2. 1. Study up. As a smart manager
of your life and your finances,
it’s your duty to get as detailed
a primer on the ins and outs of
home buying as you need to feel
comfortable and confident as you
move forward with the process: what lenders
require, the nuts and bolts of a purchase
transaction, that sort of thing. But when you’re
specifically seeking to minimize the risk of
unpleasant surprises, you’ve got to take your real
estate education to the next level, and study up on
some very specific subject matter: your local
market, in real-time.
3. 2. Team up. It never ceases to amaze me the amount
of expertise and plain old help that goes untapped -
and the avoidable stress and expense that are
incurred - because buyers don’t even think to express
certain concerns to their real
estate and mortgage pros. If
there are particular potential
surprises or other issues that
keep you up at night, you
should clearly express those
to your team of real estate and
mortgage professionals, and enlist
their help in keeping them at bay.
4. 3. Keep up. There are a number of critical dates and
deadlines in a home buying transaction by which
decisions and deliverables and course-corrections must
be made or the seeds for a scary surprise
take root. And only some of the
time are you, buyer, in control of
making sure those timelines stay
on track; many other times, loan
underwriters, appraisers, inspectors
and lenders are responsible for
achieving these important must-meet
dates. What you can control is your own awareness of all
these calendar points, so that you can make more or less
urgent nudges and check-ins, as needed, in order to
ensure that things either (a) stay on track, or (b) don’t
take you by surprise, if they get off track.
5. 4. Fess up. It’s one thing to be surprised by
something you have no control over. But
imagine how you’d feel if your deal was killed by
a surprise that you (and only you) could easily
have avoided! I’ve personally seen this happen a
number of times. One buyer I know ended up
losing her dream home - and her deposit money
due to false information on her loan application.
She’d apparently gotten away with it on a
number of credit applications, but a mortgage is
an entirely different animal.
6. 5. Fluff up. Your cash and time cushions, that is. The
reason home buying surprises are so stressful is
that they threaten to do one of two things: (a)
screw up our timelines for moving, or (b) force us to
come up with more cash than we have at hand to
close the deal. If you get just a few days away from
closing, bags and boxes packed, and are told you
need to bring in just an extra few thousand dollars
to close the deal, it can feel like your home -
actually, your life! - is being held hostage for extra
cash, on the one transaction you’ve already spent
years saving up for.
7. Realtors: What are the most common, unpleasant
surprises you see arise during home buying, and
what advice do you give your clients for preventing
them?
8. Randy Bett
Investment Realtor/Author/Investor
Real Estate Professionals Inc.
Better Group Real Estate
202-5403 Crowchild Trail NW
Calgary, AB T3B 4Z1
Phone:403-774-7464 Ext:1
Fax:403-208-0082
Toll Free fax:888-711-6801
