Much has been said about the home buying process being a tedious one. But there’s one part in the process that many realtors and homebuyers would tell you is exciting and that is the part where you pick the home to buy.
This post is not about the tips on how to pick the property to buy but more of a walkthrough to help prepare you for this step.
You have to start with consulting an MLS whether online or not. You can use our MLS online tool right here for that. You can narrow down the selection using different criteria like number of rooms and number of bathrooms. You can even save your searches so that you can make the same search again without having to set the criteria the next time.
After that, you would then have a shortlist of houses that you are interested in. Contact your real estate agent to set a showing. Your list can include anywhere from 3 to 20 or even more. Personally, I make sure that I plot a route so that we can view all of the properties on your list as efficiently as possible. That means while we are moving from one property or another, you will also get to see the communities surrounding the property in question.
Once that step is completed, you do not have to immediately decide on which property to buy. You can set a second showing. This time around, you would have an even shorter list with only the best of the best on it.
A side note though, before you reach this process, it would be a big plus if you are already pre-qualified and pre-approved. That way, you would know how much you can afford. It would help you weed out properties that might be out of your reach financially.
The second showing is where you will focus more on the houses. You would spend more time looking at the property during this step thus allowing to have a better feel for it.
Not all second showing leads to a sale though. Sometimes, you would end up finding some things that you would not like in all the properties in your short list. If such a situation comes up, don’t force the issue. Do not buy for the sake of buying. Sooner or later, you would find a house that you would fall in love with so keep on searching and let us help you do that.
