The next chapter of the home buying journey is finding the property that meets all of your key criteria.
An extremely valuable exercise is to create a list of what you need in a home and a list of what you want in a home: these are very different types of lists. The needs are things you absolutely cannot live without. The wants are things you would love to have but are not vital.
Examples of needs include:
- 4 bedrooms for our growing family
- Home office because you work from home frequently
- In a specific neighborhood or school district
- Close to public transportation because you don’t own a car
- One-story (you don’t like walking up and down stairs)
- Guest house for your in-laws who live with you
You get the idea. These are must-have items, and you will not even consider a home without these top 4 or 5 criteria.
Examples of things you want in a home are:
- Updated kitchen with custom cabinets and high-end appliances
- Master Suite with private bath
- 3-car garage to allow additional room for a workshop
- Outdoor kitchen
- Swimming pool
Really put some thought into these lists to properly define your needs versus wants. It is easy to get distracted by all of the properties available (such as when you see that gorgeous home with the Master Suite and updated kitchen, but it’s not in the right school district). This exercise will assist you in truly understanding the items that are of the utmost importance, keeping you focused on finding that perfect home for you and your family.
Once you have finalized these lists, email them to Dawn. Using your established criteria and your budget, Dawn will set up an auto search in the MLS. On a daily basis, you will receive, via email, a list of all the new homes that meet your requirements; plus price changes on other homes that may have previously been out of your price range.
When you receive the property list from MLS, please do the following:
- Review the email daily: it is vital to stay on top of this process as homes often sell quickly, especially during spring and summer.
- Select the homes that you’d like to see as Interested. This indicates to us to schedule a showing on your behalf.
- If you have any questions about a specific residence, note those in the Comments field for that particular home. We will get back to you with answers.
- Let us know when you are available for showings. Remember, weekdays are best and it can take 24-48 hours to schedule a showing depending upon the seller’s required notice.
- We also recommend viewing properties during the day when the light is best.
- Once confirmed, we will send you an email detailing all of the showing days/times.
In addition to the daily MLS searches we’ve set up, The Team will also be working to discover other off-market properties that meet your criteria. At this point, you can discontinue checking Zillow and other online sites, as we will have the latest listings at our fingertips. (Zillow, Trulia, and others pull from the MLS and our daily searches will capture this information often before it hits online real estate websites.)
Next, let’s talk about how the showing process works.
