July 22, 2019
What Are the Chief Sources of Homebuyer’s Remorse?
As much as we would like to believe that everyone who gets into a home will enjoy their purchase wholeheartedly, this simply proves to not be the case. Homebuyer’s remorse is a real phenomenon, which can affect anyone who does not approach the home purchasing process with the right mindset—and even then, some are beset by it. For some homeowners it has to do with issues of funding; some with the state of the marketplace when a home purchasing contract is entered. Really, the reasons are legion. But there are some chief sources of which any potential homebuyer should be aware, so as to improve their chances of avoiding homebuyer’s remorse altogether.
It seems that in a recent survey by Bankrate respondents revealed that they have homebuyer’s remorse at a rate of 44 percent overall. That’s no small number—though thankfully it doesn’t come close to being the majority of buyers. 56 percent of all respondents in fact said they had no remorse at all.
Interestingly, the rates of homebuyer’s remorse differed depending on the generation of the respondents. Millennials expressed the highest rate of homebuyer’s remorse—at a whopping 63 percent. This is likely down to a number of factors that affect this group more than any other at present, such as coming into the market at a time when prices have been high and wage growth has not kept pace.
But among all extant generations, there was commonality among the reasons listed for remorse.
The most often expressed reason people felt they’d made a poor decision to buy? That maintenance and other costs related to homeownership were higher than expected, at 18 percent of respondents. This was followed by the feeling that the owners had purchased too small of a home, at 12 percent. 8 percent of respondents felt they’d purchased a home in a bad location. 7 percent felt their home purchase was not a good investment, matched by the 7 percent who felt that their mortgage payment was too high. 6 percent felt they had gotten a poor mortgage rate. And 5 percent believed that the home they had purchased was too big for their needs.
So: it’s important to be sure you’re aware that there will be costs to owning a home beyond the initial purchase price; to be sure the home you purchase is in the proper size range for your needs (and waiting a bit longer to save more money if you can’t quite afford the space you’ll need may be your best option); to do due diligence about the area where you’re purchasing; and to make sure you shop around for the best mortgage rate you can get.
Moreover, when you go to close on a home you want to be sure you’re getting title to the property, free and clear of problems. At Topouzis & Associates, P.C., we perform title searches and remedy problems of title in Rhode Island, Massachussets, and Florida. We back these services with title insurance for both lenders and owners. Contact us if you’re considering purchasing a new property, whether for yourself or as an investment, so we can help ensure that you achieve true ownership of your property without having to deal with unforeseen hassles arising from problems created by someone else in the past.
