Research housing market on your own

Question: I’m attempting to research the housing market, but I don’t want to even think about buying for at least a year because I am committed to a one-year lease. How can I efficiently do the research without a real estate agent?

I assume most agents would not be interested in working with a client who will not be buying a home for at least a year. I’ve attended numerous Sunday open houses, but I feel I may be missing valuable properties.

Answer: You are wise to get to know the local housing market before you make an offer on a house.

In real estate, as in most areas of life, knowledge is power. You will not be able to recognize a good deal until you have done your homework.

The good news is that it’s much easier to research the local housing market today than it was several years ago thanks to the explosion of Internet real estate sites.

You can see the public version of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service computer system at this website: www.nwrealestate.com.

And there are many other real estate websites that provide similar abilities to search for properties online such as Zillow.com, ZipRealty.com and most of the major real estate broker websites.

You can see virtually every house for sale in the Puget Sound region without leaving the comfort of your home or office.

But don’t let web surfing be your only source of housing market information. You mentioned that you have attended many Sunday open houses, and I recommend that you continue doing that. Viewing homes for sale in person, combined with researching homes for sale on the Internet, should make you an expert on your local area within a month or two.

You should get to the point where you can drive up to a home and guess its price within $10,000 before setting foot inside. When you can do that on a consistent basis you will know that you have a good feel for the true market value of homes in your area.

Once you know what a home should sell for, you will quickly recognize a bargain when you see one. For example, if all of the three-bedroom homes in a given neighborhood have sold for $350,000 to $375,000 in the past three months, you’ll know you’ve found a hot deal when a nice three-bedroom home hits the market at $325,000.

These are the kinds of homes that sell in days rather than weeks or months, even in a slow housing market. We are now in a buyers market, which means there are more home sellers than buyer’s. You can take your time because I think home prices will possibly drop a little more this yearn or remain flat with little or no appreciation.

So unlike the housing boom years, there is no rush to “buy now or be priced out of the housing market forever.”

Once you get closer to being ready to make an offer on a home, it’s wise to interview a few real estate agents so that you can “hire” one to search for a home for you. Talking to agents at open houses is a great way to start looking for an agent with whom you will be compatible.

A good agent will be able to show you homes that you may not be able to find on your own. However, you are right in assuming that a good agent will not want to spend a lot of time with you until you’re close to making a buying decision.

Agents like to work with buyers who are ready, willing and able to make a decision immediately when they find a good deal. You are not ready now, but you will be a prime prospect when you are ready to buy because you will have already done your homework so that you can act quickly when an agent shows you a hot deal.

That’s the kind of buyer that agents love to work with.

Steve Tytler is a licensed real estate broker and owner of Best Mortgage. You can email him at features@heraldnet.com.

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