Thanks for tuning in my friends. Today we’re going to get into the top five things to avoid when purchasing a home here in San Diego. We work with a lot of relocation buyers, so some of that ties into it. We also work with a lot of people who live right here who move within San Diego. So these are the things that you’re going to want to avoid if you are purchasing a home right here in North County San Diego. I’m Chris Erickson.
Cassidy Lewis:
I’m Cassidy Lewis.
Chris Erickson:
And we love making these videos for you guys, but we’re also real estate agents right here in North County San Diego. So if you are thinking about buying, you have some questions, hit us up, call, text, email, that number popping up right now. We got your back when moving in and around North County San Diego. With that being said, let’s get into the top five things to avoid.
Cassidy Lewis:
So the first mistake we see a lot is buyers trying to time the market, they’re holding out because the prices are too high or interest rates are going up. Really what you want to focus on is what your payment is going to be and what your situation is. Do you need to move right now? Do you need a home? Are you going to be renting one way or the other or moving one way or the other because that is a big part of it. Even with interest rates increasing, you’re still locking in a payment and if the payment works for you buying a house, then you’re locking it in for 30 years and there’s a lot of other options as well. You can buy down the rate, you can refi if you’re going to be in the house for a few years, you can always refi once rates have gone down a little bit.
Chris Erickson:
And with those rate buy downs, it’s not cheap. It could be fairly expensive to get your rate to where it’s a comfortable amount for you, but it is an option there as well. There’s other loan options too. If you need a great lender, hit us up, we could hook you up with a great one. But even if you’re paying rent, that’s paying somebody’s mortgage. So run the numbers and dive in a little bit deeper and see actually kind of what your monthly payment is going to be. You’re living in the payment and not the price.
Obviously the price is super important. We don’t want people to overlook that. We don’t want clients overpaying for homes, but if you’re trying to time the market, basically nobody could do it. I mean even the smartest people, if you watch the news, if you watch anything that’s going on right now, you could see Zillow, they’re a data company, they have a ton of information, what they predicted at the beginning of the year to what they predicted in the middle of the year to what they’re predicting now, it has changed consistently of what’s going on in the market, what’s happening.
So what is your current situation and where are you comfortable with that current payments? Because if you could lock that in, you’re going to lock that in. Like Cassidy mentioned, that’s like locking in your rent for the next 30 years. Even if you’re renting, like I said, you’re paying somebody else’s mortgage, but more importantly that can change, that can fluctuate. They could push that up every year depending on what the current market rates are for rent and a good thing about mortgages and when you are paying that payment, you are paying down every single month. You’re paying down your principle of what you owe on that loan. So you are gaining equity every month, it’s somewhat of a forced savings plan.
And timing the market. Let’s go back to when the whole pandemic started. A lot of people, me included, thought the market was going to go down significantly. So a lot of people were living in that fear of what’s going to happen. We don’t know. I think the prices are going to go down so I’m going to wait. Obviously, it was a valid reason not to go just because nobody knew what was going on. But since then you have seen what prices have done. So there’s real no way to time the market. Obviously, do what’s comfortable for you and your family and make the best decisions you can on the current information you have, but have that long term approach.
If you’re going to move in and you’re thinking about potentially moving in a year or two, maybe, who knows what’s going to happen? But on that longer time horizon, like five, 10 years, a lot more stable. So if you look at any charts or anything like that in San Diego, prices over any of that time period has gone up. So just keep that in mind. You can’t really time the market, get in the best position for you and your family so you’re ready to roll.
The second mistake we see a lot is something called buyer’s remorse. Avoiding that. That’s basically when you move into your house and you’re like, “I don’t dig this area. I didn’t do enough due diligence, I didn’t do my own research.” Now one way that we do help relocation buyers is we do all these vlog style videos, we do these map style videos, but the most important thing is get out there and seeing it for yourself. Now we have done a lot of remote and a lot of virtual sales and stuff and people have been super happy, but it can’t happen where you get out here and you’re like, “I don’t dig this.” And you do have that buyer’s remorse and one way to help avoid that is when you’re looking on your searches and all that kind of stuff, you’re looking at… more look at areas even before you start your search.
