If you thought 2025 went by fast, we are in April at breakneck speed. I thought I would get a little granular on some real estate tips since we are heading into the spring season. This might be a mere cautionary post, but when the market is a little unpredictable it might be helpful to have some pro tips to put in your toolbox if you are thinking of buying or selling.
Here are some tips that I have always found helpful:
1. If you are going to be buying, make sure that you are ready to buy. We all want to have everything in a negotiation but if you are buying make sure that before you make an offer your financing is done, you are not waiting on something to occur before you can act, and you are firm in your budget. Speed is everything in this market so remove the impediments to acting swiftly and effectively.
2. Sellers should follow the same advice. Remove unnecessary items in the house because you are not selling your home to the buyers but your house. Overly packed “home” items make the house attractive to you, but the new buyers have to see themselves in the house. They don’t want to buy your home just your house.
3. Don’t play games with the price. Your agent should help here so if you want to be successful don’t price it out of the market in the hopes of getting as much as possible. Prices are related to real numbers not feelings. If you don’t know get a professional appraisal and follow their advice. Be careful that your agent is not someone telling you what you want to hear. This is the worst type of confirmation bias that can hurt you later. In real estate the truth is king so hire a professional that will tell you the truth. Marketing only goes so far because at the end of the day your square footage and the cost of replacing your home are driving factors. Everyone has kids unfortunately some of those kids are ugly. Just like houses. The truth matters.
4. Don’t waste the seller’s time or your agent’s. Low ball offers are internet clickbait and in markets like ours if you want to be taken serious make a good offer. Low ball offers don’t usually occur with professionals listing properties. The prices are usually tied to something real that can be justified so the idea that you are going to get lucky is insulting. I have handled lots of real estate and luck has nothing to do with a successful transaction. Make an offer based on real factors so that when presented it can make sense to everyone involved.
5. Pivot like a boxer! When you begin a real estate transaction the naïve approach is to search for permanence before closing. What I mean by that is we make an offer then wait for acceptance. We let our guard down seeking to breathe easy once ratified. Everything is in flux from start to closing. You should anticipate pivoting multiple times during the process being sure to be open to give and take until the final closing document is signed. Consider this a shopping cart where you are constantly putting items in and taking items out until the final tally at the cashier. The successful buyers and sellers are those who constantly exchange, substitute, pivot, adapt and implement until the cart is as full as possible. Getting stuck on one thing is a disaster strategy.
6. Prepare to buy. The preparation for buyers must begin and end with the financing. Unless you have built up tons of cash the way to a successful real estate buy is through financing. The process is a colonoscopy of sorts with tons documents, tax information and last-minute justifications. Just like a colonoscopy the prep is worse than the procedure. Be an adult stop complaining and give the loan officer what they need. If you didn’t need the money, you could avoid the process. It is what it is. Start at least 12 months prior to when you want to purchase making sure that you have selected a seasoned loan officer. I suggest that you determine your price limits based on what your monthly budget dictates your payment should be not what your maximum price range is. Houses are expensive so maxing out your price range is a stress strategy. Base your monthly payment on worst case scenario then set your price range from there. If your house payment is 50% of your income you might get the house, but heartache might accompany that payment. Don’t buy what you can’t afford.
Albert R. Hartley
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