Once you have positioned yourself with a pre-qualification letter from your lender, you are ready to really sink your teeth into the home buying process.
If you can describe what you are looking for in a home, from the amount of bedrooms, a general sense of the floor plan's style, a price range and general area of town as it relates to
the schools or a commute time, we should be able to narrow down your search for you rather quickly.
You can start looking at the areas that meet your criteria and get information on the areas that are of interest to you as soon as they are listed.
The site we set up for you updates you each time a new listing fitting your criteria comes on the market. Think of the advantage of that!
No more calling just to find out the perfect home you just found is already under contract.
These searches are set up to email you straight from the MLS and with a copy of it off to us as well.
These searches will also give you all the details on the listings, images, virtual tours, whatever is available to make decision making easy for you.
You can drive through the areas and check them out on various days of the week and time of day to check for traffic, noise, proximity to environmental situations and most of all, what type of neighborhood and area the homes are in.
You can have us modify your search accordingly.
I recommend that besides selecting your favorites and going out and walking through these homes, that you take some time to go out and drive around the areas that you like. Get a better feel for them.
As your agents, we will gather additional information on the neighborhoods, schools, property taxes and home owners association dues as well as the community amenities that you would like more information on.
If schools are important to you, check out the school web sites (we have links handy) and consider making an appointment to visit them in person.
Just call the schools and they will be more than happy to meet with you as well as show you what their school is all about.
This is how the showing appointments work:
Once you have selected your list of favorites we can make the appointments for us to go out and view the homes in person.
There are properties that look great in photos, but turn out to be in less than desirable locations.
There are properties where the photos are dark and dingy, but it might turn out that the home is a sleeper and an excellent buy.
Until you set out to open those doors and walk through the homes, you are still not fully involved with the home buying process.
When previewing several homes in one time block, be sure to use a comparison checklist to keep track of the things you like and dislike about each home.
This will help you narrow down the ones you want to revisit of have a serious interest in. If you are looking at a bunch of homes on any given day, try to keep your favorites to just a list of two.
The others, just fold the paper. Don't crumble the paper up and throw it away, as you may want to double check if you had seen one of those homes before or not. If it is in your folded up pile, you will know that it did not pass your initial personal visit.
Most people by the neighborhood before they buy the home. The local market values and trends should always be taken into consideration before making an offer.
It may take some time to find the right home for you, but most people know it the instant they walk into it.
Upon finding the right home for you, you can make your decision to purchase your home with the added assurance that you have done all of your homework upfront and that any surprises that come your way will be small ones.