When you’re buying a home, you want to avoid any mistakes—particularly mistakes that could prevent you from successfully purchasing your dream home. And if anyone knows what mistakes you’ll want to avoid, it’s real estate agents.
So, what are some of the most common mistakes buyers make when trying to find and purchase a home, according to agents?
A recent article from realtor.com outlined the mistakes home buyers make during the home buying process that real estate agents consider the most common (and the most challenging!), including:
- Getting caught up in aesthetics. Many buyers see a dirty floor, outdated wallpaper, or an off-putting paint color and veto a property from their list because it doesn’t look the way they’d like it to. But aesthetic details can easily (and often, affordably) be changed, and walking away from an awesome home because it needs a deep cleaning or a fresh coat of paint is a mistake agents see buyers make time and time again.
- Waiting too long to make an offer. Today’s market is super competitive; if you see a property you want, you have to make an offer—and you have to make it fast. But one mistake agents see buyers make? Waiting too long to make an offer, and losing out on their dream home because they dragged their feet.
- Ignoring the seller’s motivation. Sellers are motivated by different things. For example, some sellers want to sell for the highest price possible, while others want to sell their home to someone who will treasure it as much as they did. Real estate agents can deliver insights into what the seller wants from their home sale, but many buyers ignore those insights while making their offer, which can lead to them losing the property to another buyer who was more in tune with the seller’s motivations.