Buyer Myths

Rates are a payment problem. Price is a permanent problem. If rates fall and the buyers who have been sitting out all come back at once, competition tightens and prices absorb the savings, which is exactly the scenario a lower payment invites.

You can refinance a rate. You cannot renegotiate a price you already paid, and you cannot buy a house that sold to someone else last year.

There is a Lakes Region wrinkle too. Waterfront and seasonal inventory concentrates in a narrow window each year. Waiting for a rate can mean sitting out the only stretch when the house you actually want comes to market.

We will not predict rates and neither should anyone else. Talk to your lender about your actual numbers.

Twenty percent avoids mortgage insurance. It is not an entry requirement. Qualified buyers regularly close with far less: conventional programs starting around 3 percent for eligible first-time buyers, FHA at 3.5 percent, and zero down for eligible VA and USDA borrowers.

The tradeoff is real and worth understanding. Under 20 percent means mortgage insurance, and how you get rid of it depends on the loan. On conventional financing it typically comes off once you reach a certain equity threshold. On FHA loans with a low down payment, the premium generally stays for the life of the loan unless you refinance.

New Hampshire Housing also runs down payment assistance programs for qualified buyers. Confirm eligibility and current terms with your lender.

The listing agent works for the seller under a signed agreement, with a fiduciary duty to get the seller the highest price and best terms. That does not pause because you called.

The listing fee is set in the contract between the seller and their broker before you ever appeared. Calling direct does not shrink it. It usually just delivers both sides of it to one brokerage while you go unrepresented against a professional whose job is the other outcome.

What you actually lose is advice. Nobody pulling the permit history, nobody telling you the septic is undersized for four bedrooms, nobody saying walk away. Buyer representation is agreed in writing up front, and we structure offers to ask the seller to cover as much of that compensation as possible.

Sellers do not choose a number, they choose an outcome. Between two offers, they weigh net proceeds against the probability of actually closing.

That means deposit size, financing type, whether the lender is known and reachable, contingency windows, appraisal gap language, closing date flexibility, and whether the buyer's agent has a reputation for getting to the table. A high price with a shaky file and a 21 day inspection window can lose to a lower price with a strong deposit and a lender who called personally.

We have won houses at less than the top number more times than we can count. Read making an offer for how the pieces fit.

An existing structure is not the same as a permitted structure, and a permitted structure is not the same as a permit to replace it with what is there now.

Docks fall under NHDES review. Some older docks are lawfully grandfathered, some are not, and some have no permit on file at all, which the state may treat as unpermitted regardless of how long the neighbors have watched it sit there. Replacing, expanding, or reconfiguring generally requires review under current standards, and current standards are frequently tighter than whatever got built in 1968.

Water depth, frontage, and navigation corridors all constrain what is approvable. We verify what is on file before you write, not after. See waterfront pitfalls and waterfront resources.

New Hampshire puts the burden of investigation on the buyer. Sellers owe you specific written notifications about radon, arsenic, lead paint, and the water supply and sewage disposal system, but a notification is a piece of paper, not an inspection.

Most of the housing stock here predates 1980 and a lot of it predates 1900. That means lead paint on anything before 1978, knob and tube wiring, asbestos, buried oil tanks, and electrical service that was adequate for a 1962 cottage.

Private well and septic are routine here, so both get tested every single time we buy. Water gets screened for bacteria, nitrates, arsenic, radon, and uranium, because New Hampshire bedrock produces all of them.

The rate applies to the town's assessed value, not to your purchase price, and towns with a large waterfront tax base can carry a low rate precisely because the properties are expensive.

Do the arithmetic. Moultonborough's 2025 rate of $5.33 per $1,000 applied to a $1.4 million assessment is about $7,460 a year. Alton's $13.50 rate applied to a $500,000 assessment is about $6,750. The low-tax town costs more.

The town line still matters enormously, just not in one direction. It decides school district, plowing, water and sewer versus private systems, and services. Compare honestly at neighborhoods and confirm rates and assessments with the town.

Automated estimates are algorithms running on public record data and recent sales. In a market of tract homes with clean data, they perform decently. On a lake, they fall apart.

Frontage quality, water depth at the dock, exposure and sunset orientation, whether the shoreline is compliant, road access in February, and whether the association permits rentals are all invisible to the model. So is the fact that the nearest comparable sale is three miles and one lake away.

We treat every automated number as a starting point and never as a conclusion. Then we verify against real, recent transactions and what those homes actually closed at. Start with the lakes comparison and winter realities.

It is how you win a house and inherit a major septic replacement. In a market where the systems are private and the buildings are old, the inspection is where the actual risk lives, and waiving it transfers all of that risk to you for free.

There are better ways to look strong. A shorter inspection window instead of no window. A pre-offer walkthrough with your inspector. A larger deposit. Appraisal gap language. A closing date built around the seller's schedule. An inspection structured for information rather than for a repair request, which keeps your eyes open while narrowing what you will renegotiate.

Every one of those makes an offer more competitive. None of them make you buy a failed leach field blind. Decide the structure deliberately with us and your attorney.

Four separate systems have to say yes, and any one of them can say no.

• The town. Short-term rental rules vary town to town in the Lakes Region, and some require registration or restrict them outright.
• The association. Many condo and shoreline associations prohibit rentals or impose minimum stay requirements, which is why we read the documents before you commit. Covered at association rules.
• The state. Short-term rentals are subject to the New Hampshire Meals and Rentals tax, and operators register with the Department of Revenue Administration. Confirm the current rate and registration requirement with your accountant.
• Your lender and insurer. A second home rider generally limits rental activity, and a standard homeowners policy may not cover it.

Then there is the calendar. The peak weeks up here are concentrated in July and August, and the pro forma looks very different after cleaning, management, vacancy, and shoulder season reality.