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Home Buying Real Estate in Port Angeles and Sequim

The Secret to Buying a Home

Chuck Marunde by Chuck Marunde
September 20, 2019
Reading Time: 3 mins read
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Is there a secret to buying a home?  I think there is.  It’s something that I have been observing in buyers for over three decades, and I realized that the conversations that I have been having with hundreds of buyers have included a very important element.  I’m not suggesting there is only one secret or a single key or magic wand that will answer all your questions about which home to buy.  Life is not that simple, and neither is buying real estate, but there is one thing that can give you the experience of hundreds of buyers just like you, and I thought I would share that today.

Secret to Buying a Home

The Secret to Buying a Home

I’m assuming that you’ve searched online and looked at many homes and as you searched, you narrowed your search parameters so you would get a better list of potential homes based on your personal preferences.  You should narrow the list to a short list of 6 to 12 homes.  Once you have your short list of homes to view, how do you filter and sort those mentally and emotionally so you can narrow that down to “The One?”  I think you’ll find this to be a valid secret to buying a home.

The Secret to Buying a Home is the Right Conversation

Here it is.  You and your spouse should be discussing the homes with your real estate agent as you look at the homes. You should discuss the good features, the best features, and the negatives or the less attractive features of the homes. At the end of the day, you should have a conversation about all of the homes, review again the positives and negatives, but here is where the value is in this conversation, or what I’m calling the secret to buying a home. Of course you want to talk about the exciting features, the positives, but it’s not the positive features that help you filter your list from several homes to only one.  The positive features keep homes on the list.  It’s the negative features that will help you filter and eliminate the homes you should not buy.  

The Secret to Buying a Home – Negatives

The negative features a home does have are what you must pay attention to.  If you bring up a bad feature or something that could be a problem, don’t let your Realtor brush it off or diminish the effect it may have.  Some Realtors will downplay a potential problem or suggest something simple you could do to overcome it.  That will not help you.  My suggestion that has helped hundreds of buyers is not to avoid the problem or diminish it, but to embrace it in the conversation.  Talk about it, and talk about how bad it could be.

If there is a potential drainage problem on the property, talk about the implications.  If there the house is very old, talk about the implications of old wiring in the walls and the potential fire hazard that might present.  How much would it cost to completely re-wire the home?  Would it be worth it?  What about plumbing?  If the home has a roof that may need to be replaced, discuss the full costs of a new composition shingle roof or whatever type of roof it is.  If one house is new and is in perfect condition and is move-in ready, and another house is a 1968 home that needs substantial upgrades and remodeling, compare apples with apples by adding the costs of all the improvements in the one home with the one that is move-in ready.  You might find the newer home is less expensive and comes with a lot less stress and less uncertainty.  In other words, don’t avoid problems and end up with a nightmare later.  Flush them out now, and intelligently discuss the pros and cons for each house.

Believe it or not, when you go through this process with each other and with your real estate agent, you will find the question of which home to buy answers itself, and you will be comfortable with the answer.  You end up with one home left on your list.  And you look at each other and just smile.  For hundreds of buyers this really has been the secret to buying a home.

Last Updated on September 20, 2019 by Chuck Marunde

Tags: Buying a Home
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Chuck Marunde

Chuck Marunde

Chuck grew up in remote Alaska, graduated from the University of Alaska with a degree in Economics and Teacher Certification, and after teaching high school for two years, went to law school at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He served four years as a Captain and JAG in the USAF at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. After practicing real estate law for 20 years in Washington, Chuck founded iRealty Virtual Brokers covering Sequim and the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. He is the author of 2,200 real estate articles and a dozen real estate books, and he produced over 100 real estate videos. Chuck combined his love for real estate and technology to create a massive Internet presence, and his articles and videos and books have been viewed by millions. Chuck is a well recognized real estate expert and his counsel is sought by other brokers and practicing attorneys around the country. Buyers from New York to Hawaii and from Florida to Alaska seek him out to retain him as their buyer's agent, and home owners around the State of Washington seek him out because of his new Flat Fee Listing Service. 

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iRealty Virtual Brokers

iRealty Virtual Brokers reaches out to buyers around the United States with thousands of online articles, MLS sites, apps, real estate books, videos, and much more specifically to help buyers find all the answers to their questions. We also now offer a flat fee commission listing service that saves sellers tens of thousands of dollars.

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  • Home
  • Search MLS
    • Sequim MLS
    • Sequim MLS Map Search
    • Port Angeles MLS
    • Port Townsend MLS
    • San Juan Islands MLS
    • All Islands MLS
    • How to Search the Sequim MLS
  • Videos
    • Sequim Videos Q&A
    • Buyer Videos Part 1
    • Buyer Videos Part 2
    • Buyer Videos Part 3
    • Buyer Videos Part 4
    • Living in Sequim Video Channel
  • Books
    • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
    • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
    • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
      • Menu Below
    • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
    • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
    • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
    • Buying Your Retirement Home
    • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
  • Agents
    • Professional Buyer’s Agent
    • Flat Fee Listing Broker

© 2006-2022 iRealty Virtual Brokers and Chuck Marunde

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