Good morning, Ginny..... there are too many buyers roaming around and looking at property who don't really know what they qualify for by today's standards..... why waste time looking....get qualified....and your military analogy reminds me of short sales.... hurry up and wait.... hurry to not miss the opportunity and then wait for an answer....

Hi Ginny...

Buyers need an education on how to buy a home...

Fear enters into the picture and obscures their path on how to buy a home !                                       They start looking/shopping for a home ...forgetting that on most shopping trips ...don't forget to take your money/credit card too!

 

So the regimentation of how to buy a home starts .... don't forget to get qualified to buy a home first and Ginny will help you !

 

Educating buyers is something we do everyday, whether we see ourselves as teachers or not.  You are right Ginny...without getting pre-qualified, buyers don't have a foundation to build from.

a couple quick points.

 i work for neither a credit union nor a small bank, i work for a traditional mortgage banking firm. i have over 30 years of mortgage lending experience, and am prepared to speak with clients at their convenience. did you forget about me.

i have a particular thing about verbiage (i'm a homebuyers education instructor). neither i nor any mortgage lender can tell a perspective buyer what they can afford, rather what they qualify for according to today's guidelines.

Ginny - buyers especially first time home buyers are very unprepared mostly because they don't know what to do or where to go.  Certainly you as their Rhode Island real estate agent have the ability to guide them and help them throughout the process.

Do not mean to leave ANYONE out on the mortgage side here...BUT all that being said sometimes a smaller bank or credit union, IMHO, go the extra distance for unprepared home buyers but I do agree it sometimes are the people involved...

Ginny, You are  so right!  I was never in the Military either, but I'm watching all of the rules and prep that my 12 year old son follows in Civil Air Patrol, that would help with many real estate processes.

Got to have a system. Ten hut.

I agree that with the tougher mortgage guidelines we need to have our buyers pre-qualified before they go shopping and that requires discipline both on the part of the buyer to do the scary thing and apply for a mortgage and the Realtor to not show homes to a buyer who hasn't been pre-qualified.

 

Great post, Ginny. People hear snippets of information - "Great time to buy" and "Low Rates" and are just crawling out of the woodwork to buy without having really learned what it takes to own a home. I'm getting the sense that first time buyers are less prepared than ever these days, and you make a compelling argument for "First Time Home Buyers Seminars" and the like.

Ginny, education and preparation is key before first time buyers start looking for a home.

Good post Ginny.  I really like educating all buyers, especially first timers.                                                                

Boy are you right.  They seem to average their monthly costs on the low side instead of the high side.  Fooling themselves and creating money problems right out of the gate.

Gin Gin...I told a propsective client buyer one day to get prequaled and it went right past them...Oh that...yea, my wife I think is handling that. WHAT? Call my loan officer right now...We argued and I referred him out to another agent...

Just had a potential buyer find out that they were not qualified for a mortgage.  They were surprised.  But at least they now have a plan of action for the steps to take so that they CAN qualify!

Great and informative post my friend.  Home buyers will find your information very helpful.

Preparedness is key. Knowledge is vital. Thanks for your insights. This gives me motivation to do more trainings.

Very useful information for home  buyers.  The online junk is so misleading....

Preparedness continues long after the buyer steps into the house of their dreams.  Educating them on their rights and responsibilities of a home purchase goes along way in getting them to their end goal of home ownership.

First time buyers especially need a lot of hand-holding. I rather enjoy the process of educating new clients on the twists and turns of buying a home.

Watching their learning curve expand and confidence grow--it's a beautiful thing!

It's like anything else you go through the first time, scary and overwhelming.

We definitely spend a few amount of time educating and hand holding, that's  one reason I'm so grateful when a new buyer has taken the home buyer ed classes in NH put on by Ahead.

Ginny I get people calling me all the time telling me that I am figuring the payment wrong because they used an online calculator and it was less.  I then have to go through the whole explanation of what the online calculator is missing, but they like the lower payment and keep on arguing.

Excellent advice, Ginny.  Buyers don't realize that they are wasting their own time as well when they spend it looking at properties they cannot afford, let alone all the disappointment they get.

Wonderful post Ginny. So many buyers think they know so much because of what they can read online, and yet are so surprised at what they are told when they actually sit down with an agent and a mortgage professional.

Ginny - I like the idea of military preparedness.  Those calculators just don't tell the whole story.

