Buying a House? 6 Questions you'd neverthink to Ask, but Should
Buying a house can be one of the most crucial decisions of your life. Needless to say, you need to be extra cautious while buying a house.
It is true that no house would be perfectly upgraded. However, many times, the home’s potential lies in its selling feature. The price also matters. Try to understand how outdated the home is. Get to know as to how much would it take to upgrade your new house. Get an idea as to how much involvement would you have to be to get your house upgraded. Above all, be realistic!
Here are the top 6 questions you’d never think to ask, but should:
1. Ask your agent if he would buy the house
This question is more than vital to be asked! While buying a property, you are likely to be guided by your real estate agent. Ask your agent if he would have reservations about purchasing the property for himself. If he says he would not have bought it for himself, you must get cautious. You must only purchase a home if your real estate agent is genuinely enthusiastic about the property like you. If that is not the case, go ahead and ask why is not he that enthusiastic. It is always good to get a proper perspective from a person who has deep knowledge about properties and housing market.
2. Check if there are any upcoming homeowners or condo association assessments
When buying a home or a condo within the association of homeowners, you are likely to receive the final documents of HOA. These crucial documents tend to put the focus on various significant information like reserve funds plus CC&Rs like covenants, restrictions, and conditions. These condo docs, as well as to disclosures, can be too lengthy, comprising of a massive number of pages. This might seem too overwhelming for home buyers. Some of them tend to forget to look into the upcoming assessments. Assessments can be defined as periodic payments that are one-time. These payments are made to the HOA above as well as beyond the monthly fee.
These tend to cover capital improvements or repairs. They might impact your monthly housing expenses. Thus, you ought to know whether they are likely to go up in the upcoming times. Your agent can look into these documents to get to the right answer.
3. Ask about the sales history of the house. Get to know how it would affect your offer.
Prior to making an offer on a particular property, make sure to ask your agent for the history of the property's sales. This is truly important. Get to know if it had an expired listing previously. Get to know if it was leased. Get to know if it was ever owned by a bank. This list of factors might suggest that the home was really hard to sell at a point. Thus, it would enable you to go for a pretty bargaining act while negotiating the selling price.
4. Ask for recommendations for hiring an ideal home inspector or handyman or real estate attorney in the locality
Local expertise truly matters. This is not only in the context of the real estate agent whom you work with but also applies to other professionals whom you might meet when negotiating the real estate deal. If you require recommendations for a home inspector, real estate attorney, handyman or someone else on your journey of buying a home, you must ask your real estate agent for suitable recommendations. This is essential to strengthen the odds of seamless sailing!
5. Ask as to which contingencies are worth getting and which ones should be overlooked
Now, many times, buyers and sellers might not go along well when it comes to buying or selling a house. If they are not able to fall on common ground, they tend to back out. However, when a seller accepts the offer made by the buyer, both parties go ahead and sign a binding contract that is legal. It is an official document which needs the buyer as well as the seller to execute the form of transaction. How binding the contract depends highly on the details. There are certain contracts that have contingencies built. These make the buyer or seller able enough to back out from the deal with no possible penalty. Usually, contingencies are included for an appraisal as well as a home inspection.
When you have too many contingencies, it might repel many sellers. So, you must make sure to hit a healthy balance by asking the real estate agent to provide proper guidance. If the property is newly constructed, you might waive a home inspection contingency. If the home is old, you are likely to need a lot of repairs.
6. Check as to what is happening in the neighborhood. Ask as to how it would impact home prices
Many genuine real estate agents hear things about what is happening in the communities that lie in the near vicinity. Though federal fair housing laws prevent real estate agents from making comments on a neighborhood's demographics, your real estate agent can still provide you with a genuine insight about the same. He can provide you with valuable advice on whether you are making a smart investment on the basis of local housing market trends as well as economic factors. These factors do tend to affect overall home values. So you must get to know it all! Make sure to ask your agent if the neighborhood's home prices increasing or decreasing. Get to know if there are any brand new amenities like parks, public transportation, shopping, etc. that are being constructed in the locality. Thus, get to know about the place in depth.
You must consider all of these points prior to purchasing a house. Keep in mind that a real estate agent would always help you to get the real picture of the place and the properties there. Draw your conclusion based on the same and make a smart home-buying decision, accordingly.
