06/20/2026
Terry Williams at Nautica Real Estate, LLC has sat across the table from enough buyers and sellers to know the same surprises come up again and again. Here is what Terry wishes someone had told all of them before they needed to know it.
Your home inspection is not a tool to renegotiate every cosmetic flaw in a home you already agreed to buy. It exists to surface real issues, the kind that affect safety, function, or major systems, and those are worth negotiating, often through a credit rather than a repair. Treating minor items as leverage is how good deals fall apart over things that do not matter.
A pre-approval is not a guarantee. It is based on the information you gave a lender on a specific day. New debt, a job change, or a large deposit between pre-approval and closing can change your number. Do not open a new credit card for furniture before you close.
Your real estate agent should be doing more than unlocking doors. Pricing strategy, negotiation, contract deadlines, and knowing which inspection items are actually worth fighting for are where the real value is. If your agent is not doing those things, you are paying for less than you should be getting.
In my experience, the first two weeks a listing is active draw more buyer and agent attention than any other stretch of time on the market. A home priced wrong out of the gate rarely recovers that initial attention later, even with a price drop.
Closing costs are not a junk fee pile. Most of it is title insurance, recording fees, prepaid taxes and insurance, and lender charges that exist for real reasons. Ask for a breakdown if anything looks unclear. You are entitled to one.
Equity is not money in your pocket until you do something with it. It feels real on paper, but it does not pay a bill until you sell, refinance, or borrow against it.
Do not skip the final walkthrough. It exists to confirm the home is in the condition you agreed to before you hand over money you cannot easily get back.🙂🇺🇸
