Monday, January 26, 2015

What Happened To The American Dream of Home Ownership?

"The American Dream of Home Ownership"

That is pretty heady stuff.

It is a great dream and buying a house is probably the BIGGEST INVESTMENT DECISION a person can make in their lifetime….



Why is that?

It is not just about buying a house. Even though it is probably the biggest purchase most people will make. The biggest financial decision YOU will likely make. What makes it such a big decision is that you will live there. You will raise a family there. You will invest your time and money to make it the best place possible for the people you love.
We are going to explore several key points on buying a house in future posts.

Why would I do this on a site that is focused on selling? Because a house cannot be sold without a buyer! To get the best deal for your house, you must understand what your buyer wants!



Some key questions to understand about buyers are:
  • Why does a buyer buy a house? Why should it be YOUR house?
  • Can your buyer afford it and how much can they spend?
  • Where do buyers look?
  • What does a buyer want?


Buying and owning a house is full of important decisions…

Until it comes to SELLING a house!


Selling a House

Selling your house has become an even BIGGER INVESTMENT DECISION!

Why?



There are several reasons why selling a house has become such a big decision. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here, because I would like to explore them with you in later posts. You are probably already aware of these three key reasons:

  • The housing market crash in 2007 which continues to affect price today. We probably all know someone who had financial difficulty as a result of “the correction.”
  • People are more curious and even better informed about home renovations than they were a decade ago. Must you renovate to get top dollar? Not necessarily! But…that’s a subject all on its own best saved for another day. :)
  • The third major reason selling your house has become more complicated is that qualifying for a mortgage is now stricter. For you, this may mean that there are less people looking for your house. For the home buyer this may mean that they have to lower their expectations as to just “how much” home they can buy - unless they can find alternative financing for their purchase. (We’ll talk later about that!) 



With all these considerations, you still want the highest price for your house and you probably want to sell your house fast.



Whether you’re a first-time buyer or seller - or not, you’ll almost certainly have a bunch of real estate related questions.

  • How can I get the best price for my house – or best house for my price? 
  • Should I use a Realtor or For Sale By Owner? 
  • How long does the process take?
  • What are you responsible for when selling a house?
  • What is the buyer responsible for when buying a house?
  • What do I have to pay? 
  • What is a Title Company and what will they do for me? 
  • What if I am not ready to move when it is sold? 
  • What if I buy a new house need to move before my old one is sold? 



Everyone wants to be sure they are making the right decision when they want to buy or sell a house.

I have seen a lot of good deals – and bad deals. What tends to separate the 2 is the information that was not only available…but USED to make a decision! And it is my sincere desire to give you information you can USE to make your best decision possible.

So thanks for reading my post. I'm so glad you're here! And I’ll look forward to getting into more good stuff starting in future posts so that you can Turn Your House To $OLD!.