Ten Reasons Why It's A Great Time To Buy!

1. Selection, selection, selection.

Regardless of price range, there are plenty of houses from which to choose. There's a great selection of new homes, single-family homes, condos and townhouses. You have many options. When resale inventories are low, buyers are forced to make compromises. Not today.

2. No bidding wars.

In 2005, it was not uncommon to make offers on 10 homes or more. A buyer may have lost the first nine to the feeding frenzy that existed in the market because other buyers bid the properties up substantially from the original listing prices. We often used escalation clauses where buyers authorized us to outbid other offers by thousands of dollars. There's no competitive bidding in the buyer's market of today.

3. You can make an offer.

A few years ago when you made an offer, the only question was how high above the list price you should reach in hopes of being the best offer on the table. Today the sell price vs. list price ratio is about 96 percent. Sellers won't be insulted if you make them a low offer.

4. Patience is tolerated.

In the hot seller's market, everything was rushed. You had to find a house before other buyers did, then hurry up and make the offer. Today, buyers can take their time. They can look at several homes and think about their decision for a while.

5. Due-diligence is welcomed.

In this market, a buyer is encouraged to obtain a home inspection, radon inspection, mold inspection, termite inspection and appraisal. In 2005, many buyers waived these contingencies in order to gain an advantage.

6. Plenty of new inventory homes.

Buyers sometimes had to play games if they wanted a newly built home. There were lotteries and waiting lists. Some buyers even slept in their cars in order to reach the head of the line. Not now since there are many new homes that builders are eager to unload.

7. Repair requests are accepted.

After buyers complete a home inspection, they're allowed to submit a repair request to the sellers unless the seller is a bank or the sale is a short sale. In the past, sellers often insisted the home be sold as-is. Many times, there were back-up buyers waiting for the primary buyers to upset the sellers, whose home was increasing in value almost daily.

8. Few investors.

It's estimated that one third of all sales in 2005 were to investors. These buyers caused the market to inflate and affordability to decline. Mortgage fraud became commonplace. It's a great time to buy without having to compete with hundreds of prospective landlords.

9. Location, location, location.

Today's buyers can find homes closer to work. In this market, reasonably priced homes are within biking or walking distance to schools, rapid transit lines and employers.

10. Real financing is available.

The "wink, wink" zero-down, no-doc, adjustable, sub-prime loans are gone. Low fixed rates are back!