“Buyer’s Market”
June 5th, 2008
A “buyer’s market” is one when there are so many homes for sale and it would take a long time to sell them. This is the current situation all over the country. If where you live is a “buyer’s market” and you are considering buying a home, chances are, you will be in a strong position to negotiate for incentives and lower prices.
Guidelines for buyers’ incentives vary from loan program to loan program. The first thing you should do is to get pre-qualified so that you can ask your loan officer about what incentives and down payment are allowed for your loan program. Also, consider first how much you can ask for. Say if you want to put 10% or more as down payment, you will be able to ask for up to 6% of the price of the home you are buying. If you are plan to put less than 10% down payment, you will be able to ask for 3% of the price. There is of course no guarantee that you will get all that you ask for, but generally sellers are willing to negotiate and give you something.