Every buyer needs a real estate agent working on their behalf.
A good buyer’s agent should not only be skilled at negotiations and solving problems that can derail a contract, but should also be willing to tell their client to walk away from a house and keep looking.
Are you Ready for Future Expenses?
Melissa was a first-time home buyer. She found a cute little home that she really liked. The price was a bit of a stretch for her, but she really liked the house and decided to move forward.
She made an offer and we negotiated until we got a deal that she liked.
Then I helped her arrange inspections.
The inspections found typical issues you’ll find with every home, and we certainly could have gotten to the sellers to address the major problems.
The big concern was the home inspection revealed all of the major systems were really old. The roof, air conditioner, and furnace all would need to be replaced in the next few years. We asked the seller to give Melissa a credit to help her pay for the upcoming costs, and they said no.
I’m not surprised that they didn’t agree, since sellers rarely fix things that are old but not currently broken. They offered a home protection plan, and said that should be enough. The listing agent kept pushing me to talk Melissa into moving forward. Since home protection plans have plenty of exclusions, I couldn’t promise Melissa that all of the items would be covered (and roofs are never covered by home warranties!).
So, my buyer and I had a candid conversation, and I encouraged her to walk-away.
She didn’t have the money in the bank to replace these items if they weren’t covered by the home protection plan. Every homeowner needs to be prepared for some unexpected expenses, but with this house, odds were just too high that expensive repairs would be needed soon.
Instead, we started looking again for another house.
She was getting discouraged, but I kept telling her we would find her house eventually. The last time we went out looking at homes she picked out 4 homes to see after work. I suggested we add one more…we had time. We added one I suggested even though it was a few blocks farther from work than she wanted to be.
Can you guess what happened?
She bought the house I suggested. The house had everything she wanted, with no big looming repairs in the next few years. She decided it wasn’t really too far.
And 12 years later, she still lives in that house.
Could I have talked her into buying the 1st house?
Probably. But it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.
Sometimes watching out for someone’s best interests means telling them to walk away.
When you are ready to make your next purchase, make sure you have a buyer’s agent who will do what is best for you!