by Colin Stafford

A highly popular trend for people buying Florida property in recent years has been the idea of focusing on homes that are for sale by owner. Its the ideal way to find that property you need, isn’t it? No fees to the Realtor so the property must be cheaper! But don’t underestimate the work to be carried out if you’re buying property in Florida this way.

The contract price is one of the first things to be sorted. A year or two ago when prices were rising almost weekly, sellers had a strong hand and buyers often gave in to ambitious owner-determined prices as a way to simply get into the real estate market.

But now things are different. Prices have fallen considerably, so its much more important to get the price right. Essential, in fact, whether the property is a home for sale by owner or whether its a real estate agent selling it. And in the case of a for sale by owner home, you must make your own judgment because you have no professional help.

You have several places to gather information for this task, including:

* Public records: check out County records for similar properties.

* Internet information: search online, for example at realtor.com or zillow.com or housevalues.com.

* Newspapers: read through the classifieds (Sunday or whatever is the best day for your area) and find similar homes to the one you’re looking at.

* Listing signs at the front of homes in neighborhoods close to the for sale by owner property you’re interested in. Phone the Realtor and find out the listing price.

Even though the information you collect by these methods may cover properties very different to the one you have in mind, at the very least you do have some starting data to work with.

But in addition to getting the price right, you will be responsible for some other important decisions in a for sale by owner transaction:

1. Will you be able to work with the seller or is he just testing the market without any real intention to proceed?

2. Are you comfortable with the job of bargaining? Push too hard and you may cause him to walk away. Go too soft and you will overpay.

3. Costs: what expenses will you be required to pay when buying Florida property in addition to the purchase price?

4. Contracts: What form of contract will you use? Which conditions should you (as the buyer) insist upon and which are less important? When do the buyer and seller become legally bound by the contract?

5. Do you need to use an attorney and if so, at what point? Is the Title Company option acceptable and advisable?

6. How important is it to agree a closing date as soon as the deal is agreed?

7. If the seller won’t proceed even though you have a written legal contract, what happens then?

8. Finance: how will the timing of your loan financing fit in with the contract closing date? What happens if there is a delay?

9. When you schedule a Home Inspection and the report shows that repairs are required, who is liable to pay for the repairs?

Each real estate deal is unique but the answers to various issues that arise are specific to each individual contract. If you’ve bought Florida property before or if you know enough to cope with the process, you should be able to manage the job.

However, if you have any nervousness at all and you want to make sure you don’t make any mistakes, you should think very carefully about asking for help from an attorney or a Realtor – after all, buying Florida property is just about as expensive a deal as most purchasers will make.

About the Author:
For more buying Florida property information and homes for sale in Florida advice, visit Colin’s site.