Questions Home Buyers Ask Real Estate Agents And Brokers

Questions on the property listing, what can you tell me about the home for sale makes for a long list of answers.

Gather round. What would interest one person might not another real estate buyer. But condition, the shape of the Maine home for sale is important to everyone. To please a Maine bank financing the mortgage loan on it. And for the buyer who thinks about the size of the job jar, many questions try to establish how many, how costly those items are. What’s ahead after the house sale for the home buyer to tackle? How many homes have filled to the brim issues to address? What is the real estate buyer signing on for to tackle if this is the home he buys (Gulp).

How real estate property listings improve a home buyer’s life depends on a number of factors.

Everyone of us has hot spots of what he wants, can not accept in homes, partners, any provision of goods, services or life experience. What enthuses one in life bores the heck out of someone else. Variety is the spice of life, and Maine real estate property searches too reflect this versatility in listing needs. As they gather round the real estate agent or broker and start firing the questions from all directions.

The home buying question list is longer if the presentation is skimpy and lacks information.

If too little in the way of imagery, plat maps, floor plans or videos to feed them the property details, then the buyer is forced to call, email, wait. Home buyers plug along at their preferred pace, on their time frame that is usually after hours. The more in the information buffet delivered to the buyer, the easier the Monday morning will roll.

Real estate buying is emotional, there is lots of dreaming attached to the property search.

Looking for just the right piece of real estate to reach out, pull off the current MLS carousel going round and round. The buyer on the hunt for something to purchase factors in lots of personal factors. To fit a need, to solve a nesting size and location problem. Too big, too small or just right is a moving target with Maine real estate buyers who have life change adjustments to make. Caused by health, disease, divorce, or affluence and the ability to buy more, get greater from their housing dollar.

So the real estate lifestyle search filtering routine is part of how the wheels turn in the listing buyer’s head boil it down grind. The home buyer that is ready, willing and able or plans to be to make the purchase soon if they like what they see. From what they find online or in person during the one by one property tours on line or in person. With the goal to get through a successful real estate closing and make the home the buyer’s instead of the seller’s.

 On desk or lap tops, mobile devices of all kind to tap into the real estate information vein online. The buyers slice and dice the current real estate inventory six ways from Sunday.

To crank out from the real estate vending machine drop down to the bottom slot property listings that match particular lifestyle hobbies, that go hand in hand with personal interests.

That are in good enough shape or with potential to make the property the way they want it with time, money and elbow grease TLC. If the location trips their trigger or just the price is right. What they buy is based on what they have now, and like about that present home or what they wished they had that their existing home can not provide.

Or it is cheaper to buy a different place in low cost, low wages too rural Maine. Less fights over the property with sawdust in the air and a table saw parked in the living room for months, years.

To get a new house to them home with the added features already done. That causes housing harmony. No one pushing to get task done. By avoiding and not taking on the dirty and expensive task to rip out, re do and try to correct whatever is lacking or messed up in their current home.

Life changes the housing needs as buyers with kids wear different goggle lenses and view property for sale from various new angles.

Those lifestyle choices are what help drive the mouse and screen tap tap, slide.  If they want a home with plenty of land for horses, or a large Victorian smasher size house for a bed and breakfast or have plans to adopt. To fill those bedrooms one by one with a quiver of kids. Foster, adopted, their own kidlets.

Merging, blending families can make the need for a larger housing container too.

That new development while shopping for real estate might not have influenced the home buyer just a few miles back in life. If he or she had been searching for property just last year when a single parent and driving with no one in the shot gun position. But a booster and reversed car seat in the next row back.

But besides the ways the property for sale, say a house would improve their lifestyle choices, ease and convenience features reduce the stress of every day. The second bathroom or even half a one can make the hurry up and out the door to school go smoother for all in line in the household. But here are questions we get asked and what buyers look for in their housing.

First, without going the carbon dating route, slicing into the wall studs and counting the circle of rings, how old is this home in Maine any way? 

Someone told them early on to be concerned about the age of the roof, how’s the foundation. And sure, sure. That location time three trumps everything.

Knowing about home roof valleys that need to be kept snow cleared during winter weather or watch out. Like spring thaw in the cellar with seeping or gushing ground water leaks, it all prepares the buyer for something they can stomach or not. In the case of this is the second or third or more house for sale that was bought by a savvy buyer, they know what they want or can not tolerate this next merry go round real estate spin. 

What comes with the property for personal property, fixtures that are not staying and needing replacement?

Does the old farm tractor stay in the home and land sale and become the new  buyer’s to tinker with to make a living off scratching the dirt. The buyer of most properties looks beyond what it has now and thinks about what extra is needed to smooth the wrinkles and make it a perfect fit for them.

If he is kicking tires on a farm property listing, the extra equipment is a big concern beyond the home and land purchase. Any antique lights not staying and anything else being replaced or just removed from the property? If the place needs a thorough junk removal, spelling out that rolling up your sleeves and filling a dumpster with the back bending heave ho better be explained early on during the real estate courtship. 

The Amish style storage shed, what about the riding lawnmower, does that stay too?

