asginvestments.com

Buying a home is the one of the largest investments most people will make in their life. There are many emotions and feelings that come into play when it’s time to make this decision from excitement to anxiety, fear and nervousness. Therefore there are a few things you need to make sure you are aware of to make this process as smooth as possible and make the overall experience a memorable one. Use our list of commonly made housing mistakes to avoid any regrets.

1. Doing it alone – Buying a home is a complex transaction involving many complex pieces such as the sales contract, inspection, title search, insurance, escrow, etc. This is not a journey that anyone should ever take alone regardless if this is your first home or your fifth home. Form your dependable team of family, friends and professionals, while the ultimate decision will remain with you it is good to get the opinion and advice of those you respect.
2. Buying at first sight – You may walk into a property and fall in love with it at first site and are 100% positive that this is the one. Don’t make that decision to quickly, make a list of your family needs, budget, and family wants then make sure that the house can accommodate these needs. You may have to sacrifice some things to get others but it should overall fit you and your family. Don’t forget to check out the neighborhood and the community before you buy, visit at different times of the day and the week to learn about noise, traffic problems and patterns. Regardless if you have kids or not check out the schools they play a huge part in your resale value.
3. Not getting pre-qualified and pre-approved – Being pre-qualified gives you a sense of how much you can afford if you are doing traditional lending. Being pre-approved means a lender has verified your information and will provide you with financing for a specific amount of money.
4. Overbuying – You may qualify for more, but can you afford to. You must take into account all your other expenses. Analyze your monthly obligations like debt, food, transportation, entertainment, savings, and miscellaneous and emergency.  The general rule used is to try and keep your mortgage payment to about 36% of your income before taxes. Don’t forget that you need to budget money for closing cost (typically 2% - 5% of your homes purchase price), plus moving expenses, decorating and maintenance. You should also allow for increase in bills like utilities and taxes.
5. Misplacing your trust – No matter how much you like the people you are working with or the fact that someone vouched for them, you must remember that this is a business transaction. Do your research as well
6. Relying on oral agreements - Make no mistake a written agreement will always trump a verbal one. No matter who you are dealing with you do not have a contract until it’s written on paper.
7. Skipping the fine print – Make sure you understand everything that you are signing before you pick up the pen. Take time to read the documents and ask questions. Always get copies of your mortgage papers.
8. Forgetting or betting on resale – Avoid buying a home that cost 50% more than neighboring homes and think buying the most expensive home on the block is a cool thing. This is not a good thing the lower home values affects your value and remember markets change.  It is important to buy your home at the correct home value.
9. Making an unconditional offer – Protect yourself from taking a house as is. You should always want to get a home inspection done on your home regardless if it is brand new or existing. Make sure that you can get adequate home insurance, and don’t forget that if you are doing traditional financing the lender will want an official appraisal done before they provide funds.
10. Having buyer’s remorse – Remember that no place is perfect. It’s a guarantee that you will get some surprises in your home. Don’t let these little blips spoil the entire ride and certainly don’t miss a great house trying to find the perfect house!

ASG Investments certainly loves working with home buyers to make this process as simple and smooth as possible. We have a large selection of homes to choose from and our staff is highly trained and experienced with working with first time home buyers to experienced home shoppers.

We have many financing options to choose from and we are sure we have one that can get you into a home today. Don’t wait any longer, the time is right now to buy call us 1-888-210-6134 or email us at Info@asginvestments.com

Because of the nature of real estate the trends that exist within it move and change much slower than other markets. Real estate trends tend to get moving in one direction for long periods of time until they reach a “Bubble” (as it’s commonly being called right now). When this inflection point is reached the balance of power changes, the other side of the table begins to realize that they are now the ones holding the cards and setting the rules. There usually are some big problems for the participants involved when these changes begin to take place, that problem… They usually don’t realize the changes are occurring. For instance in a seller’s market it usually takes a homeowner a year or two to realize and accept that the buyer is actually back in control now and that they must adapt their expectations and price to the buyers.

2006 was the height of the last seller’s bubble, where sellers were holding all the chips. The agent’s job was simple and there was no need for a marketing strategy other than list it on the MLS. Pricing the house for the realtor was really simple; look at the recent comparables and price their listing about 5% to 10% higher than the last one that sold. Then they sat back as bidding wars started and many offers came in above the already inflated asking price.  The belief was that prices were going to continue to go up and no matter what price a buyer purchased the house at it would be worth more very shortly afterwards. The laws of supply and demand are no exception here and since houses were in huge demand with little supply prices continued to increase.

