Looking for Investment Property
Since I am a U.S. citizen and I know that the U.S. housing market is bottoming out, I decided that this is a good time to invest in real estate in the U.S. We have been in Virginia now for 5 days and seriously looking for the right property to invest in. Having been in the property selling business for the last three years in Cyprus and dealing with a lot of buyers I was looking forward to being the buyer.
I am not only on the other side of the fence as a buyer, but in another country with a different system. There are things in common between both markets, like desperate sellers and great bargains with sliding house prices. There are however many obvious differences or there are at least here in Virginia. I have been watching the news on CNN and BBC and expected to find "For Sale" boards up and down every street, which is not the case, there are hardly any. The thing about the way things work in America is they figure out what works and what doesn't and they adjust quickly. According to my agent selling a home in a neighborhood that has every house for sale is not atractive for buyers and so many people opt out of sale signs.
An agent is also someone you can't do without in the U.S. as he can save you money as well as time and help you avoid the many pitfalls that can come along in the process. Unlike Cyprus, agents will not waste their time with a buyer unless 2 things occur:
They are financially qualified, which means to have the financing pre-approved by a lender or have the cash in the bank to cover all the costs.
Sign a document with the agent to be your sole representative in the process. Why should they do all the work for the buyer if they end up using someone else?
I agree with both of these pre-conditions 100% and I would like to push our system here in Cyprus in that direction. Whether my efforts to take the system in this directions bear any fruit or not, I believe that in time this will be the method used in Cyprus as well.
With the global housing market suffering and sales down all over the world and in Cyprus, we see many property sales companies downsizing and a few that have completely shut down. As this trend continues and as properties become more affordable many wishful buyers will try to get loans and buy the home of their dreams while the dice are in their hands which is what I am currently in the process of doing in the U.S. It is time to take advantage of the markets flip flop from a sellers market to a buyers.