurance policy. But unless you also purchase an owner?s title insurance policy, only the lender will be made whole financially if something goes wrong. And there are so many things that can go wrong when it comes to title. ?Not only can a former owner pop out of the woodwork, but mechanics? and tax liens can ?magically? appear ? especially if you?re buying a ?short sale?.? Don?t risk it. Order an owner?s title insurance policy when you order the lender?s policy. If you?re buying with cash, don?t forget to order your owner?s policy well in advance of the closing date.

(Excerpt from?Buy, Close, Move In!?reprinted courtesy of Harper Paperbacks.)

There are several other key mistakes the author outlines in the book for home buyers, so enjoy the read.? And, if you would like any real estate services for both Buyer and Seller, contact us today.? Until next time?Jim Walberg

Source: http://www.eastbayrealestate.com/buyers/6-mistakes-home-buyers-need-to-avoid/

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