Buying a Military House for sale by owner

Buying a Military House for sale by owner

            When you are looking to buy a Military House, you are likely to come across an occasional “For Sale by Owner” sign. If one or more of these houses strongly appeal to you, you may be wondering how to go about looking at and purchasing this type of home. Buying a For Sale by Owner Military House can present a few risks and challenges, as you will not have the benefit of working with a real estate agent, but it can be done if you know what to watch out for and how to go about making the transaction go as smoothly as possible.

There are various benefits when buying a Military House for sale by owner:

1. Understand that You Are Sacrificing the Services Provided by Realtors:

          “As agents, we work with other licensed professionals such as home inspectors and appraisers to help you see if you are making a sound investment. We also make sure the cities have no assessments assigned to the properties as it is the not always made known in a listing.” If you purchase your Military Home For Sale By Owner, you will need to give up these agent-provided services and will therefore need to handle them on your own.

2. Get Pre-Approval for a Mortgage:

         Before you start looking at houses, it is a good idea to obtain pre-approval from a mortgage. It is presenting a pre-approval letter to the seller enables you to let the seller know that you can afford to buy their property without the need to discuss your personal finances.

3. Stay focused when looking at the Military House:

       There is no real-estate agent working as the “middleman” in these transactions, you will be dealing directly with the home owner yourself. This means that when you view the property, it will likely be with the owner giving you a guided tour.

4. Obtain a copy of C.L.U.E. Report:

       A Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, or C.L.U.E., report will show you a five-year history of insurance claims that have been filed for the property in question. The reason this is so important is that not only will it reveal problems that the house may be prone to, it can also alert you to the potential for higher insurance rates for the property.

5. Never Skip the Military Home Inspection:

      When you buy a house For Sale by Owner, you are taking a bit of a risk. The home owner may have failed to reveal problems with the house and could have potentially hidden a lot of problems or diverted your attention from them while you were looking at the property.

6. Enlist the Services of a Real Estate Attorney:

      With a purchase this big, it is very important that you have a real estate attorney helping you through the sales contract. Your attorney can also help you work with the seller to determine who pays certain costs such as the title transfer fee, transfer taxes and so forth.

7. Use Neighboring Sales Prices as a Guide When Making an Offer:

      If you have found a house that you are interested in purchasing, it is time for you to make an offer. The listing price quoted by the seller may be arbitrary, as realtors typically help home owners determine what price to list their Military Homes at.

8. Use a Third–Party Service to Manage the Earnest Money:

      “Never allow the seller to hold your earnest money deposit but instead ask that it be deposited into an escrow account. The ideal time to open one is with the deposit of your earnest money.”