Should I Buy A House Now ?
(The Conclusion: Absolutely Not !)
(Wait Out This Horrible Buyers Market and Make a Safe and Secure Financial Decision)
 
 
Yes
#1- If money is no object and you can afford to pay $50,000 or more over asking price and can afford to completely remodel and upgrade everything.
 
#2- Interest rates are 2.5%, as low as they will ever be.
 
No
#1- You will be buying a house for way more than it is worth just to get it. And it will most likely not be the home you really wanted.
 
#2- When the market corrects itself, and that will happen, you will have a house you can’t sell or you will take a sizable loss because you paid too much for it in the first place.
 
#3- You will be talked out of having a home inspection, chimney inspection, radon testing, pool inspection, and most likely a mortgage contingency to get a house you are paying too much for.
 
#4- You will be given bad advice. Some people in the sales process will be giving you home inspection advice which is not in your best interest and will be tied to their own commission and livelihood.
 
#5- Once you buy a house you will most likely discover many defects you wished you knew before buying it. And these items and upgrades will cost you much more money than you have. Such as; needing a new roof, HVAC, foundation problems, and much more.
 
#6- There is not many homes to choose from because the current inventory of homes for sale is way low. You may not be able to find what you need or want.
 
#7- If the home you finally buy is occupied, you may not be able to get the homeowner of tenants out when you close because the government has a moratorium on evictions in place. This situation may be a huge struggle for you to gain access to the property and there is not a guarantee the property will be in habitable condition when you do.
 
#8- The house may not appraise anywhere near what you paid for it and you would be asked to make up the difference by contract.
 
#9- You may not be able to get homeowners insurance or the insurance company will drop you when they do an inspection of the property, leaving you stuck without insurance.
 
#10- The price of lumber is out of sight, meaning any repairs or improvements will cost much more than they normally would.
 
#11- The sales agent may try to talk you into a walk and talk type home inspection. A walk and talk inspection is taking a home inspector along with you when you view the home for the first time. No reports are generated and only a fraction of the items are inspected as set forth by the NYS Home Inspection licensing law. This gives you a false sense of security and is not wise.
 
#12- Even with a full home inspection the surprise factor or risk factor is still about 10%. You will always find something you didn’t know about before buying a particular home. Without a full home inspection the risk factor goes up to 70% or higher especially if you do not understand building science at all.

 

Jim Salmon
P.O. Box 187
Albion, New York 14411
Celebrating 32 years as host of The Home Repair Clinic Radio Programs on 1180 WHAM
Celebrating 47 million visitors to JimSalmon.com since 2001