You want to buy a home, so you seek a loan. You take a couple of weeks to compare interest rates, decide upon a lender, and receive pre-approval. But now, you’re confronted with a different problem: you can’t find a house to buy.
Imagine completing all the work of obtaining a loan to realize you miscalculated your budget. Or equally bad, maybe your budget is perfect, but the homes around you sell faster than you can make offers. Even worse, they might close above their listed prices!
The simple fact is that when the market is hot, finding great homes to purchase becomes more difficult. The great ones sell immediately. Available properties are either too big and expensive or too small and require more remodeling than you have time for. Listed homes sell faster, and buyers make better offers when the market is strong, leaving you with limited options.
So what can you do when you find yourself in this frustrating cycle? You don’t need to compromise as you search for your dream house. Vantegic has years of experience on both sides of the sales process. With our expertise, finding and purchasing a home has never been easier.
The tips below offer great advice for buyers looking to purchase in challenging markets. When house shopping seems impossible, applying these tips increases your odds of finding the perfect home today.
Tip 1: Align Your Search with Your Budget
Knowing how to budget correctly is critical to success. Still, many people don’t execute proper financial planning when buying a house. After crunching the numbers and getting ballpark estimates, they still struggle to pin down an affordable concrete price. But if a buyer doesn’t know what they can pay, how can they know what they can buy?
When you can’t find a house to buy and need to reassess your budget, first consider your financial resources and the current market. With these factors in mind, you can determine which neighborhoods best fit your needs. As you learn more about your local market, investigate listing and actual sales prices at closing.
Find information about your area using online resources for housing market statistics to get an accurate idea of what you pay after closing costs. Once you understand your needs, you can seek the loan that best aligns with your financial situation.
Tip 2: Shop Around for Loan Offers
Many new homebuyers tend to accept the first financing offer they receive. Don’t make this mistake! Some don’t understand the buying process and feel pressured into accepting poor interest rates. Others accept out of fear that other lenders won’t approve them. These fears are understandable, but they aren’t based on reality.
Lenders often battle for your favor through interest rates. Even if you fear that multiple lenders won’t approve you due to something like your credit score, shop around and request quotes from different ones. If you’ve already received one offer, you will likely get others.
Comparing loans before selecting a lender gives you a better idea of current interest rates, allowing you to secure funding with rates at or below market value. If you can book a lower rate than the initial lender offers, you’ve already saved thousands in additional payments. If you can’t find a house to buy at this moment, it’s ok. It means you have more time to search for the perfect lender.
Tip 3: Don’t Rush Offers
While purchasing a home is exciting, it can often make prospective property owners emotionally vulnerable. In tight markets, competition is higher, which may tempt you to rush into offers while skipping essential steps. Your goal may be to save time and money, but jumping the gun on an offer could cost more.
If you can’t find a house to buy, you already have a difficult situation on your hands. Ultimately, making a hasty offer creates more roadblocks when purchasing a home. Be sure to do your due diligence when finding a property of interest. Always request home inspections and appraisals. These reveal important information about a property’s conditions and value that you can use to guide your decision moving forward.
Never forgo critical processes like home inspections or appraisals. Depending on the location and value of your property, the appraisal process may even be a legal requirement. Regardless, perform your due diligence to ensure you aren’t overpaying for a home with undetected damage. You’ll also avoid buyer’s remorse if you close on the house.
Tip 4: Use An Agent
You can search for ideal listings all you want, but you’ll still come short without knowing where to look. A trusted agent provides valuable tools and resources you can’t find alone. If you‘re struggling to find a house to buy on your own, additional guidance can make or break your situation.
Most homeowners prefer to find listings with professional help, even those with hands-on experience in the real estate industry. An extra pair of eyes ensures that no important detail is overlooked when filing paperwork. Trusted agents are also helpful when emotion begins to cloud judgment. On these occasions, they offer a third-party opinion to help you focus on your best interests.
With their contacts and resources, real estate agents can hone in on the best deals within specific areas and neighborhoods. Together, you can dig for the most fantastic listings in your area with double the search power.
I Applied Every Tip and Found Nothing. What Now?
It may be inconvenient if you can’t find a home to buy right away, but don’t give up hope. The tips gathered above all fall under the larger category of organization. If you remain organized, you can streamline your property purchase and close as quickly as possible.
That said, organization is much like budgeting – it’s usually straightforward, but it isn’t easy for everyone. The Vantegic Team understands the purchase process inside and out. We have all the tools to keep you organized as you find your next home. Schedule a discovery call today, and let us help you find a property perfect for you and your family. If you can’t find a house to buy, we’ll do everything in our power to find one for you.
