Tips and How-to's on Buying a Property or Home in Southern Utah

The home buying saga continues……

You have found a Realtor you are comfortable to work with and have figured out your financial abilities and how you hope to purchase your property. The next step is to start reviewing the properties for sale out there. I usually start by reviewing all the properties listed on the Multiple Listing Service. The local MLS will have the majority of the properties for sale. You can also get out there and drive around and see if there are for sale signs on parcels that are not listed.

Not all Real Estate agents belong to the Association of Realtors. Those that do not belong are not called Realtors, (that is a trademarked name) and they do not have access to the MLS. As you go through the active listings you can start to filter through the properties you are very interested in, possibly interested in, or do not want to consider at all. It is extremely helpful to go through the list ahead and delete those that are not to be considered.

I’ve been out on tours before with folks who have not done this process and it is challenging for a few different reasons. We end up either seeing a lot of properties and you soon cannot remember one from the other and you get the “deer in headlights” look and/or you waste the sellers time and their agents by viewing a parcel you have no desire to buy. I’ve pulled up in front of homes before and had the buyers tell me from the road they have no desire to see the home. I have to then go up and knock on the door if the seller is expecting us and cancel the showing. That is very hard on everyone involved.

It is better to take the time to preview properties first, if at all possible, so that you can screen out the listings. We all realize that sometimes this is not possible, but if it can be avoided, then it is best to avoid that type of situation. With all the technology at our fingertips today it is far easier then ever to preview a home online and know almost everything about it before you get there.

After we spend a day or two looking I find it is often fairly easy for me to tell if the buyer is ready to commit or not. I’ve spent a lot of time with some buyers who spend our whole time finding fault with every property we see. I have found that when this happens the buyers are simply either not ready to buy or have something going on in their life that they are not being realistic about. (ha ha…another way to say they are not ready!)

If you find you are doing this while home shopping you may want to stop yourself and ask yourself if you are “truly” ready to buy a property.

When buyers are ready, they usually spend a lot of time at all the parcels and try to envision themselves living there. Sometimes they find “the one” and spend all their time there or they make arrangements to come back to “the one” every day or few days to re-visit it over and over.

Sometimes buyers surprise you, so you never know. I’ve been with a few buyers who I would have swore were not going to buy and the next day they call me to write an offer.

After you get done looking at the homes and find the one you want to buy it is a good thing to discuss the offer process with your Realtor. I’ve had some buyers want to take the night to think about it and discuss it before we write the offer and others want to get the offer written right away. I, myself, prefer to take the time to think about it overnight, so I understand the need to take that time.

As a Realtor I try to find out from the listing agent if there are other offers potentially coming in or if we seem to have a few hours to sleep on it. If other offers are coming in, I then counsel my client to consider getting an offer in quickly or just letting the other agent know we are coming in with an offer. Most seller’s agents welcome a multiple offer situation so they are often willing to try to counsel their sellers to hold out to see your offer. Most are also willing to keep me informed of any updates while we are waiting for my buyers to make a decision. There is always the risk of losing it however.

I’ve been in some situations where my buyers and myself feel we are being manipulated into thinking another offer is coming in when in fact it is not. This is done just to get us to write an offer and a good one at that. It is not always easy to tell if there is truth to it or not.

I counsel my client to act as though it is true and write an offer accordingly. Meaning, write an offer you will be happy with. I don’t want them to feel they have overpaid and then later regret it nor do I want them to try to be a hard bargainer and lose it and then later kick themselves because they lost it. I have them make the decision that they can live with one way or the other. I’ve seen both sides of the coin and it is not pretty to witness. It is far nicer to see a buyer get a home they really, really want, even if they have to pay a bit more then they had hoped for but not so much that they feel “stuck”. I really hate to see a buyer refuse to budge on their bargain price and then lose it to another buyer who felt there was value there and then the buyer spends many years wishing about what they could have had and lost.


Part of your buying process should be asking your Realtor for a list of all the most recent sales in your area. It is often amazing to find that there is a large discrepancy between asking prices and ultimate sales prices. Also, if you go to different states or areas you will find that buying practices in one area may be different then another area.

When I bought a parcel in New York I asked for all the sales comps and could see that the sales prices were within about 5% to 2% from the asking price. In Southern Utah, at the time, the difference was about 20%. So I knew if I wanted to be successful I needed to conform to the general buying practices of the area.

Your Realtor should have the ability to access all the sales comps in the area you are shopping in. I am not sure about the rules and laws of all the states but in Southern Utah at least this is true. Don’t be afraid to ask.

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