Nobody loves a financial roller coaster

It has been said that the most expensive purchase most American's make
is the purchase of their home. It has also been said that buying a home
is an excellent investment in the future. In most cases, those two ideas
are accurate. However, in recent years we have seen far too many
examples of people, and families, who have purchased a home, only to
lose it unexpectedly. The specific reasons vary, but the root cause is
often the same. The buyer entered into a contract that they didn't fully
understand, or could not comply with in the long term.

Short sales, foreclosure, and bankruptcy are all financial stumbling
blocks that most of us would prefer to avoid. But avoiding a high-speed
ride on a financial roller coaster requires planning, careful
consideration, and often – solid advice from a professional. The bigger
the purchase, the more complex the repayment, the more likely it is that
you would benefit from having someone sitting on your side of the table
on the closing date to provide some peace of mind.

I think we can agree that it would be unreasonable to expect a 16 year
old to walk into a car dealership alone and negotiate a truly great deal
on their first car. The complexity of the purchase, combined with the
buyers inexperience, automatically slants the negotiation in the dealers
favor. And while the teenager may walk out of the showroom the proud
owner of a shiny new car – the cost of that transportation is likely to
be significantly higher than it had to be.

The same is true for most of us when we purchase a home. Although we may
be considering spending ten times more than we spent on our last new
car, we have a tendency to believe we can go it alone, and still come
out on top somehow. And sometimes we do. Then again, sometimes we find
out that there was a troublesome clause, codicil, lien, or deed
restriction that we missed when we went over the paperwork. Or perhaps
we learned too late that the fantastic interest rate we locked into for
the life of the loan, was actually only for a short period of time,
causing our mortgage payments to skyrocket in a totally predictable, but
completely unexpected way, right when we could afford it least.

This is a historically great time to be in the market for a home. That
is especially true if your credit is good and you have a healthy down
payment on hand. But neither of those two factors will guarantee that
you get the best deal you can get. And neither that enviable credit
score or the hefty down payment will assure you of a contract that is
truly fair and equitable all around.

The year 2010 just might be a great time to buy, if you're prepared and
walking into real estate negotiations with your eyes wide open and a
proven professional at your side. But then, with those tremendous
benefits working in your favor, almost any year would be a good time to
buy.