Your Housing Market

Understanding What Is Happening In Your Area

Many things can influence the way homes are priced. We always encourage our clients to take a “hands on” approach to things when looking for your dream home. Some of the things to look at are: neighbors, surrounding neighborhoods, schools, developments, foreclosures, income, jobs, crime, police, insurance, taxes, etc.. By doing your home work and working alongside a Realtor, you can rest assure the day you close that you have made a good sound decision for you and your family.

Location, Location, Location

Location is true in anything you will buy in Real Estate. When purchasing your dream home, it will be important to you later when you sell and down size. These 3 words are very powerful though when you are buying as well, because they effect the purchase price of a home. For example; ocean view, water view, canal view, lake view, mountain view, acreage, home type, dump sites, highways, busy roads, commercial influence, zoning, etc.. These few things can effect the home price up or down. So it is to your advantage to make sure you know what influences are effecting the purchase price of your dream home.

Let’s Wait For The Prices To Come Down

Many of our clients through the years have had this mentality. The problem is that there are things that can also effect waiting. You might have heard of the Real Estate Bubble, The Real Estate Boom, The Buyers Market, The Sellers Market & Balanced Markets. These are things that have happened at some time or will happen at some time in our lives. As a Real Estate Investor, we have seen many markets. As a matter of fact, we have purchased in all of these markets and flourished very nicely. You make your money on homes when you buy, not by speculating. Speculating, will only cause grey hairs and sometimes significant losses. We are not here to guide you to this. Our goal is to give you enough information that you are powerful in your decisions.

Comparable Market Analysis (CMA)

Many of our clients are unaware that they too are able to do their own CMA of a particular home or area before placing an offer on a home. We encourage you to do some homework of your own, because at the end of the day, even with a knowledgeable Real Estate Agent, you are the one who has to live there. Real Estate agents will often do CMA’s on properties that are selling. The reason we encourage CMA’s is that when purchasing your dream home, you should be aware of the particular area effects on the value of the home or purchase price, it will give you great negotiating power.

Some ways of doing a CMA are listed below:

• Real Estate Books and Magazines
• Newspapers and Local Papers
• Drive by the home and neighborhoods
• Ask locals and Neighbors
• MLS Access
• Search the Web for information
• Local Investment Groups
• An Abundant amount of Real Estate Listing signs on homes
• Many more are available