BUYING A HOME, BUYERS TIPS

Making that Great Deal in the Desert

All homes for sale in the desert are just as different as the communities in which they are situated. And just as the homes are unique, so is Sebastian Gibson Properties. Great Deals Get Done here at SGP.

At Sebastian Gibson Properties in the desert area we use in-house legal counsel to review your paperwork and to oversee negotiations. And unlike many other real estate brokerages, we are marketing specialists. To back that up, Sebastian Gibson Properties has its own advertising division.

So take your time, search through the MLS Property Search which we offer to you to browse for your new home at your leisure. Take your shoes off, have a mint julep, and find the dream home you've been looking for. If you have questions or would like to know more about a property for sale, simply send us an e-mail.

Also, if you would like our assistance, we can help you get approved for your loan. Once you have your loan in place, you have negotiating leverage and that's golden when looking for new homes for sale in this market.

When you are ready to put your own home for sale in the market, we'll be pleased to provide you with a free Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of similar properties in your neighborhood at no charge. Again, simply fill in the easy e-mail form for the Comparative Market Analysis.

We look forward to being the best real estate agent or broker you'll ever have.

Choosing the Right Community for Your Home in the Palm Springs Desert Area

Which area to choose? Where should you look for a new home for sale? That's the dilemma sometimes. If you want one of the hottest areas right now, you may want to look at homes in Rancho Mirage or La Quinta.

If you want value, you may wish to consider parts of Indio, Coachella or Desert Hot Springs to find the perfect home for sale.

For the community close to all of the best shopping, it's Palm Desert hands down for your new home. Its Indian Wells where you should look for your new home for sale if you want to be close to the Tennis Gardens and new shopping areas in the works.

Palm Springs still has its charm and entire neighborhoods of houses are being remodeled and these homes are going up in price quickly.

And if you simply want to find a home for sale without the sticker shock of Los Angeles or Orange County in a pleasant and not too pricey corner of the valley, you may want to consider looking at homes in Cathedral City, or Bermuda Dunes.

One of our agents or our broker can point you further in the right direction based on your desires and the price range you have in mind for your new home.

If you've given up looking for real estate in Los Angeles or Orange County and aren't impressed with the houses for sale in the Inland Empire, we think you'll be thrilled to see the prices of homes for sale in the Coachella Valley and how fast the real estate market is rising here.

How to Make that Great Deal for a Home in the Desert Area

There's an art to completing the Residential Purchase Contract for the purchase of a new home and we like people to appreciate our artwork. There's much more to making an offer than simply choosing the right opening price for a home for sale.

First we'll give you a comparative market analysis to show you what homes are selling for in the area of the community you have chosen. Next we'll advise whether in our opinion the house that interests you in the community is over or under-priced. We'll then help you determine how close or far from that home listing price you should come with your purchase offer.

As you may know, it is common to provide a good faith deposit, commonly 2% to 3% of the offered price for a home. But if there is a likelihood that other offers are coming in at the same time as yours with a similar good faith deposit for a home for sale, you may want to consider some additional enticements to make your offer for that home stand out head and shoulders above the rest.

Once you've signed a Buyer's Agreement, we'll tell you a few of the secrets that can make your offer the winning offer for the property you've chosen and how you may be able to obtain it for less than you expected.

Things Not to Do Before Buying Your Home

Don't go transferring large sums of your money from account to another account or from one bank to another to another. Loan underwriters are naturally suspicious people. Talk to your loan officer about your circumstances before you make large withdrawals and affect your ability to buy a new home.

Don't change your job, unless its for a lot more money.

Don't make large purchases that will affect your after expense money for your monthly house payment. Something called debt-to-income ratio will be affected which could affect your ability to swing a loan (loan officers tell us that the formula for this was actually developed by Einstein).

Don't buy a new car unless the monthly payment is close to your current monthly payment, and with the price of gasoline, a car that will save you some of your hard-earned money at the gas pump.

Don't go to Vegas now. Save your trips for after your home purchase. Don't forget, you may still need to buy furniture, drapes, flooring, and a Christmas present for your broker.

Negotiating Tools In The Purchase Of Your New Home

Separate your emotion from the house that you want to buy and look for the flaws - all houses have at least a couple, and you should be able to spot the ones that may save you a few thousand even before the expert inspections begin.

The biggest cost saver could be the person telling you about the house. If the seller of a home is desperate because he needs to sell his house or because he will lose out on another home he has put an offer in on, you may be in luck.

The second biggest cost saver could be the house seller's agent. If the real estate agent has misplayed his hand by setting the price of the home too high or too low, that can also be to your advantage, especially if the house has been on the market awhile. And if the real estate seller's agent tells your agent within five minutes that the seller will drop his price for a quick sale, your Sebastian Gibson Properties agent or broker will know how to take advantage of the other real estate agent's admissions and will work with you to formulate a winning strategy to obtain this house at a price that is rock bottom for the market.

