Homes Manual

Will The Real Home Buying Guide... Please Stand Up?


Use Google right now and do a search on, "Home Buying Guide". Take a few minutes to click some of the links to see what's out there and then come right back.

Now, try "Home Buyer Guide" and do the same thing.

Overwhelming, isn't it?

And that's exactly the problem facing today's prospective homebuyers; not knowing how to sort through all of the information that is offered to them when buying a home.

Do you know what the other problem is?

Ironic as it may sound, just as prospective homebuyers have too much information on topics such as: how to find a real estate agent, how to find a mortgage, how to fix your credit or how to get the lowest possible insurance, and on and on...they are faced with just the complete opposite when it comes to having information on the main focus of their quest - specific information on the house they want to buy.

In a survey conducted by Key Findings, it was found that "Prospective home buyers say they are unhappy with the information available to them. Some don't think they are seeing all the homes available in their price range and complain about how difficult it is to find detailed information about the homes they are interested in buying."

If you're thinking about buying a home right now do you feel you're as informed as you could be about the house you may be interested in buying? If not, would you even know where to go to even begin to get it?

Do not despair because there is hope!

You would be surprised to learn that you can get alot of answers and information simply by observing and asking the right questions - and many of them. You also need to be sure you're asking the right person, to get the right answer.

A couple of sources of information include your local municipal Offices or County Courthouse, neighbors and yes, even the actual seller(s).

You also need to spend time investigating the neighborhood and, once you actually decide on a home you're interested in, spend as much time there as possible. Doing so will allow you to get the feel for the property and view things you may normally miss if you're just simply herded through the home.

Here is a brief list of some of the things you should be able to uncover with a little poking around:

  • What work has been done to the home?
  • What work needs to be done to the home?
  • Is it a good neighborhood?
  • How can you tell if it's a good neighborhood?
  • Is the house you're looking to purchase built on a former dump site?
  • Is something going to be happening with all that vacant land next door?
  • How long have the current owners owned the home?
  • How much did they pay for the home when they bought it?
  • Why are they selling now?
  • Is the price they are asking for the home too high?

The key is: Don't be afraid to ask the questions you have and, for the questions you do have, make sure you're asking the right person and make sure they get answered to your satisfaction BEFORE you make your purchase.

Become a real estate insider and don't be at the mercy of unreliable real estate agents or untruthful sellers. Discover just how easy it is to get all the information you need on the home you want to buy and not get stuck having to deal with those post-purchase nightmares, as most uninformed homebuyers do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Berthiaume tells you what you need to watch for when buying your next home. To find out more, and to claim your free 4-part home buying mini-course, visit this site: Buying a Home


MORE RESOURCES:
There is something emotionally charged about the buying and selling of New York high-end real estate. How else to explain the juggernaut of reality TV shows about high-end brokers?


After 30 years of marriage, Sharon and Michael Newman decided it was finally time to move from the Catskills to New York City.


On blocks near Kissena Park streets are quiet, houses are small, and the electricity that charges the atmosphere in downtown Flushing is nowhere to be found.


A five-story, seven-bedroom house in Brooklyn Heights has sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.


Demand is so intense that there are waiting lists in some buildings, and a few landlords report that eager renters are even bidding up rents.


Sales at the very high end of the market barely missed a beat in the recession. But that prosperity hasn’t yet trickled down.


A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.


A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.


For a century, Roosevelt Island housed a grim penitentiary. It was demolished in the 1930s.


More borrowers are opting for fixed-rate loans with terms other than the standard 30 or 15 years, especially when it comes to refinancings.


Two more glass skyscrapers are added to a group of towers on the waterfront of Long Island City.


Insurance coverage for a co-op unit; when a tenant is ‘blacklisted’; a co-op is smaller than estimated.


The market for $500,000-to-$600,000 houses in Westchester has become especially active.


A shaky real estate market means more sellers are providing buyer concessions, from gift cards to help with paying property taxes.


Houses of worship are adaptable to residential and other uses as congregations dwindle.


The settlement reached last week over questionable mortgage practices by major American banks hardly cracks the iceberg that is the foreclosure mess.


Under the settlement, nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks.


A cold war-era satellite relay station is for sale in California after a Silicon Valley mogul gave up on plans to turn it into a weekend home.


How can I make my front porch more appealing to buyers?


Court hearings meant to protect New York homeowners from foreclosure are hopelessly slowed by endless paperwork and requests for additional information.


The Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter.


The house, designed by the architect Eric Fisher, looms over the street like a big industrial arm.


A town house in Dallas, a midcentury modern in Rhode Island and a Tudor in Denver.


Prices in some parts of the country are still off by as much as 25 percent from their 2007 peak.


Trinity Church is the largest landlord in Hudson Square and is part of the effort to rezone the area to residential from manufacturing.


Rising oil prices and a boom in shale exploration are leading companies to add office space in the Houston area, most notably Exxon Mobil.


Ms. de França is the president and chief executive of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, which focuses on new residential developments.


Meet the real estate broker’s interns: an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at open houses.


A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.


A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.


Homes in Dallas, Rhode Island and Denver.


Compare the cost of renting and buying equivalent homes.


For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world.


Plants that light up the winter garden can be found at Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut, which has long been a favorite of gardening geeks.


A sister in need drew the painter Beverly McIver back home to North Carolina, unaware that a new beginning was in store for both of them.


A jewelry designer finds striking new objects for storage.


Timothy Sakamoto and Jochen Repolust are part of the small but growing niche making mobile apps focused on specific works of architecture.


To promote an auction of 20th- and 21st-century design, the interior designer Stephen Sills has created a preview exhibition in an apartment at the Apthorp.


Fishs Eddy now sells plates acquired from the archives of the now-defunct Syracuse China Corporation, many more than 100 years old.


The designer Russell Greenberg creates custom baby rattles with ends shaped like profiles of mom and dad.


home       | site map |       Disclaimer |       Privacy Policy
© 2006