It is true that no house would be perfectly upgraded. However, many times, the home’s potential lies in its selling feature. The price also matters. Try to understand how outdated the home is. Get to know as to how much would it take to upgrade your new house. Get an idea as to how much involvement would you have to be to get your house upgraded. Above all, be realistic!
Here are the top 6 questions you’d never think to ask, but should:
1. Ask your agent if he would buy the house
This question is more than vital to be asked! While buying a property, you are likely to be guided by your real estate agent. Ask your agent if he would have reservations about purchasing the property for himself. If he says he would not have bought it for himself, you must get cautious. You must only purchase a home if your real estate agent is genuinely enthusiastic about the property like you. If that is not the case, go ahead and ask why is not he that enthusiastic. It is always good to get a proper perspective from a person who has deep knowledge about properties and housing market.
2. Check if there are any upcoming homeowners or condo association assessments
When buying a home or a condo within the association of homeowners, you are likely to receive the final documents of HOA. These crucial documents tend to put the focus on various significant information like reserve funds plus CC&Rs like covenants, restrictions, and conditions. These condo docs, as well as to disclosures, can be too lengthy, comprising of a massive number of pages. This might seem too overwhelming for home buyers. Some of them tend to forget to look into the upcoming assessments. Assessments can be defined as periodic payments that are one-time. These payments are made to the HOA above as well as beyond the monthly fee.
These tend to cover capital improvements or repairs. They might impact your monthly housing expenses. Thus, you ought to know whether they are likely to go up in the upcoming times. Your agent can look into these documents to get to the right answer.
3. Ask about the sales history of the house. Get to know how it would affect your offer.
Prior to making an offer on a particular property, make sure to ask your agent for the history of the property's sales. This is truly important. Get to know if it had an expired listing previously. Get to know if it was leased. Get to know if it was ever owned by a bank. This list of factors might suggest that the home was really hard to sell at a point. Thus, it would enable you to go for a pretty bargaining act while negotiating the selling price.
4. Ask for recommendations for hiring an ideal home inspector or handyman or real estate attorney in the locality
Local expertise truly matters. This is not only in the context of the real estate agent whom you work with but also applies to other professionals whom you might meet when negotiating the real estate deal. If you require recommendations for a home inspector, real estate attorney, handyman or someone else on your journey of buying a home, you must ask your real estate agent for suitable recommendations. This is essential to strengthen the odds of seamless sailing!
5. Ask as to which contingencies are worth getting and which ones should be overlooked
Now, many times, buyers and sellers might not go along well when it comes to buying or selling a house. If they are not able to fall on common ground, they tend to back out. However, when a seller accepts the offer made by the buyer, both parties go ahead and sign a binding contract that is legal. It is an official document which needs the buyer as well as the seller to execute the form of transaction. How binding the contract depends highly on the details. There are certain contracts that have contingencies built. These make the buyer or seller able enough to back out from the deal with no possible penalty. Usually, contingencies are included for an appraisal as well as a home inspection.
When you have too many contingencies, it might repel many sellers. So, you must make sure to hit a healthy balance by asking the real estate agent to provide proper guidance. If the property is newly constructed, you might waive a home inspection contingency. If the home is old, you are likely to need a lot of repairs.
6. Check as to what is happening in the neighborhood. Ask as to how it would impact home prices
Many genuine real estate agents hear things about what is happening in the communities that lie in the near vicinity. Though federal fair housing laws prevent real estate agents from making comments on a neighborhood's demographics, your real estate agent can still provide you with a genuine insight about the same. He can provide you with valuable advice on whether you are making a smart investment on the basis of local housing market trends as well as economic factors. These factors do tend to affect overall home values. So you must get to know it all! Make sure to ask your agent if the neighborhood's home prices increasing or decreasing. Get to know if there are any brand new amenities like parks, public transportation, shopping, etc. that are being constructed in the locality. Thus, get to know about the place in depth.
You must consider all of these points prior to purchasing a house. Keep in mind that a real estate agent would always help you to get the real picture of the place and the properties there. Draw your conclusion based on the same and make a smart home-buying decision, accordingly.
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