Tom's House Buying Tip

[yesthattom]

If you don't like the house, walk around saying, "Hmm... naaahh, this sucks."

If you DO like the house, walk around saying, "Hmm... naaahh, this sucks."

If you want to buy it and walk around saying, "OH GOD I LOVE THIS PLACE!" then they'll never negotiate on the price.

True story:
My parents were selling a house once and they heard that the next person viewing the place was moving to New Jersey from England to be AT&T's new VP of negotiations. They figured he'd be a real shrewd buyer. However, instead he and his wife walked around blathering on about how much they loved the place, how it would be perfect for the kind of entertaining they wanted to do, etc. When it came time to discuss price, they raised it and never backed down. The AT&T executive paid top dollar.

Maybe that's more of a statement of the lack of business sense at AT&T, which is now essentially out of business (the company that bought them kept the name, but don't let that fool you. There is no AT&T any more.) Or, maybe they were paying the guy so much that the house price didn't matter, or AT&T was really paying for the house so he didn't care about the price. Either way, its a sad statement about AT&T.

When C and I shop for a house, we'll have code words to mean that we like something. Otherwise it's going to be all "Oh god, this is _terrible_" every time we turn the corner.

Comments

[rmitz.livejournal.com]

You can overdo that sort of thing. I find it best to just be very neutral and not outwordly enthusiastic about anything. Going "hmm" a lot.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

You might keep your credibility better if you imply there are things you like but also things that get seriously in the way. Otherwise, when you make an offer, your previous dissing of the house will look (and be) ridiculous and will be ignored.

[lusty.livejournal.com]

When we looked at the house, we were with our agent and the seller's agent was not around. We ooh'd and ahh'd to our hearts' content. This was the fourth house we looked at after deciding to start looking. When we made our offer, we assumed there would be a bidding war, partly because the house was spectacular and partly because that was just the way things were going in general at that time, even on crappy houses, so we bid about 20k over the asking price. However our agent called their agent prior to taking the bid over on the one day they were accepting bids, and got the impression that we were the only bid. So we lowered our bid to the asking price.

We were the only bid, and we got the house. Perhaps we could have gone lower, but the whole thing was truly shocking for the housing climate at the time, so we still feel we got a good deal.

[etler.livejournal.com]

> There is no AT&T any more.

Heh, tell that to all the AT&T people at the top who are still running it like AT&T of old.

Plus, nearly every SBC VP, Director, whatever that I've met since the merger was with AT&T pre-MFJ. Don't fool yourself. It's AT&T. Always has been, always will be.

Code

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

Code is good. We usually played the noncommital comment thing--in fact we usually only said stuff about bad things out loud. I think we had a code for "oh my god let's get out of here fast" but other than that, you don't need the "I love this" code.

When you want to make an offer, you take your agent (and you want a buyer's agent, believe me--they know the market, and make sure they're familiar with the area you're looking. Usually that won't be a problem, agents seem pretty territorial) and you speak with him or her about making an offer. Or you do what we did--told her we were going to lunch during which realized if we didn't make an offer on the house we now have we'd never make an offer on anything.

[rwgill.livejournal.com]

When I househunted 10 years back I used a buyer's broker and never toured a house with anyone but her. She's was on my side, contractually, so I was free to point out the stuff I liked, what I didn't like and so on. It was that open dialogue that allowed her to realize that a house she came across was the right mix of things I had liked in other places we visited.

Plus she helped me get it for 10% less than the asking price. Zero cost to me; she was paid by splitting the commission with the seller's agent.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it worked, but why isn't it a problem that the more you pay, the more your broker gets paid?

[ceo]

The buyer's broker is getting usually 2.5% of the selling price; the delta on pushing you to pay a few K more probably isn't worth it. When we bought our house, our buyer's broker encouraged us to cut the original, top-of-our-range offer we were originally going to make by about $30K, and that lower offer turned out to be something like 1K over the next-highest bid.

Re: Code

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

That's great advice! How do I determine that I have a buy's agent?

[knell.livejournal.com]

There's actually a cultural thing going on here as well, of course. I dunno if they were actually British or just moving from the UK, but it's generally considered polite over here to shower praise on a house which you're viewing (at least if the person showing you round is the owner) even if you think it's a complete shithole. In other words, if someone comes around and says a lot about how lovely your house is it doesn't necessarily mean they're about to make you an offer - they might well just be being polite.

Of course, in this case your parents struck lucky, but in general it would also be considered pretty impolite in the UK to raise the price when someone makes you an offer - people usually start asking the maximum they think they can get and then drop the price if it doesn't sell. Hardly anyone ever offers the asking price straight out. Again, another cultural thing, but serves 'em right for not checking out how things are done in the US...

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Technical correction: They didn't up the price. They just didn't lower it during negotiations or accepted his offer of full price.

[knell.livejournal.com]

Oh, in which case that's all fair game. If they want it that badly...