Real Estate: The frustration of today’s home buying

By Richie Vraux

We are living in a time where we as Realtors’ have a gazillion buyers looking to buy into the American Dream of owning their home. They want to buy a new home but are living in a time of low inventory.

Last week my buyers placed an offer on a property and after the deadline expired, we learned that there were 22 offers that were submitted on this property we lost to another bidder. Our offer was way over the asking price and also offered an escalation addendum up to $50,000 over that price and we still lost.

It is very frustrating for buyers, but don’t lose sight of your goal, your turn will come. Stick it out. You eventually will win. Be patient. Listen to your real estate agent, he will guide you to success. He will offer you the best advice for your given situation.

After you know what your mortgage lender has approved you for, ask your agent to leave a window, to add an escalation addendum to your offer with a higher cap value to boost your offer.

Of course, your agent will advise you every step of the way. I have never seen more escalation addendums added to offers than in the past few years.

There are many other issues buyers then experience after their offer has been accepted.

Some of these include inspections of the house. Your agent will offer you a list of local home inspectors to choose from to check this home for defects including: all systems of the house, electrical, plumbing, roof, chimney, appliances, septic system, etc.

Unless you are paying cash for your home, the lender will require an appraisal to see if the bank is protected in their investment and to make sure there are no safety issues that would be excluded based on the type of loan you were approved for.

Once the inspections have satisfied the buyers, and the appraisal has been completed, then it goes to the bank’s underwriting team. There it gets bank approved and if the house’s title is clear, the bank gets a clear signal to close. Hooray! You are almost there.

There will then be some closing costs that were not part of the contract that you should know before closing.

Make sure the house’s heating fuel is paid for. Who pays for it? This should have been part of the initial sales contract.

Also make sure you know if there is a homeowners or neighborhood association that requires membership fees. Who maintains the road? Is there trash pick-up by the town or do you take it yourself to the dump? Ask these and any other questions you may have before you leave the closing table.

Good luck in purchasing your new home. <

Richie Vraux is a local Broker/ Realtor (Raymond) with over 25 years of experience in Real Estate and licensed in the in the state of Maine - Better Homes and Gardens- The Masiello Group in Windham. You can reach Richie at 207-317-1297 or by sending an email to richardjvraux@gmail.com