The Right Things Wrong Can Save You Thousands! 
The Wrong Things Wrong Can Cost You on Resale!
    
     Uninformed and uneducated buyers buy with emotion and often make irrational, emotional and sometimes even petty decisions! This is one reason why it is so important to have a knowledeable person by your side!
     What is good and what is bad?  What is right and what is wrong?  What represents a good value and what represents a good financial decision?   Should you purchase a home if it has a good price? What about a home's potential for appreciation or profit?  Should you buy with your heart?  Is location really the most important thing?
     One of the most important things to keep in mind is to buy a neighborhood and not the house.  Most buyers fall victim to the house! In my experience buyers will frequently pick the house itself over all other factors. Additionally, most buyers will veto or over rule professional advice 50% of the time. 
     As a buyer it is important that you understand this tendency.  So here is a little advice. 

A house is like a good suit of clothes: It is only as good as the cloth it is made from.

1.  Look in the best neighborhoods, with the highest appreciation, the best schools, the best amenities, the best churches, the best parks, and the best locations within your price range. 

2.  Keep an open mind. Obviously, if the home has a good location the seller will ask for more money and make fewer preparations to sell.  In other words, the homes in the best locations often don't show well...they don't have to.

3.  Stay away from model homes in lesser locations because you will be seduced by how much you can get.  The reason is simple: cheap land.  The builder is making their money buy buying the land at a good price in a lesser location and passing that savings on to you. 

4. Stay disciplined and beware of bad advice from friends and relatives.  Don't start to second guess a professionals advice and don't take advice from someone other than a local professional.  You should lean  heavily on what your REALTOR is telling you.

5. Understand where value comes from and how to make it work for you
      In many cases a few small things wrong (the right things wrong) can make a big difference in the end result achieved for the buyer. These right things wrong are what to look for when buying to save thousands of dollars!

THE RIGHT THINGS WRONG ARE:

1. Paint !  This is obvious but...painting is the easiest and most cost effective way to increase the value and salability of a home.  Paint issues are the most obvious RIGHT THING WRONG because it is so easily corrected at a very low cost!  Untrained and uneducated Buyers will turn down a property because of paint color or damaged paint. Don't be one of them!

Commonly, a home painted at a cost of $3,000- $7,000 can have a striking visual improvement, so appealling that it increases the value by $10,000 or more. That is a HUGE return on investment! This is the reason so many smart investors have learned to flip houses! Sometimes just paint and landscaping make all the diffference! Knowing this will help you to make a better buying decision! Do not make the mistake of turning down a messy, dirty or unpainted home! Instead see through the dirt and reap the rewards!

2. Landscaping !  Buyers will reject a house because of a poorly landscaped yard! 

I have seen buyers turn down properties because of weeds, cedar trees, brown patches on grass, dead grass and over-grown bushes. Fixing these items are remarkable inexpensive. You can fix these items in our spare time for FREE...this is what we call SWEAT EQUITY! We frequently see $500 in landscaping increase a homes value by $3,000 or more!

3. Pet Odor ! Buyers will turn tail on a house because of a pet odor.

Pet odors, to an investor, are a great and wonderful gift. If I smell pet odors, I get excited because I know it is money in my buyers pocket! Most of the time pet odors are easily and completely removable so long as the urine has not seeped behind the base boards and into the walls themselves. But usually, the odor is from a wet dog or a pet accident that was not properly cleaned. Do not reject a home because of pet odors! Use wisdom and fight past the smell to the value it puts into your pocket! Often just one good cleaning solves the problem!

4. Termites ! Buyers will reject a home because a house had a termite treatment! Even though all the affected wood has been repaired and/or replaced and the termites have been eradicated!  Now that is just silly! 

TERMITES! Investors LOVE termites because everyone is afraid of them... but most of the time the reapirs are small and inexpensive. You can save thousands and tens of thousands on a house with active termites! TO PROVE MY POINT! We had multiple offers on a completely rehabbed home in perfect condition. The seller disclosed that they had discovered some termites in the outside siding adjacent to the ground. The entire home was immediately treated for termites, all damaged areas were replaced and the home was put into a monitoring program to prevent recurrence. The buyer backed out of their agreement with us because they just did not want a house where termites had visited. These buyers turned down a propery that was later sold for thousands more and has appreciated at a fantastic rate ever since. Those buyers are still renting a home a few houses down, fearful of owning a home! Be smart and understand the value!
 

5. Drywall Cracks ! Drywall cracks on vaulted ceilings are very common due to the temperature differentials caused by this type of construction.  What you have is R-30 insulation on top and insulation as low as R-16 on the vault it causes expansion and contraction at the joints.

6. Gas Leaks !  I once had buyers who wanted to terminate because an inspector said the gas log lighter leaked through the holes on top. (They are designed with holes in them to let out the gas to light the logs!)  I had a utility company a certified plumber and a fireplace company tell them is was acceptable in writing before the buyers calmed down and went through with the purchase!

7. Roof Leaks and Hail Damage !

1. I can't tell you how many times an inspector has seen a stain on the ceiling and called it a roof leak. TRUE STORY: On one house I hired two roofers and two general contractors to explain to the buyer that the roof was not leaking. It was merely poor craftsmanship in the sheet rock that caused a strange shadow. Til this day the agent and the inspector still claim it was a legitimate leak! RIDICULOUS! See next story below.2. I recently talked to a buyer (NOT MINE) who DID NOT buy the house of their dreams because the inspector said the METAL ROOF was defective, leaking and needed to be replaced. (COST ESTIMATE of $25,000) The buyer backed out and found out later that the metal roof needed $400 of new grommets to fix the problem. Turns out the inspector was unfamiliar with the reapir methods of metal rrofs.

8. Water Heater Leaks !

We had a house which had recently had a water heater replaced and the water stains were still there from the previous water heater leak. The inspector said the stains indicated a current leak. Even after three plumbers and a contractor inspected the nearly new water heater and told the buyer that the stains were from the past...the buyer would not go ahead until the perfectly good water heater was replaced. Even the inspector told the buyer he wanted a licensed plumber to check to see if it was leaking. Once the buyer got it in his mind that there was a leak nothing could move him. True Story.

9.  Inspector Over-Calls !

 You must understand inspectors! They have to protect you because they have a fiduciary responsibility to do that. However, they must also protect themselves from unscrupulous buyers too! 1. Light Fixture Inoperative - this means a light bulb is probably not working. 2. <Roof at end of normal life span - this means the roof is not leaking and is functioning as intended, but the inspector can tell it is probably older than 10 years. 3. Faucet Leaking Slightly - Most faucets have seals and moving parts.