Buying a Home With a Seller's Mind

It is highly likely that the home you currently own (or will buy some day) won't be your forever-home. Families change, from size to dynamics, jobs change from pay to location. Needs change from large yards to extra bedrooms. Thus it is a wise thing to consider... What is important to the NEXT person who buys that home (from you!) may be different from what was important to you (and your family). 

Are you buying a FOREVER home... or a FOR NOW home? Most of us buy a FOR NOW home... which means you DEFINITELY need to put on a seller's cap at some point- why not try it on, now?

Here's a few just to get the thought process started:

1.) You: Schools really aren't that important to us (we don't have kids/aren't planning on having kids/ we plan on home schooling/ have already decided on a nearby private school).

The next buyer for your home is likely to consider the local school as part of whether or not they are interested in your area. While homeschooling is on the rise, it doesn't work for all families, and some families will prefer a local public school over paying for private. Thus while you may not find the local school important, the ones you sell your home to may!

2.) You: I don't really care that there's a Home Owners Association. It's just the price you pay to live in a nice neighborhood.

Some Home Owner Associations (HOAs) are pretty on par- they keep the lawns neat, the amenities up to par and are otherwise perfectly fine to deal with as a homeowner. But not all HOAs are the same! Make sure you actually read the documents that you will receive in the first weeks of signing the purchase contract--- if the HOA rules don't seem to match up with the actual property in person, that's a red flag! Stop in at their office and see what the customer service is like, maybe even ask (with an open mind) someone you see in the neighborhood. Though, you must remember- some people do just love to complain, so you should take personal references with a grain of salt. But you may very well come across someone who has a level head that can tell you the pros and the cons of their HOA.

3.) You: As long as my mortgage payment is affordable to my budget, I'm happy.

Oh boy, how misleading this thought process can be! There's so much more to it, but your mortgage payment isn't promised to be the same from you to your next buyer, even if you sell the house at the same exact price. So many things vary, from your credit score to theirs, to the price of your home owners insurance policy to theirs and the city taxes (which definitely fluctuate!) help to form the actual cost of your loan.

4.) This house was such a great deal that I'm really not concerned about the actual neighborhood.


Your concerns about the safety of your neighborhood may be quite different from the people who look to buy your home, next. We will keep this one short--- but please be sure to do your due diligence to find out about police reports and criminal activity from the website of the city in which the home is!

5.) Those strange neighbors will probably move before we ever have to sell.

But what if they don't? And you're hard pressed to find people just as open-minded as you to come move in next door to them? We'll keep this one short... you get the point!

 

Now, now... we don't tell you these things to stress you out! Remember, YOU ARE BUYING THE HOME... so of course it should be something you enjoy and meets all of your NEEDS and at least a good portion of your WANTS. But we definitely "keep it real" here at The Perfect House Team--- so we want to keep this type of stuff in the forefront of your mind, as it's something we talk with ALL of our clients about!

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know!


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