Home

About Us

Basic Home Inspection

Basic Home Inspection Guidelines

Mold Inspection and testing

Radon testing

Healthy Home Inspection

Protecting Yourself when buying a home

Pricing

Info Links

Contact Us

Protecting Yourself when buying a Home

Buyer Beware

You would expect to hear that when buying a used car or used appliance but now it's even homes.

Purchasing a home is usually the biggest investment most people make, but many fail to protect themselves from making a bad investment or getting stuck in a bad position.

Now before we go on we would like to clarify a few things. About 80% of home purchases finalize with few or no problems, but about 20% become nightmares to the buyer. As with anything you have honest people and you have your not so honest people. The more eyes you have looking after your interest the better off you will be when making that all important decision of, do I buy this house or pass it up.

So how do you get started protecting yourself when buying a home?

1. Find yourself a good mortgage broker. Do not rely on a real estate agent to do this for you. Be prepared to call several to compare rates and services. Finding a good mortgage broker is tough as most only care about the commission they'll receive when they "seal the deal". Don't be afraid to ask people that you know who they used and if they are or where happy with them. Never get involved with balloon payments or interest only loans, as they will hurt you in the long run. And never have mortgage payments higher than 30% of your gross income. Don't live to make house payments.
2. Get yourself a real estate attorney. This is important as most people do not know how to properly interpret contracts and other legal documents. Since your paying the real estate attorney to look after your best interest that is exactly what they will do. If a problem shows up later this gives you recourse to solve that problem.
3. Finding a good real estate agent is another issue. Again, the only way they get paid is if you buy. But there are many agents that know the importance of finding you the right home at the right price is the key to their future success. You can start by asking people you know who their agent was and if they where happy with them. If your looking at Buy Owner homes you're not going to find a real estate agent for these, so you better have #2 covered.
4. NEVER rely on county tax appraiser records to determine the actual square footage of the house your thinking about buying. The only accurate way is by having an independent appraisal performed.
5. Get yourself a good home inspector that can perform whatever type of inspection you'll need. Make sure they are either NACHI (National Association of Certified Home Inspectors) or ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) certified as these are the only two nationally recognized Home Inspection Groups that require home inspectors to have yearly continuous education classes to keep their certifications. If you need anything to do with mold they need to be certified by ESA (Environmental Solutions Association) as they are the only national and EPA recognized independent mold solutions group. For Radon sampling they must be certified by the Florida Department of Health. Again, here you are paying someone to look after your best interests and that's what they will do.
6. NEVER go to the closing table without fully understanding what you are buying and what it will cost now and in the future.   

Need a home inspection Click Here