"Non-Buyer's Remorse"

Coaching 1st-Time Buyers

Everyone knows what Buyer's remorse is: the feeling you get, after you've bought something, that you just made a horrible mistake.

So, what is non-Buyer's remorse?

The feeling you get when you find out that the house you were furiously deliberating about buying, instead sold to someone else.

I counsel first-time Buyers weighing a purchase decision to imagine how they'd take such news.

If they think their reaction would be indifference (or similar) . . . it's not the right house.

(I suppose the appropriate name for that sentiment would be "non-Buyer's non-remorse").

P.S.: Buyers should trust their gut on this one only if they already have done their homework and know the market.

And, this test doesn't apply to investors.

P.P.S.: It's been awhile, but my advice to Buyers in multiple offers is similar: 'the right price to offer is the price you can live with if you get the house . . . . and the price you can live with if you don't.'

Taking the Plunge . . Finally

Bear Market Winners: First-Time Buyers

The housing bust is creating a new group of winners: first-time home buyers. People who sat on the sidelines -- often watching wistfully as their friends became homeowners -- are suddenly in a position to grab some great deals.

--Mary Pilon, "For Some, It's Finally Time to Dive Into Housing Market"; The Wall Street Journal (2/11/09)

Check out this survey piece in the Journal profiling recent, first-time home Buyers in Phoenix, Seattle, and Connecticut. According to the article, the various incentives now accumulating for first-time Buyers may help blunt their fears of falling prices.

It's also the case that the housing downturn has created a new *mantra amongst would-be home Buyers.

Just like a rising stock market taught a previous generation of investors to "buy the dips," falling housing prices have persuaded many prospective Buyers that "waiting pays off."

*The best mantra? Don't do what everyone else is doing -- and never do anything reflexively.