So let’s go back a little bit, before you even start your real search, when you’re planning to actually come out here or you’re planning to make that move, go drive through those areas before. Don’t just look at the houses and the pictures and oh it’s a beautiful backyard, it’s super pretty. Go through the areas, different times of day, different times of year if you have that timeline, if you have that luxury of time because then you could really get to know where you want to live, what’s going to work best for you. We tell you our point of view and what we see and what we know is going on, long time locals here, but it could be different for everybody. So getting boots on the ground in those neighborhoods is a really good way to help avoid that buyer’s remorse.
Cassidy Lewis:
And like Chris said too, it’s not just going and checking out a house or doing a drive-by of a neighborhood, it’s going to the things around that you want to do. So if you’re moving to San Diego because you want to go to the beach, go check out the house that you’re looking at that’s looking like a good spot for you, and then drive to the beach. See if it’s a nice drive to the beach, see if it’s takes a long time or if you have to get to Trader Joe’s, which we hear a ton, see where it is, make that drive, see if that Trader Joe’s is the same fit as the one in your neighborhood that you really dig now. And just really get yourself into those neighborhoods to get the best feel before you make those decisions. And obviously we’re here to help give you as much information as we can about these neighborhoods, but it’s really about how it feels to you.
Chris Erickson:
And Cassidy made a good point about driving actually from the house to the beach or the neighborhood to the beach. Like 20, 25 minutes on a Google Map is a lot different than 20, 25 minutes when you’re in your car and you’re cruising through. You could go to different areas around here and it says 20 minutes but it feels like 40 minutes and vice versa, you could feel like 10 minutes. So make sure it’s that right feel and that right area for you.
Cassidy Lewis:
One of the ways to do this too, if you are not going to be here, living here while you’re searching for a home too, is setting up a real scouting trip out here, not a vacation because a lot of people came to San Diego and really want to live here after they’re done vacationing for a week. But it’s not the same as living in the community. You’re going out to dinner every night, which you probably won’t be doing when you’re living here. You’re going to the beach every day, you’re doing the touristy things around San Diego. So really come out here looking to get into those neighborhoods, get into the shopping areas around those neighborhoods and just really get that feel of what this place is like.
Chris Erickson:
And you live in areas different than you vacation in them. If you had an experience that wasn’t pleasant maybe 10 years ago in a certain city, these cities are huge, so don’t rule those places out because there are a ton of different little areas to live in and around these spaces. Maybe don’t live in that area if you don’t have a good vibe, you don’t have a good feel. But let’s take Carlsbad for example. Downtown Carlsbad is way different than LaCosta, is way different than Calavera, is way different than Aviara. There’s so many different areas and even certain areas of Carlsbad, people get this in their head, “I want to live in Encinitas” just because it has the name, it has, that’s what they feel, that’s where they want to live. Carlsbad is bordering on, it’s right next door, it lives a lot of the same, that South Carlsbad. So don’t rule areas out just because you have vacationed here and you didn’t like it or you’ve heard certain things. Get your boots on the ground and really explore.
Cassidy Lewis:
One of the mistakes we see quite a bit is focusing on the wrong things. When you actually start searching for homes, you’ve picked your areas that you’re going to look at, but now you’re really starting to focus in a little bit more. Really think about the main important things to buying a home and that’s going to be location. Not just a community but within the community, lot locations, things like that. Those are things that you can’t change. You can always go in, we always talk about location versus condition, you can always go in and remodel a house, you can’t move it. So you just focus on those things that are super important. And this is something that especially first time home buyers, it is not the easiest thing to see through when there’s colors on the wall that are awful or a project like a bathroom or a kitchen that needed to be done. Those are some of the things that you need to budget for, plan for, all of that, but you can never change where that house is located. So definitely focus on that.
Some of the other things too is we get a lot of folks that are stuck on a square footage of a home. So we put the minimum when we’re setting up searches and stuff, we set the minimum to what our clients are looking for. But you get into some of these houses and an 1800 square foot house can feel like a 2200 square foot house just because it’s open. There’s not two separate dining room, which is just a waste of space in some cases. We definitely talk about living in the floor plan, not in the square footage. It is definitely a thing. So that’s just a couple of things to think about and some of these things that we talk through with our clients are like two cars versus three car garages, lot sizes, lot locations. Does it have a pool? Some of these things or does it have a community pool? There’s a handful of spots that have community pools too. So some of these things are… you just want to make your priority list so you’re focusing on the things that are most important.
