For some buyers, purchasing a home can still feel abstract and conceptual, leading to fantasy wishes and thoughts that are never a good mindset for success. Do not engage in wishful thinking when you have a goal, budget, and timeline because it can be downright costly.
During a hot selling season, buyers must bring their “A” game and keep their heads on straight if they will snag their dream home in their search area and price range.
Here are three common, costly buyer mistakes that often arise when the market is hot, plentiful offers, and rising prices.
Wishing the house was in a different neighborhood: Don’t harp on saying that “if you could just pick this home up and drop it into my dream neighborhood.” Stop wishing the home you can afford was in a different neighborhood because if it were, chances are that you wouldn’t be able to afford it either! Inflexibility can paralyze your house hunt. Check out the list price and sale price data on the recently sold homes in your desired neighborhood and work through your priority list. You may need to downgrade your specifications, look for a smaller home, a home in less-pristine condition, and adjust your location criteria.
Hoping that perfect house gets no other offers: Only a buyer can decide how much they can offer on a home, but lowballing or asking for too much are setting themselves up for failure in high levels of competitive situations. These failures lead to demotivating, depressing, and discouraging momentum in your house hunt. This frustration often leads to a house-hunting “time-out”. This could lead you to buy later in time where prices could even be higher.
Wishing prices weren’t going up so fast: Wishing prices weren’t going up so fast contributes to a costly denial that prices aren’t really what they are. This can cause buyers to make lowball offers and waste their precious time on homes they can’t compete for within their budget range, all while their smart targets are appreciating rapidly, and that’s how people get priced out of the market right under their noses. Keep up with trending prices and let knowledge power your decisions on the price range to house hunt in and what price to offer for target properties.
