I wanted to share some things for buyers to think of before their first meeting with a realtor. Before sitting down with a realtor for that very first meeting to go over buying a house, here are some items to think about:
1. Neighborhoods - where do you really want to be? What is most important to you, your proximity to work vs children's school/daycare or anywhere that doesn't have traffic? Do you want to be in a neighborhood with amenities, lots of children or you do you not want to pay an HOA. The best thing to do before your meeting is do some research on different neighborhoods and compare them online. It would be an impossible task for a realtor to show you all the neighborhoods but if you have top 3-4 that would be much easier to narrow the search from there!
Must haves and deal breakers: When my husband and I were looking for our house we had must haves which was 4 bedrooms, backyard and wanted to be in a community with a pool/lots of kids. This can help your agent narrow down the search from the beginning rather than sending over 40 listings to sift through. If you have your list of must haves and deal breakers it will make the search much easier. Sometimes you have to bend a little on your must haves but knowing what is a deal break is ( ie house on a busy road) will absolutely help with the search! That way the agent is sending you property that there is no way you would be interested in.
Budget: This can be hard because sometimes clients don't always agree with what the budget is. I know that was the case for us! I wanted to go higher but my husband being a realist wanted a tighter budget. If you can agree on budget or bottom line number before meeting the realtor that will save a lot of frustration. Since I wanted the higher budget I was looking at houses that my husband didn't agree was in our range and that definitely caused frustration on both sides. Speaking from experience if you have figure that out before it really helps and have everyone on the same page!
If you are looking to purchase a home please contact me at (917) 325-8033 or marthe@agentownedrealty.com
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