With asymmetric information, it is easy to cause investment failure. Here are some knowledge of home ownership to reduce the risk of investment.
1. Buy a house and entrust it to a broker for full management.
Many people do not live in the U.S. and buy a house just for investment, so some people entrust the house to brokers for management, just to save their time. However, there is a certain risk of legal encroachment.
What is legal encroachment?
Under the California Civil Code, the Right of Abode Act, also known as the Inverse Encroachment Act, is designed to protect the rights of occupants who trespass on a home without the homeowner's permission.
If someone has lived in the house for many years, attended HOA meetings like the homeowner, and paid property taxes and other housing-related fees for five consecutive years, the occupant can apply to have the title legally transferred into their name.
With this in mind, for homebuyers, be careful if a broker or agent says they will pay your property taxes in a package.
To avoid legal encroachment, home buyers are better off paying their own annual property taxes.
2. You have to pay the brokerage fee to buy a house.
In the United States, the broker's fee for a real estate transaction is paid entirely by the seller, and the buyer's broker cannot charge the buyer separately.
The brokerage fee paid by the seller is about 4% to 6% of the price of the house, half by the buyer and half by the seller's broker. If the buyer pays the buyer's broker's fee separately, it is equivalent to paying it in two installments.
3. You can save on brokerage fees by not having a broker.
If the buyer does not have a broker, there is no one to negotiate, sign, and plan for him/her, especially the selection and bidding, both of which require the broker's very professional knowledge to help the buyer's advice.
If it is just handed over to the seller's agent, the seller's agent will surely want to make the house in her hands a quick and successful transaction. In the end, the buyer will not only not save money, but will probably lose a lot.
3. The price of the house can be checked out online.
All houses for sale in the United States, on the U.S. real estate website, you can see the listing price of the property, the change in the listing price and the historical transaction price.
If you are worried about the agent's price increase, you can check the price of the house you want to buy online.
You can also make a comparison with the price of the neighboring houses, which also helps to judge whether the agent's offer is reasonable and prevent the offer from being too high.
4. Home inspection without checking the air conditioning system.
The inspection of buying a house in the United States is important. It is usually necessary to make an appointment in advance for a thorough inspection by a third party.
If it is a house with central air conditioning, it is recommended that you hire an extra air conditioning repairman to do a detailed inspection.
Generally, it only costs $150, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the money spent on replacing the air conditioner.
Also, during the inspection, please check the roof of the house in detail to see if there are any leaks and how many years it has been in use. This is very critical. Once the roof of a house in the US has a problem, it will cost about $50,000-$100,000 to fix it all.
I hope every reader who is interested in buying a home will be successful in doing so.
