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Douglas Trudeau , Assoc. Broker
Prudential Foothills Real Estate
64 N. Harrison Road, Suite 160
Tucson , AZ 85748
Mobile: 520-954-2209
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What Do Home Buyers Expect In The Real Estate Market Today?

Ask any Realtor in the Tucson real estate market what buyers expect and you will likely hear one common answer, “Satisfaction.” Satisfaction is a fairly general term. What does satisfaction mean.

Two years ago satisfaction meant getting the home that buyers were bidding for without someone else out bidding them. It was not uncommon in the Tucson real estate market at that time to have multiple offers on a home within hours after it went on the market. What it inevitably lead to was some buyers paying more than their home is worth today. The tide as turned and buyers have redefined satisfaction.

Buyer satisfaction hold steady is the tile of a report offered by Builder Online. Keep in mind this is for newly built homes. Of the 50,000 plus who responded to the survey price and value was surprisingly only 12%. The highest ranked was home warranty and customer service. With all the hoopla about the mortgage market one would assume that price and value would rank much higher. Looking deeper, the survey was in the Spring of 2007 before the mortgage challenges arose.

Using service and warranty is one means for buyer satisfaction, how do home owners compete? Home owners won’t be directly able to provide customer service following the sale of their home, however, they do have one option; a home warranty. For a few hundred dollars home owners can offer the buyer of their home a home warranty to protect the buyer from most break downs or problems. There are a variety of home warranties available. American Home Shield is the most prevalent. Fidelity National Home Warranty is another commonly used home warranty provider. There are many others out there to choose from. The question remains unanswered, “What do home buyers expect in the real estate market today?”

The National Association of Realtors reported that home buyers are looking for more garage space and media enhancement. I have seen with buyers that many want to have a larger garage for their vehicles. I haven’t had many tell me that they want a place for their big screen TV. Many have expressed desire for high speed Internet through. Not the answer I was looking for.

On her Luxury Home site Roberta Murphy explains what luxury home sellers are looking for in their Realtor. Not much different than what non-luxury home buyers are looking for. I think all buyers want help finding a home, negotiating, managing the transaction, and help in understanding the transaction.

My question remains unanswered in my quest. So, here is Doug’s version. Buyers need to feel trust in their Realtor, Lender, and the value of the home that they are buying. Buyer confidence to move forward has taken a big hit. With the hype on the news about the mortgage industry and the increasing number of foreclosures, buyers do not want to be a part of that mix. Buyers expect their lender to be around tomorrow. Investment in real estate not matter the expense of the home is a big step for a buyer. They expect their home to retain the same or better value.

When home buyers make an offer on a piece of real estate they have a right to expect that their investment is a good investment. The gap between seller value and buyer value has increased over the past several months. Prices have dropped dramatically. What will help buyers to regain confidence is for homes to sell. Its a Catch 22. If buyers don’t buy homes don’t sell. If homes don’t sell, the market cannot recover and values begin to appreciate again. Builders are trying to stimulate the market with price reductions. The federal government has done what it can to stimulate the market. Lenders have made loans less risky so second market investors will buy up loans. When buyers increase buying, then and only then will they begin to see values begin to increase.

Buyers are still looking for satisfaction. There are two ways to approach it. Wait for your ship to come in or swim out to it. So, if you are a buyer sitting on the fence post waiting to see what will happen my advise to you is make it happen. Get down off the fence post and buy that home. Create your expectations, go to your ship rather than waiting for it to come to you. What are you waiting for?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Tucson 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.

I’ve got to agree with you regarding the issue of trust. Unfortunately the media’s negative potrayal of real estate professionals can sabotage the client / agent relationship before it begins.

October 15th, 2007 // Valorie Bradley
Valerie - Thank you very much. I ran across an interesting article that says it the way I feel.

October 15th, 2007 // Doug

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