Buying the Money Pit
Buying the money pit is easy when you’re too emotional about a home purchase. Home buyers can do this because no one buys a house they hate. You find a home you love and go after it. Notice the language I just used. It is very telling. You look at houses but you buy a home.
This is not only the biggest financial purchase most of us make, it’s also our biggest emotional buying decision. As a result, you can easily get caught up with emotional needs.
Your Home Search
You begin your home search online and later go out to see houses. You learn what you do and don’t like in a house. This takes some time even though you’ve seen what seems like thousands of online listings.
Your focus is on value and condition but mostly it’s on what appeals to you. Everything comes down to walking into a house, feeling at home and falling in love with it. While you try to keep your eye on value and condition, emotions make the final determination. 
The Problem
Emotions are stronger than you’d expect when it comes to buying a home. Because we fall in love with the home we ultimately purchase, we’re not doing this on the basis of pure logic. As a result, we are vulnerable to choosing unwisely. This is the problem. So what do we do about it?
Guarding Against Disaster
We have 3 safeguards to keep us on track – our agent, our bank appraiser and our home inspector.
A great home inspector is a safeguard against making a mistake. A previous article in this series has good tips on finding the right inspector. You may love it but if your home inspector finds more wrong than you can reasonably handle, walk away. Listen to your inspector.
Bank appraisers value a house non-emotionally. Their job is to make sure a home’s value justifies the mortgage loan. This protects you when you get caught up in a bidding war or when you’re so in love with a house that you must have it no matter what. Bank appraisers are a good dose of reality.
Great real estate agents guide customers to a good decision. They keep you in the right perspective and give you the knowledge needed to make the best decisions for yourself.
I hope this series of 10 articles has been a big help If you have any questions or want to discuss your options in the market, call me at 201-741-8490.
