Now’s the time to buy your dream home if you’ve been thinking about relocating, obtaining more living space for your growing family, or downsizing to a smaller empty nest.  Prices and mortgage rates are low and many sellers are anxious to move their property and begin a new chapter in their own lives.  For prospective home buyers your real estate expert will offer four tips for buying a house in a buyer’s market:

1.    If you find the right house at the right price, buy it.
2.    Put technology and a good agent to work for you.
3.    Make sure your realtor can negotiate effectively.
4.    Pay no attention to gimmicks or twist them to meet your specifications.

Before you begin the process of searching for the perfect home, you should determine if you’re “just browsing” or if you are actively shopping with the intentions of negotiating a price and buying a house.  If you wait until the prices fall to your level of anticipation or the interest rates go lower, you’re taking a gamble that the house will still be available and the rates won’t increase instead of decreasing.  It’s like shopping for anything else; if you find your size and the color you like for a price you can afford, you should buy it and not wait until it goes on sale without your size in stock.

Your REALTOR should be a tech savvy person that uses tried and trusted marketing strategies that have brought successes in the past few months.  With the Internet, there’s a plethora of tools that can be used to locate a home that falls within your price range and with the personal preferences that you have.  You’ll want the REALTOR to use the high-performing traditional methods of finding your home as well, but using technology can place you ahead in the competition for making the offer before someone else does.

With fall approaching, the sales pace slows down and you’ll have a little more room for negotiating.  Your REALTOR should be skilled at obtaining a price that’s within your limit by artful and confident discussions about the final buying price.  It’s very important to seek advice from your REALTOR and not make lowball offers which prohibit further negotiations sometimes; insulting the seller with a low offer won’t get any deals or influence his thinking in a positive way at all. 

Offering a gimmick sometimes causes you to lose focus on the real task at hand; remember that you are shopping for a house, not a cruise or a television.  If a seller is willing to offer you a $500 television to buy his home, ask your REALTOR to request that the $500 be taken from the selling price.  If there is an incentive, make sure that it has something to do with your home: upgraded countertops, decorating allowances, a new roof, or payment of closing costs.

Working within your budget to locate the best home for the value of your investment should be a shared goal between you and your REALTOR.  Listen carefully to the advice that you’re given for buying a home in a buyer’s market.