5 Questions to
Ask Before you Buy A House: Mastering the
Phone
by: Guest Author:
Michael Acord, The Real Estate Maestro
 As you stroll around your neighborhood
or look for property investments online, you'll
find a lot of properties that have potential. An
initial review will tweak your interest (maybe it's the
price, the location or it's just in an area you really
want to buy in), but you'll need to dig a little deeper to
find out if there is a real opportunity behind this
potential. The cheapest way to do this is to pick up the
phone, and call the vendor (or the listing agent - but you
will probably find this method works best with For
Sale By Owner Listings) and ask these 5 questions
before you buy that house.
The purpose of the
phone call is to extract information. What kind? As
much information as you can get. I tell every student the same
thing that was taught to me, real estate is a puzzle. Your job
is to extract the information (the puzzle pieces) and put the
puzzle together. Where do you start?
It's not about lot
size, bedrooms or baths; you start with what I call the 5 key
questions.
1. Price,
2. Reason for the sale,
3. Any major renovations needed,
4. How long have you lived there,
5. What is owed (mortgage balance)?
What is your
Price?
"Hi. I'm calling on the home for sale (include the address as
some people may have several properties listed). What is the
asking price? How did you arrive at that price?" This answer
will tell you the level of the seller's sophistication. If they
paid for an appraisal or interviewed agents, you may have some
data that you can use in figuring out your purchase price. If
uncle Vince, the tire guy, gave them the price and he knows
nothing about real estate then you may assume their
sophistication level is low.
| 
