Carlsbad Real Estate News and Views

Buyers, What Are Your Deal Killers?

Knowing what you want in a new home, or better yet what you need and why, is essential in any house search in order to be effective. I’ve talked about this before in my series on how to buy a house. You’ll waste plenty of time if you really don’t have a good idea of the things that are important, which of course includes knowing your budget and what you qualify for if a loan is needed.

Location, say a particular community, might be very important for lifestyle and other reasons. You may require a certain number of bedrooms or baths. Having a single story house as opposed to a 2-story might be necessary or something you simply prefer. The list goes on. I use a checklist for buyers to help them think through these issues.

The other issue to consider in your search are the deal killers. These are those issues that could prevent you from moving forward with an offer on a particular home even if it met all your important needs. Perhaps there is nothing that would stand in the way if everything else was right. But for some buyers there are factors about the house or the location that would prevent them from saying “yes, let’s make an offer.” I ran into this again yesterday.

So what do some buyers have on this list?

A house that was smoked in and still reeks of smoke

A busy road in front or behind the property

Significant road noise (this varies from person to person), say from the freeway nearby

Close-by rail road tracks, train whistles due to RR crossing

Barking dogs at the neighbor’s house.

The view – high tension wires and/or towers overhead or in plain view in the back or front yard, looking directly into a neighbor’s house, a neighbor’s house looking down on your yard

Too close to a school, retail facility, industrial area, fire house, etc.

A home in the flight path of the airport

I showed a home the other day that was a beautiful remodel with great views and a large yard. It met all the requirements. But the house next door had 5 dogs, with a couple that barked the entire time we were in the house. That was enough to kill that deal.

You may have other concerns not mentioned above as well, but whatever they might be it’s important to give this some thought in advance. There are always trade-offs of some sort when buying a home – you just have to be aware of what your personal ones are so you can make the best decision when weighing all the pros and cons.

Something to keep in mind…if it’s a big issue for you, there’s a good chance it will be for other buyers in the future should you move forward and buy. Lots of homes get bought and sold that have issues like this, although value is often impacted, and it’s just a matter of your personal taste.