The St Aug Blog

by Sean Hess (www.SeanHess.com), Broker and Manager for St. Augustine Team Realty (www.StAugustineTeamRealty.com)

A few months back I wrote a post saying the Moon May be Finally Setting on the Buyer’s Market. I believe that more now than ever.

Why?

Aside from an inventory in residential single-family homes that is steadily decreasing, it’s amatuerland out there in Buyersville and it feels soooooo normal market.

The last few years Buyers have been steely-eyed gunfighters.  They make an offer, it’s either accepted or rejected, or countered, and whether the deal goes or doesn’t go is based on rational things like price and terms.

But now the chechakos are into the mix, the same as at the height of the boom market when a buyer once made a decision to skip signing a document in order to play bingo, and lost a house because of it. 

Is it rational to reject a house because it has strawberry colored curtains in the breakfast nook?  No…you can change the curtains!  Is it rational to reject a home because you have to pay the first year’s insurance on it at closing?  No…you have to do that for every home!  Is it rational to make an offer on a home on the beach, and then cancel it because you have to buy flood insurance?  No…that big, blue body of water out the front door might be an early indication that you will need flood insurance! 

So the amatuers are out there, bless their hearts, and it feels normal again. 

So, to recap:

• If you don’t like the color of the walls or curtains, you can paint or buy  new curtains.
• If you finance a home you will generally pay one full year’s worth of insurance upfront, and then an additional three months to fund the insurance escrow account.
• If you don’t want to buy flood insurance, don’t look at beach properties.  True, there are some out there that don’t require it, but the vast majority do require it.  Find out before you look.

The next question is how soon will it be before the Sellers start going to crazyland?  We will know for sure when Seller From New York Threatens to Kill $250,000 Sale Over $1,325 Title Insurance Charge.  It has happened.  It will happen again.

Tags: St. Augustine Homes for sale, St. Augustine Real Estate

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 7:27 am and is filed under St. Augustine Homes for sale, St. Augustine Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.