The Real Estate Myths

Floating out around in the real estate world are a few myths that need to be dispelled. Here are a few that we’ll go over and see what’s true and what is not.

1. Flipping houses means huge profits: Although you can make money flipping houses, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. You buy a house that needs work at a price that you’re very happy with and you think you’ll be able to make a lot of money on. If you choose to live in the house while restoring it, you have to live in the mess, deal with construction and have trouble finding the light switch because it’s been moved again. There is the cost of buying and selling, the property taxes, and the renovation costs. If you let the house sit empty while you’re working on it, it also takes from the profit. You’re making payments and getting nothing back during the renovation period.

2. You own the house, you call the shots: This is true in some respects. You have control over how your property looks and what you want to do with it. However, if the house is next to a crappy neighbor, it affects the resale value. You have no control over everyone else's house and no control how the rest of the neighborhood looks. Your neighbor could be your worse nightmare. Real estate is not a liquid asset and you could be stuck in the house longer than you want or intended to be.

3. You shouldn’t sell your own home: This isn’t necessarily true. Who knows more about your home than you? About 15% of today’s home sales are for sale by the owner transactions. The internet has removed a lot of the mystique from the process. People can now access prices, demographic data and contracts online. They can market their homes with digital pictures right on the computer. You do have to invest time when doing it yourself. There are more houses than buyers at this time.

4. Your realtor is all about you: Yes, your realtor is working for you but some just want to get the deal through. Sometimes they’ll push for the first reasonable offer because commissions are split. They’re split between the seller’s agent, their brokerage firm, the buyer’s agent and their firm. So a higher offer will still only yield a small amount of increase for them based on a 6% commission.

5. Buying a house in a quality school neighborhood: Buying a home in a good neighborhood is something that we all want to do. The thing to remember is that your house may not appreciate to where you’d like it to be because of the same factor that you bought it for. You may find a comparable house that costs a lot less in a neighborhood that is just as nice but without the school district factor. You may actually save money for your child’s education by living in a less well to do neighborhood and sending them to private school if school is an important factor for you.

So by keeping these few myths in mind when buying a new house, you’ll be able to navigate the real estate world more easily.

By Linda Lee Ruzicka

Linda Lee Ruzicka lives in the mountains of Western PA , happily married and with her 8 cats and three dogs. She has been published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Writing Village, June Cotner anthology, The Grit, Reminisce , the book, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family. She also does freelances work for Beyond and Realestatejobsite. You can read more of her blogs on Realestatejobsite blog.