Thanks all, it is not only the disappointment on the buyers end but the realtors too!  I still think they need to teach financial know how in high school...kids can not be taught by parents who are clueless...

Ginny, great post and being prepared with a loan approval, and knowing what you can afford and what you want in your new home is a good plan!

I think buyers in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, Maryland are pretty savy about getting a loan approval before looking.  I am running into this less and less than I was several years ago.  Used to be 3 out of 4 lookers had not contacted a lender first.  Now, it seems that only 1 out of 4 has not made contact with a lender.

Providing buyers with a "Buyer's Checklist", is a great first step when meeting with buyers. It allows me the opportunity to go over the checklist with them in detail and answer any questions they may have.

Good advice Ginny.  One thing I might add is that when they do not know what they can afford they are likely to fall for a house out of their price range.  Then finding their "dream" home becomes so difficult and frustrating, making the experience twice as hard as it should be!

I like that title.  Be prepared like the military is.  So true.  Thanks for sharing, Ginny!

Educating a potential buyer is like creating a buyer. Often, they are a not sure they qualifly

Ginny, the drill Sargent!

You are dead on with teaching kids how to handle money in high school.  I remember HAVING to take a semester in bookkeeping in the 9th grade.  At the time I thought it was a bunch of bull learning how to balance a checkbook and financing a small business - boy was I wrong!

Hopefully the kids living thru these tougher times will come out on the other end better money managers.

Ginny- Great post and spot on. Many people don't understand that financing has many variables and an online calculator doesn't paint the real picture.

With a Military ppst next to us, and me being stationed there at one time, 90% of my Clients are Militarty. And you're right. MOST are VERY well prepared, and I even learned some stuff from them when I was new ("How'd you find THAT out?").

SOMETIMES, if they think they know EVERYTHING, it's a problem. MOST of the time, it actually makes my job easier!!

Be prepared and get qualified..

 

 

 

 

Mortgage qualification is primary, I agree. I am still surprised at how many buyers come to us without having been pre-qualified. The process is so fast and reasonably effortless. We will do one mini-tour without a pre-qual and wait until after for subsequent tours.

We, as agents, need to teach our buyers how to be prepared.  The military is not "born" prepared, it is something that is taught over months, years & decades.  As a military wife, I know there is a constant training that takes place to help our military be the best in the world.  We, as realtors, need to teach our buyers to be the best in the market.

Thanks for the post and a great analogy.

I wish that consumers would realize that the Internet is a tool only, and not a solid resource.

I often relate the process to a team in the playoffs and they are the quarterback. I am only a coach but together we will prosper!

Education and being prepared is not only for 1st time buyers but all buyers.  Many things have changed over the years and if you bought a home before doesn't mean process will be the same.

Anyone ever thought about starting a "BUYER BOOTCAMP"?

Seeing your title made me want to read this blog because I live and work in an area with two full on naval bases, a national guard camp and near a submarine base.  These buyers are the best becasue they are used to following orders and understand the need for rules.

Ginny - I definitely agree with your #27 comment. Financial management should be something taught in schools. Learning to handle money is such a vital part of being successful in life - and yet even kids who have taken advanced math classes emerge from school unable to do something as simple as balance a checkbook.

Thanks all perhaps we should all do a free mentoring session for kids in school about finances & also not believing everything that is on the web as gospel!

Ginny: buyers who are not prepared just don't want to admit they don't know how to go about it. It would be great if there were a course for them. The TV shows do not prepare them.

Hi Ginny, on line calculators and Zillow go hand in hand! lol

I guess you will have to give them some buyer boot camp.  Educating buyers is the biggest part of my job.

Hi Ginny, I had a conversation on this topic this evening!  Great topic to share with buyers!

Ginny

Well said. Preparedness is so important in this competitive market - there are so many issues that can arise and those buyers who are not THOROUGHLY prepared, and working with a strong knowledgeable agent such as yourself, will not be successful. Education, counseling, and helping buyers through the problem solving process is a key part of our job, but there is only so much we can do if someone is not truly prepared.

Jeff

In this current market of low inventory, if your buyer is not completely prepared, approved, and ready to write, he will be left behind.

Hi Ginny,

Congrats on the feature! This is a really great post, and you've made some excellent points. I definitely think we should start teaching kids about this stuff and finances in school, and I completely agree that people have come to put too much faith on what they read online. Again, great blog. Keep up the good work as a top North Kingstown short sale agent!