Now take a close look at the small things on the property you wish to buy. Sure, the state of the yards is important as is the state of the floors, the ceiling, the walls, and the yards. But how about the garage? It is in need of painting? Are those stains on the concrete that you can't live without extracting a price from the seller to paint? What's the state of the toilets? The drawers? The door handles? The doors themselves? And is that a dog that you smell on the carpet, or second hand smoke?

Is the home seller trying to tell you that the improvements he or she made to the house add the same amount of dollars to the value of the house that they spent? Don't believe it. While a pool will cost more money to build today, pools that are old need repair work and sometimes have to be dug up completely due to a shift in the land.

What was that you heard on the financial news? A passing comment to the seller that you heard the market is turning or the use of the word "bubble" just may be enough to give the seller apoplexy and add some clout to your "sympathy" offer.

Remember, you need to leave emotion out of your offers. Your first home purchase offer should never be your final offer for the home. And if the selling price of the home is too good to be true, it probably is still too high given what can and should be discovered about the property. Is that mold that you smell?

Lose the battles but win the war. If the two sides are at an impasse with the offers and counter-offers, throw a bone to the other side. Pay for something you wouldn't ordinarily pay for. Then ask for a show of good faith back. If your bone was the smallest one in the doggy dish, perhaps you can pick out one for yourself that is a little bigger. Like a reduction in the price of the home.

Remember, the size of your "earnest money" deposit is also a negotiating chip in the purchase of a home for sale. While normally you do not want to risk a substantial amount in your offer, a deposit larger than the norm may result in the seller accepting your lower offer for his or her home if he or she has doubts as to the ability of another buyer to obtain the financing.

If, on the other hand, you are the only buyer for the home and you don't have a sufficient down payment to obtain financing, your Sebastian Gibson Properties real estate agent or broker can approach the seller of the home for sale or the home seller's agent about financing part of the down payment or to carry back a second mortgage and possibly to help you lower your interest rate on the purchase of your new home.

Things You May Need To Do To Buy Your New Home

Your Sebastian Gibson Properties agent or broker can help you with questions such as who pays which of the closing costs, who pays for inspections, what else in the house you should be getting (does that barbeque come with the house?), what repairs you should ask the seller to perform on his house, which escrow and title company would be best to use, and what home warranty is best.

But you may also need other contingencies to be included in your offer. You want to make sure you can obtain a sufficient loan at an affordable rate. The home you are buying needs to appraise for at least what you are paying for it. You need to be able to walk away from this real estate deal if the property doesn't pass the inspections.

You need one thing for certain, a firm closing date. You need to make plans, the seller needs to make plans. Choose a date that is the earliest possible date convenient to you and if the home seller is agreeable, your Sebastian Gibson Properties agent or broker will put it into the real estate contract.

With interest rates rising you also may need to indicate in your offer the highest rate of interest you can afford in your purchase of this new home. The offer can be written such that if the rates exceed your glass ceiling on interest rates, you can cancel the real estate purchase without penalty.

Disclosures And Non-Disclosures, the Stuff of Lawsuits

Many sellers think that if they aren't asked about something, they don't need to tell you something. So ask about everything, including why the seller is moving. Is there a yapping dog next door to the home, crying babies on the other side of the house? What happens when it rains in this neighborhood? Has the roof on the home had to be repaired? Why? When? How many times? What was done to repair it? Who performed the repairs? What materials were used? Did the repairmen say that a new roof for the house was needed? Did they say if it is going to leak again the next time it rains? Get the entire picture. Once you have that seller in your hands, keep shaking him until things stop falling out of his inside vest.

If you are bad at asking things about a house, your Sebastian Gibson Properties agent or broker isn't. But even the best agent or broker can be fooled by a deceptive seller. That's why we strongly recommend that you utilize home inspection by a professional. The report you receive can be worth its weight in beluga caviar. A good home inspection report will give you clout and the ability to require additional repairs on the house that you might otherwise have been stuck with if the problems did not surface for some time.

No one wants to buy a new house with a lawsuit on the side. Learn about the problems of the house you are interested in now and ask the seller to fix them, not after you've bought the house and have to pay a lawyer to achieve the same result at a much larger cost.

Disclaimers and Other Legal Mumbo Jumbo

Our in-house attorney is available to answer your questions about your home purchase, however, because real estate transactions require full disclosure of things such as defects, there is no confidentiality available in your discussions with our real estate attorney. We also recommend you consult with your tax advisor for tax questions and other considerations involved with your home purchase. None of the advice offered in this brief discussion constitutes a guarantee, and since all real estate is unique, advice which may be applicable to one transaction may not be applicable to another real estate sale. If you have questions, or simply want a beer and some aspirin after reading this disclaimer, we don't blame you one bit.

Call the Realtors at Sebastian Gibson Properties at (800) 589-3202

if you are buying or selling your house.