At the moment I am often hearing the question “How do I buy a home?”

The fact is home buyers are increasingly having a difficult time to buy property in the current market conditions. I am coming across a lot of buyers that have missed out on 3 -4 properties, and in some cases more.

We are currently in a sellers market, with more listings than buyers, good properties that are priced correctly are being snapped up fast and often with multiple offers.

Here are 5 quick tips for home buyers to stay ahead of the competition:

  1. Educate yourself so that you are prepared, know the process on how to buy a home.  If you are new to home buying you can find out more information on How To Buy a Home from my Home Buyers Education e-Course here
  2. Align with a good agent in each company who you get along with on a personal level, become their friend.  You can register  for my VIP Buyers Service here
  3. Work out exactly what you want – the more detailed you can be the better. Unfortunately when we are given our Real Estate License from the REAA they don’t seem to give us mind reading powers (I wish they did). The clearer that you can tell us what you want, the more we can help you.
  4. Contact your agents on a regular basis, remind them who you are and that you are looking. I currently have over 100 active buyers that I am working with. While I am in contact with these people, if you want to stand out and hear about properties before everyone else, you need to speak up and let yourself be known!
  5. Lastly, be ready to act and act quickly.  It’s really a case of the quick and the dead out there. The other buyers are your competition and they are ready to act.
With the raising interest rates and increase in prices now coming through, you can only expect that the property market activity and buyer competition will heat up further.
Good luck!