Attention Buyers: Approach Sellers Carefully for a Florida Home Loan

It’s one thing to learn how to save money for a Florida home loan. In today’s cooling real estate market, however, it’s also important to know how to approach sellers once you decide to act on a mortgage.

In housing markets that are leveling off, such as Tampa Bay, experts are telling home buyers to ask sellers for extras, such as a year of Florida mortgage loan payments or picking up all closing costs. Realtors, meanwhile, may also be willing to take a much smaller cut of the deal.

A different view on Florida home loans

Not so fast, says Rhonda Duffy of Duffy Realty in Atlanta, a flat-fee brokerage. She takes a contrarian view on how home buyers should handle what could be a pause or a serious housing downturn.

While some overheated residential markets — Southern California, Florida — may see prices drop significantly, elsewhere homes are simply sitting on the market longer. Instead of it taking a weekend to sell, now it takes a month, or two or six.

This is partly due to the Internet, which allows prospective buyers consider online Florida home loans as they look at hundreds of listings online and view maps of sales, along with estimated values in a neighborhood, according to Duffy, who says the glut of information has slowed the process down.

Instead of muddying up the contract with requests for extras, she counsels, buyers would do well to focus on the bottom line. They don’t wanna anger or scare off the seller.

Too many caveats can frustrate a seller, for whom the deal is as much an emotional decision as it is a rational business transaction. That’s the opposite of what some others are saying, she admits. But a few insiders claim their is no Florida housing bubble, making it more difficult than you may have thought to have leverage over the seller.

Moreover, don’t expect your lowball offer to be snapped up by anxious sellers. People are already gearing up for longer waits on the market; they won’t simply agree on a lower Florida home loan because you throw it at them.