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Four Things To Keep In Mind When Finding Your Dream Home

By Pamela Madore

Real Estate Agent with The Pamela Madore Group 573760

August 15, 2015 09:00 PM

Pamela Madore
The Pamela Madore Group
Keller Williams Realty
http://iloveamarillo.com

Find Your Dream Home

Four Tips To Finding Your Dream Home

Everyone has a different idea of a dream home. In order to save time and help yourself find that home, here are four things you can do.

KNOW YOUR BUDGET

Before you start searching for homes you will get qualified at a bank or mortgage company. We can help you with that. They may tell you that you qualify for $200,000, for instance. But what does that translate to in a monthly payment? I have had many buyers that have been told they qualified for a certain amount and then were shocked to know that payment.

Be sure you know how much you want to spend a month. The mortgage company will tell you how much you "can" spend but does that really fit your budget? No one should ever set themselves up for failure.

What is my budget?

You have other plans in your life as well. What if you decide to start a family and will be going from two paychecks to one? On the other hand maybe the kids are all in school and now you have two incomes instead of one. Weigh out each thing that you already have planned for your future and take those things into consideration.

MAKE A LIST

That is just like setting goals. If you don't write them down, they aren't likely to happen. Before you start your search you need to know what you are looking for. Some things on your list could be:

Your Top Five

Number of bedrooms
Number of bathrooms
How many living areas
How large must the back yard be
What are acceptable areas to look in

Perhaps you want to look at a special school district. Maybe Crockett Middle School, for instance.

Write down every detail you can think of them sort them into the top five "can't live withouts". When you begin to search for houses remember that top five and see if the house has all five. If not, either throw it away or decide which of the top five you are willing to give up. Have this plan in place before meeting with us. If you didn't happen to read this blog first, we will help you with the top 5.

PLAN TO COME TO OUR OFFICE FOR A CONSULTATION

In this day of mobile everything (download our mobile app here) it is very tempting to see a house, look it up on your phone and think that is the one. Or you make a list of houses that you found online that you want to see.

The better way (saves gas), and the way that we do it, is have you come to the office with your list of houses, if you made one.

We have direct access to the MLS "secret" information. What I mean is that we can see things about the property that you wouldn't have access to from your phone or computer.

Examples might be that we know the house is a short sale and that would probably deter you from buying it. We may have seen the house and know that the layout is really weird. We can also tell how long the house has been on the market which may be beneficial in contract negotiation.

We can look at the houses "on the big screen" and go over each of them with you, comparing to your list of five must haves, and maybe eliminate some houses just by looking at the details. It is very important to both you and us to come to our office for a consultation.

DON'T LOOK AT MORE THAN 5 HOUSES AT A TIME

It is tempting to look at house after house after house. But if we have done our job, your dream home could quite possibly be in those 5.

If you attempt to look at more than 5 houses then they begin to be a blur. Which house had which feature? Did that one have an updated bathroom or was it the other one? Besides, you get tired of driving around getting in and out of the car in this Texas heat to look at houses. Five is enough at one time. And by the way, a good way to remember each house is to name it. The stone fireplace house or the jungle gym in the back yard.