June 11th, 2015 10:21 AM by Christopher Terry
The search to find your perfect home can be overwhelming.
You’ve had a vision of your dream home in your head for as long as you can remember, but when it comes to actually locating your perfect house you can’t seem to find it.
Your goal is to find a home that is everything you have dreamed about and more. A home you can picture raising a family and growing old in. To help, here is a simple list of things that you should have in mind before attempting to find a great house. This list will hopefully make the search a little less overwhelming, and will help you find that special place in no time!
First things first: talk to your bank. No one is really quite sure how much money the bank will be willing to give them until they go sit down with a mortgage originator and get pre-qualified. This will make the process less overwhelming because it will narrow down the number of houses to only the ones that you will realistically be looking at. To make your life even easier, here is a loan application checklist to get you started!
Every new homebuyer has a list of must haves. Think about the things that you will require in your new home. How many bedrooms do you need? What about the number of baths? You just immediately cut your search down to only homes with those criteria! The fewer homes in your search, the less over-whelming it will be when it comes time to go out and look at each of the homes. Sign up for our free service to be automatically updated with only the homes that match your search!
Maybe your dream home looks like a mini-version of a Newport mansion. Maybe it has a brand new kitchen with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Maybe it has an in-ground pool and hot tub. Are these realistic requests? Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. At this point in the process though, you know what your budget is and whether or not a hot tub is a luxury that you can afford. To help you out a little bit more, here is a homebuyer’s checklist that you can print out and use when you meet with an agent.
For some homebuyers, the location is more important than the home itself. You can always repaint a room or refinish hardwood floors that aren’t perfect. You can’t pick up a home and move it to a better location though. Have in mind the town or the neighborhood you would ideally like to live in, that way you can narrow your search to only those areas.
Find a professional that you are comfortable with and who is willing to listen to your wants and needs. Real Estate professionals are extremely knowledgeable and can easily make the process a less stressful one.
Follow this list and your home buying experience will be filled with far less stress. Many people only experience the excitement of buying a home once in their lifetime, so enjoy the process!
Christopher Terry is a licensed real estate broker in Ma and RI, has completed the Accredited Buyer Representative Certification, is a graduate of the Certified Distressed Property Institute, holds the prestigious CDPE designation, is a 4-Time winner of the Master Sales Society's 5/50 Award and is the founder of EZ Home Search Real Estate Inc.Mariah Terry, Contributor