Strategy Two: Big Ticket Items

It has been a light week for two reasons- I have been traveling and there have not been any amazing deals out there. It's kind of disappointing, really. But Father's Day is around the corner and that means there will be more. Anyway, I digress. Today I am going to discuss strategy when buying big ticket items- namely houses and cars. I am not an expert, but this is what I've learned.

Do your research
If you are house shopping, look at other houses on the market on Realtor.com that are in the neighborhood. Calculate price per square foot and apply that to a house you may be looking at. If you are shopping for a car, get on Kelley Blue Book, and know the exact value that you should be spending on that particular model. My husband and I bought a used minivan three years ago, and the first thing we did was get the amount we should be paying off of Kelley Blue Book. We used it as leverage, and then knocked an extra amount off of our offer- because the lady was desperate to sell. She was moving to Korea in six weeks. Which leads me to the next point...

Don't be desperate to buy, find someone desperate to sell
Appearing desperate to buy is the fastest way to get overcharged. Not only are you not giving yourself ample time to research, you are giving the salesperson all the leverage. Catch the car salesman on a day he's trying to reach a quota. Find a house where the family is being forced to move quickly. Find a lady who needs to sell her car because she's moving to Korea. Clarification: This is not taking advantage of the person. Always be fair with your offers and keep the other person's needs in mind. But the person who needs to move sometime within the next year and the person who needs to move in the next month are going to be very different in their approach to sell.

Eliminate the middleman
My husband's parents recently accepted a contract on their house- from our friends. Just because I sent out an e-mail BEFORE they listed the house. They eliminated Realtor costs and both families are happy. We did the same thing one year ago when we bought our house. When we bought our minivan, we paid a whole lot less than we would have at a dealership. It may take more time, but if you use sites such as Craiglist and TAMU for sale you can find exactly what you need at a much lower price.

TIP for BCS: If you are selling and have had no luck with listing your car, try Lock and Roll. You can park your car at Lock and Roll on Hwy 6 and Harvey for about $120 for three months- those were the prices a couple years back. People come by and look at the cars there. Carmax offered us one amount for our used Tahoe and we parked it at Lock and Roll, found a buyer and got $3000 more. It really is worth it to eliminate the middleman.