Chris Erickson:
As we’re chatting with clients, as we’re getting them set up on searches, we’re asking the right questions to help them find out what is the right stuff for them. Is this really that important or is that really important or what is the most important thing to you? So we kind of dial it in and help you figure out where’s going to be the best spot for you.
This next one’s a pretty big one and it is something that a lot of people don’t think about just because they go with somebody they know. They might just know a neighbor or a family member or just somebody that they throw them a random number. But getting your team, your real estate agent, your lender in place is crazy important for everything. I mean for the whole experience from start to finish, for that knowledge, that guide through the entire process, having those people in place is huge.
And lender, a lot of people don’t think about it, they just go with their bank or they go with, yeah, a lot of banks actually. That’s kind of what a lot of people think of when they think of going, I need to find a lender, so let me go talk to my bank. Not saying they’re bad, but they are usually not as efficient as a mortgage broker or a local within the neighborhood and they also only have their product, whereas a mortgage broker has access to a bunch of different products so they get to farm it out and work on your behalf. So there is a difference between a bank and a mortgage broker even on the agent side.
San Diego right here is huge. Our focus, main focus is North County San Diego, so our area of expertise is pretty concise, pretty dialed in. And so just think about that also when you’re hiring your agent. If you’re hiring somebody in San Diego but they are based out of, let’s just call it say Chula Vista, which is way far south and you’re trying to buy a home up in San Marcos, that is a completely different, it’s like a different world.
Cassidy Lewis:
Just in the same way that we wouldn’t go sell homes in Chula Vista, you want to find somebody that is focused in those neighborhoods, knows the feel. We have had past clients that have worked with agents that are focused on downtown or South Park or different areas of San Diego and then end up buying up here in North County and don’t love the neighborhood they moved into because their agent didn’t know a whole ton about what is going on in that specific spot.
So it’s really important that you find somebody that is local and it’s important on the agent and on the lender, just because the lender is also part of the sales group, they’re the ones calling the listing agent to put in a good word for your loan, to sell us as agents that we’re going to get the deal done. It’s really important. Banks are not going to do that. Banks have processes that take too much time honestly, and in changing market, who knows if it’s going to be as important, but we always want to have those tight timelines. We want to have the best offer on the table to get your offer accepted right off the bat.
The last mistake we see quite a bit is not getting the house first. That is focusing on getting into escrow, getting your deal accepted, and then dialing in the details. Because during the process of once you get into escrow, you’ll have due diligence periods, which we call contingency periods here, and that is a time where your initial deposit isn’t at risk and that’s when you get the disclosures from the sellers, you’re doing your inspections, if there’s questions about utility costs and things like that, that’s when you’re getting those numbers dialed in. And if for whatever reason one of these things is a deal breaker during escrow, you can cancel the deal and move on.
But we’ve seen a bunch of times where folks are focused on what is the solar cover or how much is the water bill every month. Those things obviously are important when you’re trying to think of a payment, but those are things that you can get figured out during escrow to make sure that it’s the right spot for you. We hate seeing clients miss out on opportunities when we’re just waiting for a little detail or a little bit of information when they could have got into escrow, got that information dialed in and moved forward if they wanted to.
Chris Erickson:
So once you actually do get into that house, we’re helping you go through all these documents, all these disclosures, the seller’s providing stuff, all of the stuff they know about the house. Even if some people worry, “if I pay too much, if the house doesn’t appraise, what happens?” We’ll help you put a plan together if that does happen, there are a few options there as well. Potentially getting out of the property too if it doesn’t work out.
But there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of little details that we will help guide you through so that you do know everything that you need to know about the property and can help you make that decision. Are any of these deal breakers? Usually, a lot of times if there’s anything like really big or really problematic about the property, that’s going to be disclosed right up front. Just if it’s a good agent, they’re going to let you know that right up front just because they don’t want to get into the property and then this is when all that stuff happens, that’s when it gets disclosed and then you move out, then they have to start over again. All those other details, when did they remodel the house, how much is those solar bills, all that kind of stuff will be disclosed when you are in escrow. But focus on getting the house first and then you can figure all that out secondarily.
Cassidy Lewis:
Thanks for following along. As a reminder, we are real estate agents here in North County San Diego, so if you are thinking about moving out this way, call, text, email, and if you’re looking for a little bit more information about other neighborhoods, check out that next video popping up and we’ll catch you on the next one.