http://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-reality-show-homebuyer-101-searching.html
I have now equipped you with a list of things that are great to get you started and these should really be used. Speaking honestly, you don't need to do any of these things if money is not an option. But because I treat real estate just like I do stocks then we will be looking at this investment as a long-term buy that must have upside potentional and there is a large margin of safety built in to protect my downside risk.
So what I did was I took the criteria listed out and began scouring the internet. I needed to suffer from 'sticker shock' and this was my first realization that I wasn't going to have everything that I wished for...without some sort of sacrifice. For me, it came down to not compromising on my must have features within the unit: SPACE, GARAGE, NOT FIXER UPPER. So I started by using Realtor.com to enter all of my needs and wants into their search engine for the areas I selected. So you may have to run a few different searches but this is critical because it shows you want the current listing prices are for the areas. I used this to begin to identify areas that are affordable. Remember, we have already limited our list to areas that are relatively safe, close to mass transportation, grocery stores, bars, the lake, etc.
URBANOMICS TIP ~ I then created a spreadsheet and documented all fo the properties that I could afford based on my pre-approved amount.
I visited these homes because they created a baseline of what I thought I wanted on paper. Here is where your Real Estate Agent comes into play. Now we must find an agent, interview them, and have them schedule tours for us if their is not an open house. I told the first agent what I was looking for after intreviewing him with list of questions and quickly was told, "You aren't going to get what you're looking for in you in that price range". Since I had previously been scouring the net on my own, I knew that he had a strong opinion to what type of property he wanted to put me in and true enough I kicked him to the curb a few weeks later. The second agent gave me his reservations also about how difficult it was going to be, but he schedule some homes to prove his point of what was out there.
Urbanomis Tip 2 ~ To show my agent I was a team player, I sent him a few of my houses I found on my own and we toured during that same trip.
To quickly summarize, the tour was great as they pick you up and drive you around and point out all of these great details that you never knew. And when viewing 4-8 properties in a day you may get house overload and this is where a camera is very important. So I was able to see my list in person and make adjustments because some things you have to see and feel to know how you may react...like layouts. Do you like an open layout, or separate rooms for kitchen and dining? These are the types of things I was confronted with. The tour went well but I found myself a little jaded, the homes my agent picked were a little shabby and while I probably was hitting 50% on my picks the ones we all loved including my agent were from my list (go figure). Over the next few months I started realizing that my research was finding great homes that I absolutely thought were great. Here is a quick snapshot of some of my finds:
Stay tuned to find out more about these properties.
Please use this link to find the last post on my homebuying experience:
No comments:
Post a Comment