What Home Buyers Wish They’d Known

Nearly half of American homeowners recently surveyed said they would do something differently if they were to go through the homebuying process again, according to the NerdWallet’s Home Buyer Reality Report, which analyzed the steps more than 2,200 Americans took to homeownership.

If you want to help prevent buyers’ remorse, the following are some things you can focus on with your clients. These are the top things consumers say they regretted:

20 percent wished they had saved more money before buying a home;
13 percent would do more research on the mortgage-lending process;
14 percent would have shopped around more for a mortgage;
13 percent would research the homebuying process more.

The majority of buyers’ remorse seems to stem around the financing of a home purchase, the report finds.

“According to our research, borrowers who don’t understand the mortgage process or don’t know enough about their own credit history tend to hit obstacles or be rejected when applying for mortgages,” says Tim Manni, mortgage expert at NerdWallet. “They also tend to feel regret after their deal is done, even if they succeeded in buying a home. That tells me borrowers aren’t doing enough research—on themselves or the mortgage process—before applying for a home loan.”

Forty-one percent of Americans surveyed who applied for a mortgage say they felt they were not aware of all of their loan options during the lending process. Twenty-eight percent of consumers say they felt like they were not a priority to their mortgage professional during the loan process.

Overall, 42 percent of American homeowners called the homebuying process stressful. Thirty-two percent said it was “complicated” and 21 percent called it “intimidating,” the survey found. That said, 41 percent of respondents also called the process manageable and 30 percent called it rewarding. Thirty-two percent of respondents say their real estate agent made the homebuying process easy.

Source: “Home Buyer Reality Report 2017,” NerdWallet (Feb. 23, 2017)