“Infatuation” doesn’t only describe the first stage of a loving relationship. Novice home buyers can have the same swept-away feelings about a property.
“If you never bought a home before, it’s easy to be blinded by a wonderful kitchen, a high-tech media center or a great view,” says Leo Berard, charter president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (www.naeba.org).
Buyer enthusiasm is fine, of course, so long as it’s grounded in a factual knowledge of the property, including its hidden defects, large or small. “The morning after you move in, you don’t want to find out you have almost no water pressure in the shower or that your roof leaks,” says Berard, a former real estate company owner.
The key to a wise home selection is a thorough pre-purchase analysis, Berard says. How can an amateur make a solid home-purchase decision? Here are several ideas:
– Pick a home inspector with the utmost care. “A really smart buyer will, in effect, do an inspection on his home inspector,” says Ray Brown, co-author of the book, “Home Buying for Dummies.” Collect names of inspectors from associates and then ask if the individuals were able to detect problems before a purchase. According to Berard, the best inspectors have earned credentials from an established professional group, such as the American Society of Home Inspectors (www.ashi.com).
– Make it a point to be present when the inspection is done. Berard says home buyers should insist that an inspector view a property from both short- and long-term perspectives. A good inspector will call attention to immediate problems as well as those that might crop up in the future.
“You need a blueprint that’s going to tell you, for example, that the roof will have to be replaced in another couple of years or that the air-conditioning system or appliances are nearing the end of their lifecycles,” he says.
Moreover, a good inspector should provide you with tips on the maintenance needs of a home. A homeowner who is present during an inspection will pick up information that may not make it into the inspector’s written report, Berard says.
But he discourages buyers from following the inspector around like a shadow during the process, which can last two to four hours. Rather, check in with the inspector for a quick briefing at several intervals.
– Be sure to get a comprehensive written report from your home inspector. Sometimes you have to pay extra for a write-up on the inspector’s findings. But Berard says that obtaining a full report is worth the expense, unless the preliminary findings are so negative that you decide to opt out of the purchase entirely.
Alternatively, a written report can serve as a negotiating tool to be sure that the seller corrects any flaws, or provides you with the funds to do so, perhaps through a sale price cut.
– Seek out information on the property beyond the home inspection. You can unearth other relevant information in the offices of local government agencies. Has the home gone through major renovations? Then you should find out if the work was done properly, with the appropriate government permits used and inspections completed.
– Don’t forget a major fount of information: nearby neighbors. Brownsuggests that prospective buyers take the time to strike up informal conversations with neighbors of the home they plan to buy.
“The neighbors may know more about any given property or enclave than the real estate agents working the area do,” Brown says.
– Consider buying a flawed property under the right circumstances. Obviously, some defects are much more serious than others. A house with huge structural problems could mean years of headaches before they’re rectified.
But what if you’ve determined with certainty that a home’s flaws are readily correctable and that the seller will let the place go at a discount much deeper than the cost of repairs?
“Remember that some lemons make very good lemonade,” Berard says.
