You Gotta Know The Rules If You’re Gonna Play The Game

Have you ever played a game and been so frustrated you wanted to just stand up and throw all the pieces off the board? I know I have. Especially when you are just learning the rules and your opponent is a veteran. It leaves you angry and frustrated because they have an unfair advantage.
I’m sure it’s similar to the way a first time home buyer feels when shopping for their first dream home. Everybody knows the rules but them. I’ve been working with one such buyer in Davenport, Florida and his frustration level has been over the top lately. And in turn so has mine. When we first started looking for homes I couldn’t seem to get him to be realistic about the whole thing.

His pre-approval was for a $105,000 FHA loan. I explained the situation to him and made sure that he knew that he needed 6% closing costs from the seller so he wasn’t packing as big a punch as cash buyers and so on. I also made sure that he knew that there were multiple offers on almost every property because 90% of them are bank owned and priced very cheap.

He needs to pull the trigger and offer his highest and best right away. I set up a search for him that was within his limits and the next thing I know he’s calling me asking me to show him a house that’s listed at $138,000. C’mon man!!! So I explained that the home was out of his reach and we would be better served looking for a home that he could actually purchase.

He seemed to understand and we moved on...so I thought. We went back and forth for the next three months with him trying to buy a mansion and me trying to explain the market conditions to him. He didn’t seem to understand the set of rules we had to play by to get him an accepted offer.

Well fast forward to the present…I finally got through to him and we are making good offers on properties he can afford. The problem is we are now on a time crunch to get something accepted because the FHA guidelines will be changing soon and he won’t qualify for his mortgage when they do.

I plan on ensuring he wins the “game” but it sure would have been easier and less stressful for him if he had played by the “rules” from the beginning. I hope future home buyers learn from this. You have to try to understand the rules of the game so that you can be in a position to win it.