Dottie Herman’s Three Most Important Aspects to Buying a Home! | Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Dottie Herman’s Three Most Important Aspects to Buying a Home!

Megan Gates

 

Are you thinking about purchasing a home? It’s a big undertaking if you are not fully prepared. Here are three of the most important tips you can keep in mind before buying a home, brought to you by real estate expert Dottie Herman, the CEO and President of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

 

Research, Research, Research

 

You can never do enough research. “Become an educated buyer,” Herman says. Once you have all the details on your home and all that goes into buying a home, they you be an educated buyer. You will know what a home is really worth and whether a company or homeowner is trying to sell you the home for too much. Research the homes in the area where you want to buy your dream home and compare the specs in those homes to the one you hope to buy. “Price is what the home should be worth today,” Herman says. “But sometimes people don’t price it right, so what you really want to look at is fair market value.”

 

Hire a Broker

 

There’s a reason they are called real estate experts. Hiring a broker is one of the best things you can do to help ensure you not only get the dream home you want but that you get it at the price you want. A broker can do a lot more for you than you can do on your own — even with extensive research. It is the broker’s job to get you exactly what you want, and he or she negotiates deals every single day. Stick with the experts, while also becoming as expert in the field as possible.

 

Look at the Home

 

At some point you have to stop scanning the online photo galleries of local real estate agents. Get out into the neighborhood and view the home and its surroundings. Take note of how well maintained the neighborhood really is, as this will affect the price you may be willing to pay. Go inside the home. Decide whether you like the bones. Is it a home that you could renovate and make it into you dream home because it is in a great location? “You can always find a home, but you can’t replace the view,” Herman says. By “eyeballing the properties” on your own, as Herman recommends, you’ll come away with a feeling for price you are willing to pay.

 

This combined with the expert research that your broker can offer you and the details that you have dug up about the property, neighborhood, location, and schools will help to further solidify what you think is a fair asking price for the house. Keep in mind that appraising always is an estimate, however. “There is no exact science to pricing,” Herman says. That’s why it is so important for you to be intimately involved in the details and the fact-gathering. Don’t overpay for a home because you haven’t done the research, but keep in mind that a fair price for your dream home is always the price you are willing to pay.

 

Megan Gates is an active blogger who provides written work pertaining to home improvement, the latest architecture, design and fashion.  She also writes on behalf of Elliman Real Estate.  Follow her on twitter @MEGatesDesign.