We as an industry need to show care and concern to protect the First Time Homebuyers!
When I ask a first time homebuyer, "What made you decide to purchase a home, now?" They usually respond:
"Well, the market has come down so much that I figured that this would be a great time to buy!"
Thank goodness I was able to get to them first before someone sacrificed them to an overpriced listing.
We've got to realize that we've got to protect this new wave of buyers from becoming cannon fodder for overpriced sellers. We have to spend time educating them on several issues:
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A home is not a "great deal" just because it is $50,000 less than comparable properties. Those comparables might be overpriced by $70,000. What do the fundamentals say about the price?
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Buying a foreclosure isn't a sure thing. How many compaints do we see in blogs about the unreasonableness in pricing from some lender owned properties?
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Short sales aren't a deal just because it's a short sale.
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The reason you may be getting a "great deal" is due to the seller or agent or any professional party having knowledge about adverse factors affecting property value. They will leave this up to your agent to find.
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Just because we can get sellers to pay closing costs and prepaids doesn't mean the buyer is not paying for it at the end of the day. Don't let lenders jack those up.
The time to buy has NEVER been better! Especially with more restrictions to lending due to occur. Let's just show these buyers that we will protect them and provide them with sound value analysis, not just a number based upon other listings.
When confronted with statements from buyers, that you have a fiduciary responsibility to, ask, "WHY?" they feel the way that they do. Otherwise, your assumption may cost you a relationship if you skimmed over or completely missed an important discussion point.
If we blow it on this wave of FTHB's and allow sellers to dump overpriced inventory on them, the next wave will be even slower to come to the market. We will probably hear the crickets chirping in neighborhoods.
Let's not make them the sacrificial lambs! Let's take care of them as professionals.
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