Ray Brown

Good news. It doesn’t matter whether you buy a log cabin, Cape Cod colonial, French provincial, Queen Anne Victorian, or California ranch-style house. You can make money on any property by following three fundamental principles to select the home you buy. As you read the following home-buying guidelines, remember that they’re not hard-and-fast rules — exceptions do exist.

Nearly everyone seems to have an opinion about buying a home. People in the real estate business — including agents, lenders, property inspectors, and other related people — endorse homeownership. Of course, why wouldn’t they? Their livelihoods depend upon it! Therein lies one fundamental problem of nearly all home buying books written by people who have a vested interest in convincing their readers to buy a home.

When you’re looking for the right house, it’s good to know the fair market value. This article helps you determine the fair market value of the properties you’re interested in.Believe it or not, houses are like Red Delicious apples. Most houses are green and need more time on the real estate tree before they’re ready to pick.

Negotiation is an ongoing process — a series of steps without a neatly defined beginning and end. Think of water flowing as you approach the process for negotiating house prices.Each step in the negotiating process begins by gathering information. Once you understand the various aspects of buying a home, then you can translate your information into action that generates more information that in turn leads to further action.

When you own a home, the odds are extraordinarily high that someday you’ll sell it. People who live their entire lives in their first home are rare. Selling a house is generally somewhat less complicated than buying one. But just because selling a house may be easier than buying one doesn’t mean that most people sell their houses properly.

Selling a house without an agent is doable, but it’s considerably more challenging than it looks. If, after weighing the pros and cons of taking the "for sale by owner" route (FSBO), you decide to attempt to sell your house yourself, be sure to read our final words of wisdom. Educate yourself The things you don’t know generally are what get you into trouble.

When you’re ready to get down to the nitty-gritty specifics of selecting your own agent, we recommend you interview at least three agents before selecting the lucky winner.To help you find three good agents to interview, tap into the following referral sources: Friends, business associates, and members of professional, social, and religious organizations to which you belong: In short, anyone you know who recently sold a house or is in the process of selling a house in your neighborhood is a source of agent referrals.

Good agents come in a variety of races, colors, creeds, and ages and may be male or female. All the best listing agents, however, have certain important qualities in common. They do the following: Listen: The best agents know the importance of tailoring the relationship to your wants and needs. Beware of agents who lay out a program without first getting your input.