Recently media attention has been heavily focused on the difficulties home sellers face with the current glut of inventory and the tightening of the sub-prime mortgage market. However, according to a Fall member survey and report released by NAEBA in November 2007, home buyers are also facing new challenges. The report, titled "Under-Reported Home Buying Issues: How home buyers can overcome the latest buying challenges" contains survey results, case histories, and strategies buyers can use to best meet these challenges.
The report highlights many important issues for buyers, but the rising use of buyer agent bonuses and difficulties when buying foreclosed homes were two of the most revealing. "One of the top issues for buyers, in what industry insiders refer to as ‘buyer agent bribes', is when a seller offers a bonus to the buyer agent to put a full price contract together on their home. A buyer's agent should be loyal only to the buyer and sometimes buyers don't find out about these bonuses until the deal is done," reported Jon Boyd, President of the NAEBA.
The report also includes recommendations buyers should keep in mind when considering a foreclosed property including tactics on contract addenda and contract timing. "A challenge that scored high in the survey was the difficulty associated with buying foreclosures. Awareness of the five tips we offer in the report can make the process of evaluating and purchasing a foreclosure a lot less frustrating," Boyd said. Full Report
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