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Health & Fitness

Home Buying Remorse - Fact or Fiction?

Home Buying Remorse - also known more simply as Buyer's Remorse - is it fact or fiction? As with many things, it really depends on the scenario. But it can most certainly be a fact, and it generally ends in the dissolution of a home purchase. For those of you who are home buyers and have your sights set on the purchase of a property in the near future, here are a few tips to keep in mind and to help guard against journeying down the unfortunate path of buyer's remorse:

  • Slow down when you are in a multiple bid situation. Multiple bid situations are fraught with buyer's remorse, and it's usually because buyers often act quickly to "purchase" the house and beat out the competition. Keep this in mind if you find yourself in a multiple bid situation. Make sure you are acting for all the right reasons and for your love of the property and not because of a knee-jerk reaction to win the prize. Time is of the essence, especially in these kinds of scenarios, but it behooves you to take your time and think through the decision. Remember that those who jump in quickly, often jump out just as quickly.
  • Visit the house more than once. Only getting a chance to visit the house once often goes hand-in-hand with a multiple bid situation. And this makes buyer's remorse that much more likely to happen. If possible, it is always prudent to visit a property twice at the minimum. On the second visit, you have a much more discerning eye and often see things that you didn't the first time around. Agents have realized that it behooves the seller and the home buying process if you as the buyer are given enough time to visit the property twice. And that is why you often see a home come on the market on a Wednesday, followed by a broker's open house on Thursday, a public open house on Saturday and Sunday and then a review of offers on Monday. This gives you and the other buyers enough of a chance to view the home multiple times, allowing you to do your due diligence and make a well-informed and educated decision.
  • Research the property and its zoning specifications, expansion restrictions, etc. Speaking of due diligence, researching your new home in terms of the zoning specifications, expansion issues and any other restrictions will help you have a clear picture of your new home and any potential limitations. Plan to spend a few hours at the town hall getting information from the assessor's office, board of health, building department and conservation commission to name just a few.
  • Understand the pros and cons of the town. Similar to the due diligence you do on your new potential home, it's also important to research your new potential town. I have seen this with buyers who have been looking in a variety of towns for quite some time, and then decide at the last minute to buy in another town in which they are not well-versed. This can play a role in the development of buyer's remorse. It makes sense to research the town before acting and "purchasing" a property there. By researching a town, I mean looking at several homes, reading the town's newspaper, understanding its pros and cons, talking to residents, exploring the community's organizations and more. For example, when making an offer you might have been told that the town has private water and sewerage systems, but you haven't thought through the implications. And once you do, you find it just might not be the right town - and therefore the right home - for you....
  • Make sure your budget includes potential inspection items. If the home is at the top of your budget, this can also push you over the edge if there are many inspection items raised and issues to address. In your offer number, try to budget in some money for inspection issues that may arise. If you do, you will be less anxious financially and lest apt to be a victim of buyer's remorse.
  • Consider that there may be serious hidden defects. There is actually almost no way to plan for this. It can happen that unbeknowngst to you*, the home has hidden defects that are found through the home inspection and with which you are so uncomfortable that you wouldn't dream of moving forward with the purchase. Some of these issues could include the presence of asbestos, structural issues, mold and termite damage. That being said, for you as the buyer to walk away from the deal, there has generally been some prior personal experience involved with the particular defect. In this scenario, there's not much you can do to battle against buyer's remorse - it's basically a fait accompli.
  • Expect that the unexpected may happen, most notably a change in circumstance. Similar to finding serious hidden defects, personal changes can arise suddenly and unexpectedly, which may cause the emergence of buyer's remorse. You may lose your job, your spouse may be diagnosed with a medical condition or you may have a death in the family - all terrible, unfortunate personal events. In these kinds of instances, the purchase of a new home may very likely fall precipitously down on your priority list and become something for another time in the future when the unsettling personal issues have been addressed. Again this kind of change in circumstance is virtually impossible to plan for or guard against and almost always ends in buyer's remorse and the dissolution of the home purchase.

The bottom line is to go into your home buying process with as much knowledge as possible about your potential home purchase so that you won't be blind sided by new facts or information and so that you can make the most educated decision possible. What are your thoughts on this subject? Have you ever experienced home buying remorse? If so, what caused the remorse? And what was the outcome? I can't wait to hear....

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For more information on this subject or about the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns, please contact me, Lisa Curlett (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

* And possibly the seller too, because theorectically the seller would have disclosed the issue(s) if he knew of its existence.

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