Five Steps to Successful Buying in a Buyer’s Market

It’s like falling off a log, right?  Just pick something, anything, you can’t go wrong with today’s market!!

No, really it is definitely NOT that simple.  A buyer’s job has gotten HARDER, not easier, in the buyer’s market we have going on now.  Here are the five stages or steps leading to a successful buying adventure.

1.  Shop online.  Realistically, on St. George Island we’ve got so much inventory on the market right now that it’s a huge hurdle for buyers to even scope it down to a short list of properties they are interested in.  It’s hard work!  In order not to miss anything, which is the way I shop, and most of the buyers I am working with shop, you have to commit to spending a lot of time online, looking through listings.  You have to decide whether you are or are not willing to look at short sales.  You have to understand that as seductive as bank foreclosures are, the real treasures might just be seller-owned properties hidden in that long list, not marked as a foreclosure – things to look for include listings that have been on the market for a while, that have started dropping their prices, and may have done it several times in a row.  Or, brand spanking new listings that come on just a little below market value – they will go fast.  Do some homework on the county tax rolls, and be familiar with how to figure out how long an owner has had the property, an indication that they *may* have had time to still be enjoying the nice slow run-up in the market from 5-10 years ago. 

2.  Get somebody on the ground that knows the market.  That would be me, or a good realtor in the area you are interested in – someone who knows the properties that are for sale, and the people behind them – owners, listing agents, and banks.  Call and talk to several realtors.  Tell them upfront that you are shopping for a realtor and ask them how they would work with you.  Finding the right match is really important.  The right realtor can bring something to your attention that you would have no other way of knowing, just looking at the listings online – sellers who are ready for an offer but don’t want to drop the published asking price, for some reason, and other insider info.

3.  Get your financing lined up.  There is nothing more frustrating, for everyone involved, than to get down to the wire and not be able to close the deal because of financing.  It is not easy, and it’s not getting any easier.  Shop around, talk to your local banker if you have own other properties financed with them, and listen to what they say.  Most likely, you are going to need 20% down to buy right now.  Shop in a price range that you know you can handle – especially when it comes to that 20% down figure.  It needs to be comfortable, or at least manageable, not a tight squeeze.  The last thing you want to be doing is arguing with your spouse over whether to buy or not, once you’ve found that perfect property.  It’s heartbreaking – I’ve seen it happen.

4.  Get a good negotiator on your side.  Again, that would be someone like me, who loves the process of putting the deal together.  Real estate involves WAY more than writing a contract.  As a realtor, if you aren’t prepared to do not only the front-end work of matching buyer to seller/property, and negotiating a contract that makes both sides happy, but also ride herd on all the contractual issues that follow a successful contract negotiation, from insurance to appraisal to utilities to financing, don’t even get in the game of being a realtor.   None of this happens naturally - it takes hard work, and time, and focus, and being connected both to your buyer and all the service people who have to come through for them in order to close.

5.  STICK WITH IT!!  Be resolved to get through whatever issues arrive to make your deal happen.  I can almost guarantee that there will be bumps in the road – with financing, with appraisals, with inspections, with repairs.  If you want to be a successful buyer, it’s going to take perseverance, patience, and lots of PLUCK! 

The buyers out there right now who are successfully buying are those with nerves of steel, confidence in their decision-making process, and good people (bankers, realtors, insurance agents,etc.) backing them up.  And they are getting GREAT deals on real estate right now.

Can you be one of them???

Who wants to be at the beach in the winter??

Wildflowers along US 65 near St. George Island, Florida

On St. George Island, in the panhandle of Florida, winter is definitely our slow season for tourists, but for people shopping for real estate, it’s red hot!  The weather is gorgeous, the wildflowers are putting on a show, hurricane season is over, and all the kids are back at school, so you can get down to the real business of … SHOPPING for that perfect beach house.  Like most markets, we’ve got a really nice inventory, which means you can be picky.  And, mortgage rates at a nice low level, along with prices back to what they were several years before the 2004/2005 boom, both really serve to enhance what your investment dollars can buy right now.

Recent sale in St. George Island Plantation

I just sold this very nice home in the gated Plantation community on St. George, furnished beautifully right down to the knives and forks, a 5 minute walk down a maintained path to the beach, for $328,000 – unheard of value for years and years. 

And, it wasn’t a short sale, or a distressed seller, just one who had owned the property for long enough to make good on this or practically any other market we’ve had in the last 10 years. 

Everyone was happy, as it should be.

St. George Island light house

The sun was shining when I left work late that that day, and those long late-day rays were just too much to resist.  I braved the oncoming “traffic” to snap this shot of our newly restored lighthouse in the middle of the island.

See more on St. George Island at http://www.stgeorgewired.com.

Homes are selling on St. George Island!

Another great weekend on St. George Island! This was the Florida Seafood Festival weekend in Apalachicola, and we had lots of folks on the island to enjoy the festival and the gorgeous fall weather.

I had a buyer lucky enough to land a contract on this beauty in the St. George Plantation this weekend, listed for $365,000 as MLS #203321.

It was a very good match between buyer and seller, and both sides are happy.   

Now is definitely a great time to be looking for real estate on St. George Island. Email or call me if *you* would like to shop with me – I’m here!

St. George Island real estate and…. sea turtles??

(Note to new readers:  This is a re-post from a blog on my website that I started last spring, at the beginning of sea turtle nesting season.  I’m including it to give a little perspective on who I am and what this blog will be about, going forward.  Feel free to go read the back story on St. George Island real estate and sea turtles and the 2008 sea turtle nesting season at my website.)

Ok, so what do sea turtles and St. George Island real estate have to do with each other??

St. George Island

Sea turtles are one of the ancient creatures on this earth that teach us the lessons we never seem to finish learning. Their sense of purpose is innate, from the tiniest day-old hatchlings to their 200-pound mamas, they instinctively move towards the water, coming onto land only to lay their nests.

I volunteer with the dawn sea turtle patrol, and have the privilege of monitoring nesting sea turtle activity on the beaches of St. George Island. We have 151 nests so far on the island this year, not counting the State Park. This is more than double the number of nests we marked last year.

Mother sea turtle tracks at dawn on St. George Island

I marked two new nests this morning at dawn – what a great start to a great day. We volunteers walk every morning at dawn to mark the nests that were laid during the night. We identify nests via the tracks that the mamas leave, tracks that are distinctive (think double tractor tires) and as beautiful as any art gallery hanging.

People also move instinctively towards the water – there is a draw that is undeniable. Buying beach property is one of those totally elective pleasures in life – no one ever had to move to St. George Island for their job, for better schools, or to be closer to their kids.

We buy here because we want to be here, more than anything.

I work full-time as a realtor/broker associate, running the St. George Island office of Boardwalk Realty of NW Florida, Inc. I’m a native Floridian, and have vacationed on St. George since I was a teenager in the 70′s. I have lived here full-time since 2004.

I moved here intending to stay just a year, before my next career move, and ended up changing professions in order to stay.

So, the trend is up this year for sea turtle nests on St. George Island, very definitely up.

And, what is our real estate market doing?

For buyers, it’s never been better. I work primarily with buyers, and specialize in personally monitoring the market for that perfect property for each one of my buyers. I’ve got a lot of happy buyers in my portfolio, and even more prospective buyers deciding right now what and when to buy.

This blog will provide a running commentary on our real estate market, with sea turtle updates and other news from St. George Island thrown in the mix.

I look forward to hearing from you – email me anytime, with specific questions about real estate or general comments on the blog – all are welcome!