3 Questions You Must Answer When Buying a Home

If you are thinking about purchasing a home right now, you are surely getting a lot of advice. And some of that advice is probably negative. Why buy now with prices still falling? Don’t you realize real estate is no longer a good investment? Don’t you know that people who bought six years ago lost their shirt? I understand the concern your friends and family have. However, let’s look at whether or not now is actually the perfect time to buy a home.

There are three questions you should ask before purchasing in today’s market:

1. What are the experts recommending?

In the last 120 days, many experts have said that buying now makes sense. This list includes: John Talbott, Christopher Thornberg and Warren Buffett.

2. When will I begin to see appreciation if I buy now?

This is a great question. The experts are predicting prices to remain relatively flat in 2012. They are then projecting prices to rise gradually with recovery appreciation up to 1% per year. This is also variable based on the market and type of housing you are buying. Always talk with a professional Realtor regarding what you are looking for, and how this fits into the big picture. Of course, housing isn't always a tool for investment ~ it's a necessity to meet your needs. But ~ if you can plan smart, it can be both when you are flexible.
Purchasing a home today makes great sense from a financial standpoint. Think of the old axiom: you want to buy low and sell high. This decision should not only be a financial one however.
That leads us to our third and final question:

3. Why am I buying a home in the first place?

This truly is the most important question to answer. Forget the finances for a minute. Why did you even begin to consider purchasing a home? For most, the reason has nothing to do with finances. The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey shows that the four major reasons people buy a home have nothing to do with money:

A good place to raise children and for them to get a good education
A place where you and your family feel safe
More space for you and your family
Control of the space

What non-financial benefits will you and your family derive from owning a home? The answer to that question should be the reason you decide to purchase or not.

Bottom Line

Plan smart with a professional Realtor so you can make the right decision for you and your family. In the long run, the finances will work in your favor.

Judy Craig - Real Estate Agent:

Judy has worked with a variety of clients and price ranges in her career. Because homes are a big part of a client's personal portfolio of investments, Judy brings in current market financial information to assist her clients in making sound decisions in their transitions including selling, and purchasing plans for the future. She utilizes top of the line marketing techniques to bring the highest level of exposure to a home when selling to bring in the highest and best offer to purchase. In addition, she researches markets for new properties for clients based on their needs now and in the future. Because Judy wants the best for her clients at all times , her service and commitment are unrivaled.

Client Testimonials:

Judy Craig is a gem.

Without going into too much detail, Judy - with great patience and professionalism-helped us both sell our old home and buy a new one in abstentia. We had just hit the road for a month-long vacation when a solid, qualified and unconditional offer came through. Instead of turning around and returning home, Judy made it possible for us to sell our place while on vacation. She also engineered the purchase of our new home-one fortunately that we had seen before our trip. We returned to two closings and a month to pack and move directly into our new place.

Throughout the entire process, Judy never dropeed any of the many balls in the air.

Judy clearly is someone who loves what she does and has satisfying her customers' wants and needs as a primary goal.

We're happy to provide an unconditional recommendation for her services.

Linda and Lorin Robinson - 2012

Dear Judy:

We want to thank you for helping us with the purchase of our new house and sale of our existing house.

As you know, buying and selling a home is an emotional, logical and financial decision all at once. And in our case, when presented with some new options, it forced us to think about what we want in life and in the future, maybe sooner than we wanted to.

Throughout the process, you have provided helpful guidance and always listened to where we were in the process. You never pressured us to make a decision and always pointed out different perspectives that we may not have thought of.

You also kept us informed of what was happening in the overall real estate market. Your expertise and knowledge in this area was especially helpful in determining both our offer price and our selling price and the rationale behind the numbers.

When necessary, you brought in outside experts that we could talk with regarding issues regarding our property. Those contacts were particularly helpful in answering our questions and resolving any outstanding issues.

We also appreciated that you constantly communicated with us the status of our offer and helped to navigate all of the inspection and tests that were required. Even while we were on vacation, you knew what we would want to be kept informed on, and what could wait.

Throughout the process, you took care of everything so that we could focus on what needed to be done to sell our house. You were great at keeping us up to date on everything and the overall timeline.

In short, you are awesome and we feel lucky to have such a great professional representing us in both the buying and the selling of our homes.

Sincerely,

Bev and Bill Bergstrom, March 31, 2012

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I want to thank you for your help with my recent home purchase.

Prior to meeting you, I had worked with 2 Realtors but I was unsuccessful at finding a home because I did not get the sense that they fully understood my needs. With your knowledge of the housing market in the area and your gift of picking up said and undaid messages, i was finally able to find a home that I love. Thank you!

I felt well taken care of during the entire home buying process and was glad that I could call you with any questions or concerns no matter how minor they seemed. Your skills when it came to negotiating an offer on my home were superior and it enabled me to get an awesome price on my home. O was glad also fo ryour support at closing and for your follow up calls since then.

Thanks again for all your help. I will certainly recommend you to my friends that are in need of a Realtor.

Sincerely,

Lola Marek, January 2012

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Kathy and I called Judy last November from our previous home in Naples Florida after we decided to build a new Golf Community Home at the Quarry, and decided to sell our home in Stillwater. We and our extended family had such a great experience working with Judy to sell my father's home after he passed away that we knew she was the right person to call. So, out of the blue we contacted Judy and told her we wanted to have her list and sell our Stillwater residence. After Judy accepted the job, we were amazed to find that by the time we left Florida and arrived in Minnesota, she had done the preliminary work with a professional stager, had a plan of marketing in place and was ready to get the property moving. The thoughtfulness and efficiency, and the personal interaction we had with Judy was a terrific part of our success in selling our home within a few weeks. The price was right, Judy was able to help us arrange and stage the house, the listing and MLS, open houses and direction to qualified and interested buyers sealed the deal. It is with great pleasure we have and will refer our family and friends to Judy Craig should they need a true Real Estate Professional.

Richard and Kathy Staloch, December 2010

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"Judy worked very hard for us in selling our house. It was out of town for us and we needed to rely on someone we could trust. Judy met our needs and requests. We worked together and got the house sold. Thanks Judy for helping us get our house sold and closed with ease."

Nancy Pharo, August 2011

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"After working with a couple of different agents, I worked with Judy in 2011 on a property I had been trying to sell for 3 years. It was a unique property, and she brought the right skill set to market the property, and more importantly, work with buyer to settle any roadblocks that would have normally caused the sale to fall through. I can say with conviction, that she was the right agent for the job, and would highly recommend her for any and all real estate transactions. I would also add that her enthusiasm and knowledge for her profession, sets her apart from her competition. She is defiantly the person you want representing you, and your interests."

David Chisholm, July 2011

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"Thanks again Judy for your fine work in helping us to successfully sell our home.　 You definitely have all the angles down when it comes to maximizing the various marketing tools available today.　 When we requested market condition updates from you, you were very accommodating - helping us to not only understand the numbers and trends, but to go and actually scope out competing properties.　 That helped us to be more comfortable with continually dropping the price of our house in order to maintain pace with market conditions and get it sold this winter.　 Selling a house in this market is tough; selling a geodesic dome is even tougher!　 But you helped us to accomplish it within the timeframe we hoped for.　 We really appreciated the level-headedness and sense of calm that you brought to all aspects of the process … it helped us to keep our emotions in perspective and make decisions that were aligned with our long term plans.　 Thanks for all the intense listening you did and your sustained hard work."

Jeanne Murphy, December 2011

Judy Craig - Your Real Estate Connection