New Blog Feature – Best Buy Series

by Karen Goodman on June 1, 2009

j0430674 New Blog Feature Best Buy Series I’ve been thinking about featuring a Best Buy series for a while now.

Buyers often get overwhelmed by the large number of available homes. My goal is to identify the top 3 homes for specific areas/price ranges so that buyers looking in those areas don’t have to sort through hundreds of listings to get started.

Best Buy Series Overview:

So here is the plan. On a regular basis (hopefully 2-4 times per month), I will post a Best Buys list for a particular community and price range. The majority of my Best Buys posts will be in the following communities:

St. Louis City – South City, Tower Grove, Shaw, Soulard, Lafayette Square, Central West End
Brentwood
Clayton
Maplewood
Richmond Heights
Kirkwood
Webster Groves
University City

I’m sure that I’ll occasionally toss in some other areas, but my goal is to focus on the more popular neighborhoods of St. Louis City and affordably priced older inner ring suburbs.

Important Details:

In order to provide an objective list without any possibility of a conflict of interest, none of the homes in my Best Buys lists will be my own listings.

If I happen to have a listing in the area, I will mention it in the post, but I won’t advertise it as a Best Buy…even though my goal is to have every one of my listings be a best buy in their price range!

Choosing the Best Buy Homes:

The process I will be using to select the Best Buy homes will be:

Select an area and price range
Review all of the active MLS listings and identify the Best Buy candidates
Preview the Best Buy candidates
Review comps for the Best Buy finalists to make sure that the homes are priced appropriately
Obtain permission from the listing agent to advertise the home on this blog along with using some of their posted MLS pictures

Fine Print:

Foreclosures and short sales will be excluded from my Best Buy lists. Both are normally sold as-is (seller to make no repairs). They are usually in fair to poor condition and short sales can take several months before the seller’s bank decides if they will accept a payoff that is less than what the seller owes. Though these homes can be great buys for the right buyer, I find that most buyers are not really prepared to deal with the repairs and uncertainty that comes with purchasing a foreclosure or short sale.

My experience from working with hundreds of buyers is that every buyer cares about different things. One of my buyers needed a large unfinished basement for an extensive model train setup. Another needed garage space for a boat. Many more had needs related to specific furniture that they owned – large bedroom sets, long dining room tables, large screen TVs and work-out equipment.

The homes that I select for the Best Buy lists will meet the needs of the typical buyer. I will focus on condition, updates, rooms sizes, floor plan layout, extra features, yard and location. Of course, the homes on the Best Buys list are really only best buys if they meet your needs. If you are a buyer and would like assistance in finding a home that is not only a best buy, but also meets your specific needs, contact me for more information about my buyer representation services.

I will be doing a basic review of the sold comps to ensure that the Best Buys homes are not highly overpriced. Since most sellers are open to negotiation, I won’t be excluding homes that would be slightly overpriced if a buyer paid the full listing price. I also won’t be specifically targeting homes that are underpriced. Before making an offer on any home, buyers should have a thorough comps analysis completed to determine the appropriate purchase price.