Dawna Davies and her assistant Jodi Blanchard did an exceptional job in helping us sell our home in San Luis Obispo. Dawna’s intelligence and knowledge of the business made the whole complex process easy for us to understand and navigate. What seemed like counter-intuitive advice at the start—that we should be extremely thorough in discovering any possible problems with the forty year old house and present them in advance—turned out to streamline the final transaction by building trust in potential buyers and removing the possibility of unpleasant surprises and uncertainty for us. Her contacts with a wide range of local business people who carried out many preparatory operations quickly and economically offered another unique benefit. Her tact and amiability made our numerous interactions pleasant rather than wary. And Jodi’s work in converting the box full of documents from our files into a coherent house-maintenance-history binder meticulous and creative. From start to finish our involvement with Davies Company was personally as well as financially rewarding.
- Determine when and if it will be best for you to buy real estate. Talk with your CPA about potential tax benefits for you with owning real estate. In our experience, only about 40% or less of potential property buyers do this before buying property.
- Determine when the timing is best for your personal circumstances. Consider factors like your health and upcoming plans for the year.
- Shop for your loan in advance. You will be more credible as a buyer if you have in place the means to buy before shopping.
- Watch “sold” real estate activity in the community. This is important for buyers to do because it can give an indication of how the sellers (and their agent) will view your offer, and the expectations that sellers have about the market.
- Resist the temptation to grieve yesterday’s lost deal. You can only buy the property that is available today, not yesterday's and not tomorrow’s. If it seems like a good deal, it probably will look like an opportunity to many other buyers. Trust yourself and your agent, and act on it! Better to be the buyer in first position with back-up offers behind you, than competing in a pool of desperate multiple offers (yes, multiple offers happen in all market conditions).