08/31/2023
🗣️ Just me climbing on to my soapbox for a moment- personally I would rather buy at a lower cost with a higher interest rate I can refinance in the future than a higher cost (ie wayyy over asking) and lower rate because you can’t lower your purchase price. That’s permanent. There are SO MANY people “waiting for rates to drop” that when they do there will be a mad rush with higher preapproval amounts leading us right back to bidding wars and waved home inspections and no seller concessions.
Also, before you come at me for my foreclosure commentary, there will ALWAYS be foreclosures. There will always be people out there falling onto rough times, be it just bad money choices, divorce, addiction, job loss, death, etc etc. There is nothing wrong with buying a home in foreclosure and if you manage it good on you. Just don’t plan your home goals banking on it. My discomfort comes when people tell me they are specifically waiting for a crash and for everyone who bought their houses in the last few years to lose them. A crash implies a widespread financial crisis that they are somehow magically excluded from and in a position to just swoop in and snap up housing. Not only is that not a likely scenario based on the more stringent lending practices in play it’s just really sad to me. Everyone knows somebody who bought a home in the last few years, or at least of someone. Foreclosure means that families are in such dire financial crisis that they couldn’t even sell to walk away with a few dollars in their pocket. They’ve lost everything. Parents and children who don’t know where home is going to be. Wishing that upon people who took a chance and acted when they were able and made the decision to secure housing to advance your own ambitions after showing up late to the party just feels like bad karmic energy to me.
These things all tend to happen in their own time in their own way. The best advice I can give anyone is to get that preapproval and keep it up to date. Maybe you won’t use it for two years and that’s ok. When the house you want comes along you’ll be ready and prepared and hopefully not submitting offers in a state of desperation 💕