While we’re still in Halloween Scary Things mode, we might as well address the fear factor when it comes to buying Steamboat Springs homes. First-time Steamboat Springs home buyers aren’t the only ones who experience at least some degree of trepidation as they go about such a major purchase. The prospect of buying a home can be so intimidating that putting it off seems the easiest course of action (actually, inaction). The problem is that if that delay happens to fall during a period of rising home prices or mortgage rates, it’s going to seem self-defeating in retrospect.
But unlike the scary Halloween decorations that are being crated up until next year, the fears that accompany home buying are reality-based. When you look up “home buying top fears” you come up with a remarkably consistent million and a half commentaries.
Here are 5 hobgoblins that contend for the honor of being the most Universal Home-Buying Fears—issues most likely to haunt people as they go about buying a home in Steamboat Springs :
1. Money. It’s not just the unusual number of zeros that buying a home involves, it’s also the scary thought that maybe the property is overpriced (in other words, that you are the only one who will ever be in love with the place enough to pay $xxx,xxx). The mortgage lender’s loan approval letter can shoo away this goblin.
2. Interest rates. As home loan interest rates rise, it’s rational to fear that you won’t find a suitable home before rates drive the monthly payment number out of range. As soon as the right Steamboat Springs home is located and rates are locked, this witch flies off into the night.
3. Condition surprises. This fear can wake anyone up in the middle of the night: what if the inspection doesn’t uncover major issues--but they show up later? This fear may be rational, but it’s seldom realized. It’s usually banished by Father Time.
4. The neighborhood. What if the neighbors turn out to be an unfriendly lot—or are just plain weirdos? The cure for this is as simple as chatting with some folks on the block, making some shopping forays at local Steamboat Springs stores. Most of us have our own reliable built-in antennas that alert us to places that make us uncomfortable.
5. It’s safer to rent. Especially for first-timers, this scary gremlin may be the most persistent of the five because it’s self-inflicted. In fact, it’s just another cloak that Fear of the Unknown wears—so it’s particularly difficult to throw off. The best cure is to remember that everyone who has ever bought a home in Steamboat Springs has eventually reached the opposite conclusion. Ask them, and they’ll tell you it’s one they don’t regret.
Buying a home can be scary at first, but one very reassuring factor is that you don’t have to go it alone. Just give me a call!