Nothing is more emotional and more highly charged than purchasing the place where you are going to raise your family, put down roots in the community, become involved in schools and other civic organizations. And to make that decision without having an advocate is nothing short of foolhardy. It is in your best interests to be adequately represented in this, the most important of all financial investments for your family’s well being. Although the home buying process varies with each person according to their specific needs, most transactions follow a general path.

To avoid the stress of purchasing a new home, secure all the information you can about a property, make informed intelligent decisions and avoid these 10 Buyer’s Mistakes:

6. More concerned with others’ opinions instead of trusting their gut.

Because buying a house can certainly be emotional, many buyers rely on the opinion of others instead of their own.  Therefore, it is important that you be armed with a practical checklist. Being prepared before you preview homes with your Realtor will help keep your search for the perfect house on track. Begin your home buyer checklist by writing down the minimum requirements you expect in a new home. You can also add some of the wish list items you would like to have but are not absolute necessities. Once you review potential homes against your list, trust your gut. Remember, this is going to be your home.

7. Choose the wrong agent to represent them.

It’s just as important to shop around for the right real estate agent as it is to shop for the right home. A wrong person leading you through this extensive process can lead to hassles and headaches. To find the right real estate agent, get referrals from family and friends. Do research online. Ask your potential real estate agents lots of questions! They should seem willing and able to answer any and all questions you may have. The more you ask, the more educated you can be to make the right decisions.

8. Think that by dealing with the listing agent they will get a better deal.

Buying a home without a real estate agent doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll save a bundle.

Many home buyers believe they can negotiate a discount off the price of the home they want to purchase if they forgo the services of a real estate agent and instead contact the seller’s realty agent or the seller directly on their own. This strategy may be successful on some occasions; however, it could also flop and potentially alienate both the seller’s agent and the seller. In some cases, the seller’s agent will not talk to you without the representation of a buyer’s agent.

9. They try to time the market or interest rates.

Now is a good time to buy – prices are down,  interest rates are low, there are lots of homes to choose from and you can bargain with sellers. If you try to wait and time the market, you are likely to lose out. Just as no one can accurately predict the peaks and valleys of the stock market, the same holds true for housing. Most likely, your guess on market timing would be wrong. But if you choose to buy now, you will not only be in the driver’s seat during the buying process, you will also reap the gains of price appreciation once you become a home owner.

10. More focused on finding a good deal than finding a good house.

A low price is not always a good value. In fact, it may be no bargain at all if the maintenance costs are prohibitive. Find out when the house was last painted and re-roofed. Ask the seller to provide copies of utility bills so you can accurately budget the ongoing cost of your home purchase. Home inspections may reveal more extensive repair work requiring greater expenditure than you anticipate. Also, if the house has a large yard, trees, a swimming pool or a spa, and you don’t have the time or expertise to do pool cleaning or yard work, find out what the current owner pays to maintain those amenities.

Nothing is more emotional and more highly charged than purchasing the place where you are going to raise your family, put down roots in the community, become involved in schools and other civic organizations. And to make that decision without having an advocate is nothing short of foolhardy. It is in your best interests to be adequately represented in this, the most important of all financial investments for your family’s well being. Although the home buying process varies with each person according to their specific needs, most transactions follow a general path.

To avoid the stress of purchasing a new home, secure all the information you can about a property, make informed intelligent decisions and avoid these 10 Buyer’s Mistakes:

1. They get penny wise and pound foolish when it comes time to make an offer.

If you are certain that you have found your dream home, don’t place an unreasonably low offer, especially if there is buyer competition. If the home truly is as dream worthy as you consider it to be, it is highly unlikely that you are the only interested buyer. So if the home is well within your budget, consider placing an offer that is towards the top of your budget in order to knock your real estate competition out of the ball park or risk losing the house.

2. They believe something better is around the corner.

Some buyers give into fears that prevent them from making a decision to purchase. These fears can manifest in different ways, one of which is “waiting for something better” to come along. These buyers will ultimately waste too much time and lose out on the opportunity to purchase quality homes. If you sit on the fence and wait, you could end up literally waiting for years. When you find the perfect home (which is only ever 85% perfect), make an offer to buy it.

3. They lack imagination when seeing home.

People shopping for a new house usually lack imagination. Generally, buyers only know what they see not the way it is going be. Some people might initially want a turn-key house, a house that is ready to be lived in, not a home where they will immediately have to begin painting and remodeling. Try to use your imagination and picture yourself and your belongings in homes you visit because you may be overlooking your dream home.

