Longboat Key FL Foreclosures - Foreclosure Longboat Key Florida

Foreclosures Longboat Key FL

Luwonda blindly fell in love with a house too early, nearly causing her to buy a real-life money pit estimated at $60,000+ just to repair! In this short article, PLEASE do NOT commit these 7 critical home-buying mistakes.

When it comes to buying a house, outer “beauty” is only skin-deep. Luwonda thought found her dream home. To her, the house was beautiful and that’s all that mattered. At that point, Luwonda turned off her common sense, something I see buyers do all the time. If you or someone you know is about to buy a house, PLEASE curb your emotions until AFTER you have performed all necessary due diligence!

Luwonda fell in love with a house and did not want to perform (imperative) due diligence. Failing to control her emotions, Luwonda almost committed a huge (and expensive) mistake. Luwonda temporarily turned off her common sense and it almost cost her $60,000.

By law, sellers must disclose known issues believed to affect future value of the property you want to buy. However, the seller might be a bank or investor who NEVER lived in the property and honestly doesn't know the property...or its hidden issues.

Here are 7 “must-dos” you simply cannot afford to overlook:

#1- HOME INSPECTION: Constantly, I’m amazed at the number of buyers who don’t want to pay $350 for a home inspection on the most expensive purchase they will make. Spend the money, attend the inspection & ask questions.
#2- TERMITE: In some cases, your mortgage lender will depend a termite inspection so you don’t have a choice. For under $100, a termite inspection is money well spent;

#3- HOME WARRANTY: Home inspectors cannot predict when the A/C, refrigerator, water heater or some other covered system will fail. For around $400, you provide yourself with more peace of mind;

#4- PROPERTY TAXES: Not confirming YOUR estimated property tax bill can be another costly mistake. Just because the current owner pays $1,000 tax bill doesn’t mean you will pay $1,000. Your tax bill could be 3x the current owner’s. Will your budget handle this unexpected surprise?

#5- SEX OFFENDER/PREDATOR INFO: Do you think having a convicted child molester living in the house next door to your dream home could affect your dream home’s value both now and in the future? Therefore, you need to confirm no offenders live nearby. How close is too close?

#6- MOLD: If you are looking at distressed properties, you must think of mold, to some degree. When nearly 75% of all sales today are short sales and bank-owned properties (and if they’ve been vacant for any amount of time in Florida’s heat and humidity without AC, you must consider mold.

#7- SCHOOL ZONES: Whether or not you have kids, you might want to confirm school district for the house that interests you. It’s not enough to confirm the school district from your friends whose house is across the street from the house you like. To your surprise, houses could be zoned for different school districts, one desirable and one undesirable.

Before you allow yourself to fall in love with the house (even if the house is one of many Longboat Key FL foreclosures), get a thumb’s up on all 7.

At one point, Luwonda blamed ME for destroying her dream. You see, she had fallen in love with this house and saw me as the dream-buster. Of course, her thoughts changed really fast when she reluctantly paid a little money and discovered to inspect as I insisted and shockingly discovered over $60,000 in “hidden” damage. Even then, $60,000 did not guarantee resolution – once contractors dug in, the costs could increase. Yes, Luwonda could not apologize enough once she came to her senses. Even during the darkest moments of trying to help Luwonda, I didn’t fault her – I realize it’s easy to fall in love with a house too early.

For more videos on HOW to buy Longboat Key FL homes for sale the "savvy" way, go now to my Sarasota real estate website. If you or someone you know wants to buy or sell a house in or around Sarasota, call me now.