Shopping for a home these days is overwhelming. There are simply too many homes from which to choose.
You make an appointment with your agent, and there are 10 to 12 homes to see, plus another 50 possibilities – and that’s after you’ve already spent hours shopping around online to get a sense of what’s available in your neighborhood of choice, and at what price point.
There’s so much housing stock available (nearly a year’s worth across the county at the current rate of sales), that you could spend months seeing and thinking about available homes for sale.
But that isn’t a particularly efficient way to shop for a home. Your time is valuable, and so is your real estate agent’s.
It’s a far better use of your time to be strategic about what you really want to buy and where you want to buy it.
Here are eight things you can do that will help you narrow your focus and streamline the time it will take to shop for a home:
- Create a wish list.
- Create a reality check.
- Get preapproved.
- Find your neighborhood of choice.
- Find an agent who specializes.
- Use the Internet to eliminate as many homes as possible.
- Use drive-by showings to eliminate more houses.
- Only see homes at or below your price range.
Eliminating homes that simply won’t work will help make the process a lot more objective and help make it a less emotional experience overall.
For more details on my 8 tips for buying a house in a tough housing market, read the full post at http://www.thinkglink.com/article/2010/10/01/8-steps-to-buying-a-house-in-a-tough-housing-market
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