This frenzy continued its course and buyers bought, and as they did the pool of qualified buyers shrank. Home prices remained inflated and a surplus of homes began to enter the market. Top this off with a shrinking pool of qualified buyers and soon sellers are forced to bring prices down. They must adjust realizing that those who could buy have already done so and there are fewer buyers on the market.

What we are currently in is without a doubt a buyer’s market; sellers are now competing with one another to get the attention of any buyer who is looking to buy a home. This causes home prices to drop, closing cost to be paid in full by seller; we have even seen cases where sellers agree to pay two months mortgage payments to us in order to off load the property. This is the time when many part-time real estate agents drop out the game, and those with experience are challenged with having sellers accept the reality that they are not going to get top dollar for their home right now.  Failure for a realtor to correctly educate their seller simply ends up wasting both parties time.

Sellers must realize in a buyer’s market getting top dollar for their property is highly unlikely, regardless of what comparable sales come in at, a buyer simply does not have to pay top dollar in this market. Even harder to accept for some sellers is if their home has some negatives such as repairs, outdated rooms, lack of curb appeal, etc they can expect offers 15% or more lower than recent comps. If a seller is stubborn in their way they will be stuck with the property, simply put there is no amount of marketing that is going to convince a buyer to overpay in a buyer’s market.

P.S. If you are a seller who really wants to sell your house don’t hesitate to call us today 1-888-210-6134.

P.S.S You can email us for more information at info@asginvestments.com

P.S.S: Buyers if you are ready to take advantage of the 2008 Housing Tax Credit and receive your $8,000.00 you need to call us today! @ 1-888-210-6134 or sign up here to get the free special report http://www.asginvestments.com/buyer-welcome.htm

People are always asking us how are we able to come up with such fantastic numbers for properties, especially with what is going on in the market today.

The secret answer is very obvious, its the negotiations of the deal that are essential to any deal being successful. Negotiations are as important to real estate as Payton Manning is to the Indianapolis Colts (little football fever kicking in here). Many people, myself included use to think that this meant you needed to be “slick of tounge” to be god at negotiations. The real fact is that we all use negotiations everyday of our lives. Husband and wife will negotiate on who is stopping to pick up dinner for tonight while the other gets the dry cleaning. Children negotiate with parents to get the latest pair of Niki shoes or newest Playstation video game.

The simple truth is that everyone does it, whether we realize it or not we are doing it. Now some people are a little better than others at it but that is just because they make an effort to practice at it. In real estate there is NO WAY AROUND IT you must be good at negotiating to be successful. With that said we wanted to pass along a few quick tips to what makes for a successful negotiation.

1.) LISTEN - This is the number one step and the most critical step if you get this one wrong you are waisting your time. You must learn not to talk, so that you can LISTEN to what the other side has to say. Only by listening can you access what their “motivating factor” is for wanting to sell. NEVER ever assume you already know what they want, instead… SHUT UP listen to what they have to say and as you are told what their problems are you can then begin to formulate successful solutions to solve their most important problems. I can not emphasize enough how critical this first step is, if you get it wrong, the deal will fail!

2.) ASK - OK so now you have been silent for sometime now listening to what they have to say (and if you are like me being silent for long periods of time is not easy, as Shonda if I am ever not talking) Now after you listen to their problems you now need to confirm what their BIGGEST problem is with the property. You do this simply by asking, no need to beat around the bush, just ask them, even if they told you before, ask them again because this subconsciously causes them to reiterate it the reason why the must sell the property. The more times they remember why they MUST get rid of this property, the lower your price can go.

3.) VERIFY (aka ASK THEM AGAIN) - The idea here is to again remind them of the terrible problem they have with this property, and then you want to make sure they understand that you can help them by them selling your the property that is causing them all the grief and headaches. Sometimes you may have to help with “other” problems in order to get them to sell you the property in that case ask them “If I help you with that problem, will you sell me this house?”

4.) SHUT YOUR MOUTH! - Once you have a person that has agreed to sell you the house, there is NO NEED or REASON to continue to try and sell yourself or the benefits of working with you. You have done what you came to do. At this point change the topic, If you want them to become more comfortable with you and trust you more, then start to relate to them in other areas of thier life, not on the home anymore, you have already done that by getting them to go with your plan.