4. Focus on who is right or wrong vs. getting their home.

Imagine you found a house and decided on an offer. The seller will often counter the best offers to see who’s willing to pay more. It’s easy to get embroiled in a “right and wrong” debate and keep countering offers. Don’t expect several rounds of these counters, however. This isn’t an auction, and you wont have unlimited opportunities to raise your bid. The seller will typically snatch the most attractive counter to their counter. If you haven’t made your best showing, you’ll lose out to someone who did. Right or wrong won’t matter here. You will not get your home.

5. Listen to water cooler talk instead of their trusted advisor.

Everybody is getting exposed to news from varied sources these days. The internet can be a powerful albeit unreliable source. Sadly, many bloggers, think that because they constantly preach about how prices are crumbling and everyone will lose all their money that somehow that makes them trustworthy, like, “See I’m telling you bad news so you can trust me.” Unfortunately, your friends and colleagues pass this information on as credible and it could cost you dearly. Trust your Realtor to give you accurate information and advice during the buying process.

Stay tuned for part 1 . . .

I have created a new format for the information, as there is an expanded amount of information available to me now. Through the MLS, we are now able to track the number of new listings that came on the market in a given time period, which we weren’t able to do in the past.

What this has allowed me to do is to show you how the market is trending in a much more complete picture, as you will see in the table below.

This time, I am only going to provide you with one table, as the new format will mean that all new graphs will need to be created, so that will begin with the next issue of the update.

You will note that there is a new column in the chart – ‘New Listings During Period‘ – this is the piece of information that was missing, and the one that completes the picture to a truly accurate overview of how the market is going. I have also re-named some columns, for ease of understanding.

My comments appear below the chart.

As you can see from the chart, the ‘Sold Ratio‘ is determined by adding the columns for ‘Active Listings’ & ‘New Listings During Period’, thus allowing the Sold Ratio to be drawn from all properties that Buyer’s had available to them during this period. Overall, this shows that, if your house was on the market during this time period, you had a 41.2% chance of it selling. That is pretty darned good!

In fact, according to the experts, any time you have more than a 15% chance of your house selling in any given month, we are in a Seller’s Market!

You can see that there was a good amount of activity across the price ranges, however, I feel it is my duty to advise that the properties that are selling for more than the list price are not a reflection of a market gone crazy, but they are a reflection of the poor marketing tactics used by some agents. A house selling over list price does not mean that there were multiple offers, nor does it mean that the sellers got the best price for their house. In fact, some companies are currently creating an atmosphere that prevents multiple offers, not only by their pricing strategies but also by their ineffectiveness at making a property available for showings, guiding their sellers in negotiations, etc. Professional courtesy (on my part) precludes me from saying more here, however you can ask many local agents and they will explain what I am talking about.

This will be an interesting market for the next few months, for sure, as people try to get their purchases closed before the HST comes into effect. Don’t miss the boat – if you are planning on selling, give me a call today at 905-878-4444.

Oh my gosh, I neglected to complete my posts of market updates over the past 2 weeks! I compiled the data into the usual charts, then got busy with Holidays, and only just today realized I had not done the actual posts. In the sake of expedience, I’m going to just present the charts, without any of my usual pithy commentary for those two weeks – I’ll insert the charts at the bottom of this post.

So, how has the market been so far in 2010? SLOOOOOOOOW might be one word for it! That’s okay though, because there’s still nothing much in the way of inventory, interest rates went up this past week, so everyone will get off that splintery fence soon enough!

Here’s the weekly Total Market Overview:

And the Annual Summary of Activity:

And, finally, the Absorption Rate:

Absorption Rate Chart December 25th, 2009

Absorption Rate Chart December 31st, 2009

Absorption Rate Graph December 25th, 2009

Absorption Rate Graph December 31st, 2009

Total Market Overview December 25th, 2009

Total Market Overview December 31st, 2009

Annual Summary of Weekly Activity December 25th, 2009

Annual Summary of Weekly Activity December 31st, 2009

Another Friday, another market update. Not a lot to report – it seems that the market is stuck at an inventory of 127 homes for sale – the 5th week in a row!

Sales are remaining fairly stable, which is a good thing. There has been some more clearing out of stale inventory, as there were 6 homes on the market for 60 days or more, one of them for over a year, so that is a good thing. Including these anomalies, the average days to sell is pretty low, at 24 days.

Notice the activity seems to be in the lower price ranges again, with some in the upper ranges too; given the buying power of the dollar in today’s interest-rate climate, you might expect people to be spending more.

The annual summary chart, above, now has a full year’s worth of activity to report – notice how many houses were available as recently as 9 months ago, compared to the number on the market now.

Weekly Summary in Graphical Format

Supply & Absorption Rate

Weekly Listings & Sales