What is a fixture, personal property in a real estate sale anyway? Everyone needs to know, buyers and sellers and all the support people that are trying to help but just not sure. If it is bolted down, attached, it is a fixture of the real estate is the simple answer to what is what and needed to run the place or just a property frill. 

In some states certain appliances have to stay in the real estate sale. Maine has no such law for home sales.

The buyer may want the stainless steel Goliath refrigerator or eight burner and griddle commercial gas stove but not so lovey dovey about a harvest gold or avocado green appliance version

No one wants dead electric water heater tanks, painted shut almost empty paint cans or old tires left behind in a home sale.

That is universal among home buyers and one of the few areas that all the hands go up high when polled individually or collectively if you could herd them like cats into one big room.

The antique cook stove in your family for over a 100 years. The swing set, tree house, movable clothes line, weight equipment, the TV mounted on the wall, expensive drapes or any of those fancy smancy beveled glass mirrors staying in the property sale? Spell it out to avoid any misunderstanding. 

What’s this puppy cost to heat and how much of each method uses what for fuel?

Habits of the buyer will dictate whether they have hot flashes and windows open keeping the place colder than a Maine farm barn. Or warm, cozy and like Africa or Arizona hot hot hot. Poor circulation and age and being retired, at home all day long can make the heating costs higher than a pair of double income, no income DINKS who are considering a home property purchase. 

The power bill is rarely high because of poor design. The habits of the home owner.

Do they do loads of laundry with one pair of jeans and leave all the lights on, have teenagers who take half hour or longer showers? That’s the reason the bill spikes and utilities are so high on a place.

Habits of who lives there and not flaws in the house’s operating systems.

How much does the home take to heat could be asked with a question about how hard are you to keep warm?

Here’s a sweater to cover the t-shirt and do you heat areas you are living in or twist the thermostate for the entire home when a chill strikes?

Don’t blame the house, realize it is the handiwork of the home occupants that make those numbers slide up and down.

Still, having utility costs all printed out for a few years back to show a trend helps, especially for the fixed income retired or first time home buyer. If the house still has screw in glass fuses and not plastic circuit breakers, getting insurance on the home won’t be happening until the electrical panel update is done. Know and tube wiring is not something buyers ask for and want.

The updates with Sparky Electrical Service is not lightning quick. That’s a delay, added repair expense and the bank appraisal will point it out if the agent or broker does not early on during showings and buyer correspondence.

When was that septic pumped last if not on public sewer and where is the well, septic system if in the country?

You can not see those without Superman’s xray vision as easily as major ceiling stains or lifted up roof shingles that are cracked or missing like teeth in a big grin.

A copy of the HHE 200 soil test, septic system plan is always nice, like a property survey plat map to have in the bundle of goodies selling a home in Maine. Funny taste or smell in the water and any problems with supply are a must to speak up about and have front and center on the property listing disclosure form.

Has the home lead or mold levels been tested? Is the exterior wrapped in asbestos like the hot water furnace heat  piping? Tested for radon? How about that fuel tank, how old, has it ever leaked? Leaking fuel oil tanks, meth labs are not good features buyers ask for in their hunt for a house. 

Right of ways, easements on the Maine property?

No one is looking for those kind of encroachments or use of another that spoils the enjoyment of their property. In Maine, home owner associations are not a topic that comes up but roads into a camp at the lake, is there a formal association and who is in charge, how much is the fee to fill those potholes, replace the culverts and improve drainage to protect the Maine lake from erosion of silt and debris?

The possession date, the written list of who does what on the property over the years when repairs are needed and appliance warranty manuals all are nice to have for the new home buyer.

The fact records are kept, shows the home buyer that this seller is on the ball and probably lots of things you can not see that were addressed and fixed along the road of ownership that were improved above and beyond the call of duty.

Confidence in your seller, the property owner improves the mood of the real estate sale.

Trust and honesty means no punches pulled and the home buyer does not have to worry about surprises. 

Have had a property owner of a home when asked about water during spring thaw in the basement and why the need for two sub-pumps say don’t mention that!

That it will hurt the sale chances. I let the seller know that disclosing a problem up front is far less costly than a lawsuit and trotting up and down court houses steps to try to arrive at a cash settlement for damages because it was not disclosed.

Sure, a home buyer might walk away if they new in the beginning but the purchaser who knows going in and accepts the situation, is less apt to lash out later if it is spelled out in writing on a property disclosure. 

The condition of the property if a bank loan is needed to buy the home will make or break financing approval. If the property mortgage is being sold on the secondary market, the peeling paint flakes and bare wood, the missing step railing, broken glass and other checked off items in the regulations will stall a sale.

And if the buyer is not going to correct, the seller says don’t look at me, unless the agent or real estate broker says I’ll fix it or pick up the tab, the sale fails on the operating table. 

Lots to consider about the property itself and the condition good or poor or in between but also the lifestyle angle the real estate buyer considers. The closeness to schools, reduction of running to the corner store for a quart of milk or loaf of bread all factor into the decision making of which home to buyer. 

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 |  info@mooersrealty.com  |  

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA