Attention Annapolis Homebuyers: There’s Nothing To Be Nervous About

January 3rd, 2008 Categories: Buyers, One Minute Realtor

Homebuyers – here in the Annapolis, Maryland area and elsewhere – are nervous. You might guess otherwise since interest rates are still historically low, inventory abundant, and great deals more plentiful than traffic on the Bay Bridge on a Friday afternoon in August.

Homebuyers should be elated! But like I said, they’re nervous because people who don’t know them, don’t send them Christmas cards and who, apparently, have foolproof crystal balls are making them that way. So buyers are waiting, like the pundits have warned them, because they think the best is yet to come: the best homes, best interest rates, best prices. Pundits like it when people listen to the stuff they say because, well, they’re getting paid to pund and it makes them look very smart.

No Matter What You Hear About the Annapolis Area Real Estate Market, Homes Are Always Being Bought and Sold

Waiting, we’ve all been taught, is a virtue: Good things come to those who wait, and all that. But from where we stand, on the front lines of the real estate trenches, we think Abe Lincoln’s take is perhaps more instructive: “Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” I can think of at least three recent situations where a buyer fell in love with a home but decided to wait before making an offer, expecting that the price would drop. Didn’t happen. In each case, the home was snapped up by another buyer. Do you want to buy the home you’ve fallen in love with? Or do you want the market’s leftovers?

“Waiting” or otherwise attempting to time the market is a risky homebuying strategy. It assumes an unknowable direction of the market, and fails to account for many other considerations, like your schedule and timeframe, the tax benefits and emotional security and stability that comes with homeownership. Don’t discount those things. Pay less attention to the media pundits, and more to what YOU need, and you’ll do just fine. This is a great time – in the Annapolis area and elsewhere – to be a buyer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Buyers, One Minute Realtor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.