November 07, 2018
Ways Buyers Can Avoid Remorse in a Low Inventory Market
Any time we enter a seller’s market, the amount of buyer’s remorse goes on the rise—particularly with regards to the amount they have recently paid for a home. This is most predictably the case in areas where, as pointed out in ValueInsured’s most recent Modern Homebuyer Survey, “[h]ome payments […] are swallowing up 45 percent of local median income”. To those not familiar with the real estate market, the numbers might be almost shocking: nearly 70 percent of homeowners expect that they will experience buyer’s remorse inside of a year, and so do 62 percent of homebuyers. A full quarter of Americans surveyed predicted that their remorse would be as high as those who bought in the heady days before the 2008 crisis.
When emotion around obtaining a home grows heated, and offers on any given property are numerous, the competitive edge that is seemingly built-in to humans can take over. People can feel an urge to out-do the competition, which can lead potential buyers into a raising of the stakes, in which they make offers that they may later regret. It is difficult to be bloodless about the amount one is willing to put into homeownership, but it is worth the extra effort.
Slowing down and being sure to go about things in a methodical way is key. It can be helpful to take the following into account:
- Consider whether the home you’re making an offer on matches—or at least comes close to matching—what you were looking for when you started out on your property search.
- Be sure you tour the home privately; an open house can foster that sense of competition, and cause you to overlook certain elements that you might not notice without first taking time to be relatively alone on the property, having made sure to enter and get a sense for each room in the home.
- Moreover, it can be helpful to see the home more than once. Go back at a different time of day or in different weather, just to be sure it wasn’t something in the quality of light of a certain day that drew you to make your offer.
Once you’re sure the home is the one for you, and you’ve made your offer, you are one step closer to closing. When looking for a closing attorney in Jacksonville, Florida; Rockport, Massachusetts; or Cumberland, Rhode Island, contact us to see how we can help. Topouzis & Associates, P.C., performs title searches and provides title insurance backed by multiple underwriters. We’re staffed by residential real estate specialists and ready to help you avoid costly delays and streamline your residential transactions.