Everett graduated near the top of his class. This accomplishment is made even more impressive when one considers that his "class" is the Wharton School of Business. Yet, when he and his wife decided it was time to own a home, Everett realized he wasn't prepared for this major financial step. For all he knew about business, he was not schooled in home ownership. He's not alone; almost no one is.
On a beautiful Saturday morning, Everett and his Sandra toured the model at the new home center. Impressed by the third model, they sat across the desk from the builder's selling agent. Everett knew that it's not advantageous to negotiate from a position of weakness. And they were definitely the less experienced party in this potential transaction.
Having driven by the new home subdivision Sandra had already done her homework. She knew that their home would be close to work, that the schools were good and they both sensed that the location would probably increase in value.
They weren't aware that they could have toured with a buyer's agent who would have helped them through the negotiation. This agent's fee would be paid by the builder (and the home price would be the same whether they had an agent or not.) Sandra said, "here we are... about to make the largest purchase of our lives; we're making a thirty-year financial commitment to a whole host of people we've never known: the builder, the lender, the insurance company, the home warranty people, the escrow officer, the title company, and who knows who else."
Sensing their anxiety, the builder's agent asked them, "So what are you thinking?"
Everett's response was astute:
"The agent says, 'I want to be your agent for life.' The lender says, 'I want to be your lender for life.' But I get the feeling that this might be lip service.
As the buyer, I get the feeling they're actually thinking, "do I really want to work twice as hard to make half as much money by educating these two and holding their hands through the process?"
***
This is the most common scenario in home buying that there is. Most of today's buyers are millennials and the vast majority of these buyers are purchasing a home for the first time. This is why we started NewbieBuyer.com
We help the first-time home buyer enter the home buying process from a position of strength.
Almost every person who has ever purchased a home has, at the end of the process, concluded that there were a few things that could have gone smoother. It seems inevitable... home buyers have to connect with so many professionals in order to purchase a home. And there are things that no one prepares them for.
There also seems to be no single place to go to learn all the steps of the home buying process. That is, until now. We've been helping first-time home buyers for more than a decade. And we've been tinkering with a learning platform that makes the process fun. For some of you, it will require coming to one of our learning programs on-site. For others, we are rolling out an online learning platform.
If you're interested in becoming one our online students, let me know. chuck@newbiebuyer.com
***
Chuck Willman has a history of building companies that combine his two interests: real estate and technology. He has also helped people (and investment companies) purchase more than ten thousand homes in the past decade and a half.
If you would like to know more about the current state of home buying for millennials and first-time home buyers, below are the latest findings from research provided by the National Association of Realtors® and NewbieBuyer:
Comments(1)