A commonly heard request from today’s home buyers in greater Cincinnati- it (“it” being a home or a condo) must have granite counter tops, 3 car garage, wooded lot and at least 4 bedrooms and not cost more than $250,000.

Really?

Real Estate buyers are so totally under the influence of television shows touting the do’s and don’ts of “getting a deal”….that they often don’t even look at the best properties.

It’s time for a quick lesson in the art of buying real estate…some items on your list are “fixables” and some are not.  So using the requirements above -only 7 properties listed in the 4 county area priced between $230,000-$260,000.  Not much for somebody thinking they need to look at 50 properties before making a decision.  However if you remove the requirement for granite counter tops- something I refer to as a fixable- the inventory almost doubles to 13 properties.

It’s true money can fix anything but realistically when shopping for real estate, items such as carpet, paint, counter tops, decking material and fixtures are easily personalized.

It’s much more costly to add the space to a garage, increase the number of bedrooms or plant enough trees to cover a treeless lot.

As buyers in today’s greater Cincinnati real estate market learn how to leverage your buying power by adjusting, not lowering, your requirements.  You may be surprised at how many more properties pop up on your viewing list.

Bottom line don’t get taken for granted by restricting your real estate options to “must haves” and be willing to look at “fixables”.

Still not sure- call and I will be glad to help.