The Real Estate Market Through a Buyer's Eye

When buying a house, most people want the biggest, best bang for their buck. In this day and age, it's not always easy to get quality and quantity. Housing divisions seem to be popping up everywhere. There are cookie-cutter houses in almost every city across America. When the real estate market hit its high a few years ago, many people jumped on the wagon. Many companies started building houses quickly, but not always accurately. With speed comes mistakes, but also, for a while at least, a quick buck. Now that the real estate market has taken a dive, it has put many of those companies on the edges of their seats, biting their nails. Alot of the smaller construction companies have bottomed out completely, forcing workers to find jobs elsewhere. Interest rates seem to be climbing slowly, but steadily, adding to the headache of buying a new home. Leaving many on every side of the real estate market wondering what to do.

As a buyer, there are still plenty of options out there. You may have to shop harder and longer for a better deal and interest rate, but they are out there. If you find a house you really love, it will probably be worth the headache. Times could get harder, interest rates could rise more, sometimes you have to act fast to get what you want.

Don't forget, you don't have to settle with what you see already built. If you're not completely satisfied with what you are seeing when shopping for real estate, you could always search for a piece of land and build. If time is not something you have a lot of, you might even consider a manufactured or modular home. Pre-fab homes are another similar option to these types of homes too. Keep in mind that manufactured homes may not be the easiest to get a loan for, as they are considered "trailer" homes. Meaning, they still have the steel beams underneath for easier moving. Modular homes are built just like "stick built" homes but inside a weather free building. Of course, they are then transported to your piece of land. Modular homes have wood beams underneath, just like stick built homes. You can typically get alot bigger modular home for less money than a stick built one. For example, a typical, run of the mill, 1500 square foot stick built home may cost you around $150,000. You could get the same basic modular home for as little as half of that price. Many modular home companies offer walk throughs so you can see the process of how one is built. You might be shocked to see some of the finished products.

Just remember to keep your eyes and options open. Don't be scared to check every end of the home buying spectrum. From stick built to modular, there are plenty of choices out there.