You've Found a House You Love...Now What?
You've Found a House You Love...Now What?
Deciding to buy a house is not a willy nilly decision. And before you even get the point of seeing houses you have likely already spoken with a mortgage lender to nail down the budget and get an expectation of your monthly mortgage. That number on the good faith estimate is one you can deal with. Next? Consult with an agent about what you are looking to buy and where you want to live.
In the digital era in which we live, you have already been looking through Trulia, Zillow, Redfin and who knows where else for homes. Come on...we all know it. There isn't a hidden camera in your computer. It's what all buyers do, most likely before they ever consulted a mortgage lender.
So the big day comes and you go out house hunting with your agent. The day you get to stand in the rooms you've been digitally stalking. Maybe that family room is exactly what you though it would be and more. And the kitchen, well, it's even better in person. Bedrooms are big enough. You love the neighborhood. And above all else you've seen don't measure up to what you thought you would see in person. What do you do?
You can't possibly have found the home of your dreams on the first trip out, right? Don't you want to see the other forty homes you have as favorites? The ones that you loved before you met with the lender and the agent?
Wait....turns out they aren't all available any more. Maybe you decide to keep a "close eye" on that one that exceeded your expectations and made you giddy. You know. Play the field. Perhaps something better will come up. It seems like a good plan, but is it?
This is where that age old saying a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush can really begin to make sense.
Let's say you waited for a month for more homes to come on the market. And when you finally get around to seeing them in person, and take a look back at the one that made you happy, you find it's still the one. If you are lucky it is still available.
Here's the hard core reality: If you love it, chances are someone else is going to love it too. If you don't want competition when bidding on the home, you could have acted the day you first saw it. But you didn't. You wanted to see if something better came on. Heck, in some markets you will be lucky if that home is still on the market when you go back out.
Buying a home is an important decision. You shouldn't make it lightly. But instead of considering the time you have actually spent with your agent touring homes, think about all the time you invested in getting to the point of wanting to go look. That is time spent deciding on what you want. Once you find out you can afford it and you love it when you see it in person, what is stopping you from making an offer?
You know you need to make an offer if you play the scenario of some other buyer stepping up first to make the offer and winning the home, upsets you. Or the scenario that if mortgage rates ticked up, you wouldn't be able to afford that dream house. If either of those bother you, why wait? Make the offer! You are the only thing standing between you and moving your things into your very own home.
Chris Ann Cleland, Associate Broker-Licensed in VA
Top Producing Agent 2013 & 2011
Long & Foster REALTORS®, Manassas, VA
703-402-0037, ChrisAnn@LNF.com
www.NVARealEstate.net, www.SpeakingOfHomes.net, www.SellingBraemar.com,
The opinions expressed in this post are those of Chris Ann Cleland, not those of Long & Foster REALTORS®.
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