| @ -0,0 +1,15 @@ | |||||
| Every few years the housing market rewrites the rules, and buyers who learned the last set of rules show up unprepared for the new ones. Right now, the rules have changed more than they have at any point in a generation. The buyers who understand that are finding deals. The ones who do not are making expensive mistakes. | |||||
| The arithmetic here is brutal and worth understanding clearly. A buyer who financed a $400,000 home at three percent in 2021 pays roughly $1,686 per month on principal and interest. That same loan at a seven percent rate costs $2,661. Those numbers explain why the market froze rather than crashed when rates moved higher. Volume collapsed. Prices mostly did not. | |||||
| Louella is a name you might hear from a lot of agents right now, because the buyers getting deals done tend to know exactly what they want and why. That is not a personality trait. It is a preparation habit. | |||||
| Your credit score affects your rate more directly than most buyers realize. Moving your score up by 40 points before you apply can be worth more than months of rate watching. If your score has room to improve, give yourself three to six months to work on it before you begin in earnest. | |||||
| If the report surfaces findings that change the financial picture of the deal, you have real choices, and walking away is a legitimate one of them. You can request a credit against the purchase price to handle repairs yourself. The one thing to avoid is accepting everything uncritically because you are afraid of losing the deal. | |||||
| The offer price is one variable among several. A longer closing window, a shorter inspection period, a larger earnest money deposit, or willingness to do a rent-back period can all tip a deal in your favor without you spending an extra dollar on the purchase price. | |||||
| The timing question, whether to buy now or wait for a better moment, is the one that trips up more buyers than any other single factor. The record on market timing for owner-occupied housing is not encouraging. The more useful question is not whether now is the right time in the abstract; it is whether you can carry the payment without strain. | |||||
| Real estate rewards preparation more than it rewards timing. The market does not wait for the ideal moment, and neither should buyers who have done the work. A look at [real estate listings and pricing data](https://bulaliving-realestate.com) in your target area costs nothing and tells you a great deal. | |||||