8 Common Mistakes or Misconceptions When Buying A Home Using the Internet
If you are in the home purchase process, please use CAUTION because what you see and read on the internet is not always correct. I’m not saying never use the internet when buying a home but using some of the tools can provide inaccurate information.
8 COMMON MISTAKES OR MISCONCEPTIONS WHEN BUYING A HOME USING THE INTERNET IN GRAND FORKS & EAST GRAND FORKS
1. Using the Agent You Met with an Internet Inquiry.
One of the most important steps when buying a home is hiring a quality buyer’s agent. If you are looking for someone to watch out for your best interest, make sure you interview several agents to find the best fit. It is strange to think that many home buyers do NOT interview agents, however, home sellers DO interview several before choosing the one for them. The same should go for home buyers as this may be the largest purchase of your life.
It is common that many buyers use an agent because they contacted them after making an internet inquiry on Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com. What many first time home buyers do not understand is those agents reaching out PAY an exorbitant amount of money to those companies and experience does not matter. Heck, those agents on those sites may not even have sold 1 home.
Just keep in mind when using the internet for your home buying search that you don’t hire the agent solely because they reached out to you first. You can contact the agent and get information from them regarding a home but do not feel rushed to hire that specific agent.
2. Believing the Automatic Home Valuations
If you are a home buyer and searching the popular websites, you may have seen the home value estimates or “zestimates”. These valuations are often inaccurate and pull in data from all the real estate sales in the country, city or development.
When it comes time to make an offer on a property, make sure your agent does a market analysis to determine the best price to offer on the purchase agreement. There are certain statistics a buyer agent will research and review prior to making an offer. Buyers should heavily lean on their buyer’s agent to guide them to the best price to offer. However, it is the buyer’s ultimate decision to put down the price they want.
3. Finding Homes on Inaccurate Websites
Some of you may not like this…NOT EVERYTHING ON THE INTERNET IS TRUE or ACCURATE! Crazy, I know. There are hundreds of websites to search for homes. The internet is a great tool for searching for homes. However, there are websites that say homes are in “pre-foreclosure” when the homes are not. I have been called by home owners asking how to get inaccurate information from their home removed from the world wide web.
There are some very popular websites being used that MORE OFTEN THAN NOT ARE WRONG! If you are searching for a home, word of advice, use your buyer agents website or the brokerage website or app.
Sometimes there are homes that a have sold MONTHS ago and still are on the web because the owner who listed the home doesn’t know how to remove it.
If you are looking for homes for sale in the northern Red River Valley, you can use my website, MyGrandCities.com.
4. Using Mortgage Calculators
This is a great tool. Especially for first time homebuyers to know how much your monthly payment would be. However, the online internet calculators many times do not have all the monthly expenses.
If you are looking for the most accurate mortgage payment and estimated closing costs, a local lender will be the best to answer that question. They will include the monthly amount for taxes, home owners insurance and, if in an association, the HOA fee.
It is VERY important to get the most accurate information from your lender as your debt to income ratio can make or break your home purchase selection.
5. Using an Online Lender
If you’d like to have your deal fall apart, not happen at all, or miss out on some great funding options (ex. ND start funds) use an online lender.
The online companies have fantastic marketing schemes to attract home buyers. One example, ‘get approved in 5 minutes! ‘ There is NO WAY a lender can pre-approve a buyer in 5 minutes.
It would be best to meet with a local lender and get a mortgage underwriter to verify your financial information. Buying a home is a process. It takes time and patience. A local lender will know the market conditions, programs and contacts to find information if it is needed.
6. Taxes and Specials Might Be Missing or Inaccurate
One thing that is unique to the Grand Forks market is the tax credits that are given to home owners. The public tax records may show a certain amount of tax on a property but it will NOT state if the taxes have a new construction tax abatement, senior citizen discount or a disable Veteran tax credit.
Also, specials. Specials are “special” to our market. These are the infrastructure costs that go into developing a neighborhood or repairing or updating – water mains, street lighting, sewer lines, paved streets, etc. The costs are assessed back onto each property in our market. However, some developments have deferred specials for a certain amount of time. The deferred amount of specials are not posted on a public website. The buyer’s agent or buyer needs to call the County Tax Assessor and City Finance Department to track down deferred and pending specials on each property.
7. Previous Home Sales May Be Wrong
This is VERY common in the Grand Forks market. There is a popular website that pulled home sales from 1997, yes that’s right, I’ll say it again. There is a very popular website that pulled home sales from 1997 and said the home sold in the past couple of years.
This is a concern to a home buyer because home valuations from 1997 were a lot lower than they are nowadays. Even when I explain this HUGE issue with that website to the homebuyer I’m not sure I am believed.
SO PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET. Ask questions to a professional to get answers.
8. Photos Look Too Good To Be True
The era of COVID has forced agents to market homes a little differently and virtually enhanced staged photos is one thing I have seen more agents use. Pink/purple skies, freshly painted rooms, furniture in the all the right spots. You call your real estate agent to schedule a showing. You show up for the showing and then the world comes crashing down. The home that looked too good to be true has peeling paint on the exterior, dry rot all over, smells like pets, garbage everywhere and every room needs to be painted.
DO NOT FALL for the digitally altered photos. Ask your agent if they have seen the home or have more information to share about the house.
SO PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET. Ask questions to a professional to get answers.
If you are thinking about buying a home, want more information on the Grand Forks, North Dakota or East Grand Forks, Minnesota real estate market, let’s schedule a buyer consult or grab a cup of coffee. And I also like phone calls so please do not hesitate to contact me (Kimmy).
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