Buyers Guide

Back to Real Estate Buyer's Guide

This guide is to help your property buying experience anywhere in the continental United States, if not the world. It is for use whether or not you are working with a real estate professional and designed to save you time, money, and stress.

1. Examine your motivation to buy.

2. Do as much groundwork and investigation of the property as possible yourself.

3. Trust your own opinions and feelings about the buying process, the property, and the people you are working with.

4. Seek counsel from qualified real estate professionals and inspectors; evaluate advice carefully. Take any opinion with a grain of salt; everyone has his or her own agenda.

5. Obtain seller financing whenever possible; you'll probably save a fortune. Shop for rates.

6. Think of the long term, short term, big and little "picture."

7. Visualize failure for worst-case-scenario exploration, then create your success.

8. Talk to the neighbors, take your time, work with people around whom you're comfortable.

9. Have fun.

10. Expect the unexpected.

11. Consider (your) resources, population growth, local, regional, and global trends.

12. Be prepared to take risks.

13. Remember: you are only in control of yourself - or not - and there are many conditions and circumstances in the buying process completely out of your control; accept these and sleep better.

14. Create and maintain goodwill.

15. Ask lots of questions.

16. Choose your service providers carefully.

17. Find all the boundaries and corner markers of your property, crawl around under the house, move stuff away from the walls, notice details; open every door, window, cupboard, attic, cabinet and look inside carefully. Turn on every switch, check every electrical outlet.

18. Specify in writing exactly what personal property is included with your purchase and make sure that it's there before you close your transaction.

19. Encourage the seller or an agent to purchase a home warranty for you; it will save everybody involved in the sale much worry.

20. Examine all documents very carefully and be sure that language cannot be interpreted to your disadvantage.

21. Do what you agree to do; act according to the terms of your contract.

22. Stay on the ball; remember your goals.

23. Avoid hostility. There is absolutely no reason for you or anyone to accept rudeness or abuse. You want to do business in a positive environment; negative and hostile clients are often litigious (meaning they will sue you if they can) and will bring you more grief than anyone deserves.

24. Ask for references.

25. Work to obtain and bind insurance coverage on your prospective purchase as soon as possible.

26. Be patient - and firm.

27. Be prepared to walk away from any transaction and move on to the next (and probably better) opportunity.

28. Celebrate your successes!

29. When you buy a property that has tenants that need to move out before you move in, make sure that your contract calls for the tenants' possession of the property to be terminated before the seller gets paid and your transaction closes.

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