DEAN GRAZIOSI: DEAN GRAZIOSI REAL ESTATE

In recent years, online real estate bidding has been added to the incredible number of tasks you can do online. Like most online activities, it makes sense to examine whether it is better to do it on the Internet or in person. With online bidding, there are several pros and cons to consider.

Pro:

You are more likely to get fuller information and a larger variety of pictures for an online auction than one that is done at a physical location. Organizers of the auction realize that you may be too far away to see the property in person, so they use Internet tools to show the properties virtually. This gives you easier access to certain facts you need.

Con:

Assuming you are bidding from a location other than where the property is located, you may not have had the opportunity to see the property up close. Even though potential bidders often only get to see the outside of the home, that real-life look can be very eye opening in some cases. Pictures do not show everything and a personal view of the property is worth a great deal of cold data at times.

Pro:

You can bid from the comfort of your own home. You do not have to get caught up in the distracting noises and sights as you try to decide what to bid. Without the intense pressure of the crowds, you can easily keep a cool head. You may make much better decisions in the long run.

Con:

You might be more conservative in your bids without the tense mood of the in-person auction. Is this a bad thing? Possibly it is, if you plan on taking enormous risks. If you are a big-time real estate gambler, bidding in person might give you the competitive atmosphere that spurs you on to take greater chances. If you want more safety, online bidding might actually be better.

Pro:

If you do your real estate bidding online, you will have easy access to any notes, pictures and information you have gathered for each property. You can keep it all right there on your desktop as you keep up with the bidding. You can refer to it just before a property auction is starting, and have it there to glance at anytime you need to as the bid goes up.

Con:

When bidding online, it is easy to get hooked up with a disreputable real estate auction company, or a downright scam artist. The Internet is much easier to manipulate in this way than an in-person auction site. However, you can avoid this problem if you do your homework.

Check out the auction company before you enter the online auction. Then, type in the right website yourself to avoid getting sidetracked to a fake website. Read their terms of service and make sure you agree with them. Protect yourself, and the Internet can provide a very advantageous way to buy real estate.

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With the real estate market changing at what seems every second of the day it is important that buyers do their research before they make on offer on a house.  What many people find out these days is that sellers are putting their home on the markets without a real understanding of the current market.  A good realtor can help you do your research before you put an offer in, but the more you know on your own.

The first thing you want to do is to check the other houses that are for sale in your target neighborhood or neighborhoods.  When you do this make sure you are comparing apples to apples.  If the house you are looking at is 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a garage than make sure the comps you look at are also 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a garage. 

When comparing properties it is also important to know what type of upgrades your unit has compared to the other houses in the area.  If the comparable house has upgraded appliances and the one you are looking at doesn’t than they are not technically the same house.  This is potentially a place where you can get a little bit better of a deal. 

It is also important to do your research on the area you are looking at as a whole.  Even if you don’t have children it is important to know what the schools are like in the area and how far they are from the house.  Houses in bad school districts are often hard to sell while ones in good districts are often easier to sell.  Parents also need to look at if their child will need to take a bus or if they can get their other ways. 

Once you have settled on a house your realtor will send you a report on the area and the house.  This report will tell you everything you need to know about the house.  It will show any mortgages on the house, when the house was purchased, what it was purchased for, if there was ever any refinancing and if there are any liens on the house. 

Dig through this report very carefully to look for clues on what an owner may accept.  If the report shows the house fully paid off that may mean the buyer is willing to take a lower price so they can get rid of it and move on.   On the other hand the report may show that they are underwater on the house which usually means they won’t budge very much on the asking price.

Just remember that right now this is a buyer’s market so the buyer has the control.  There are far more sellers than buyers.  With the proper research you will be amazed at how much money you can save.

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