As you are touring homes, it can feel like a distraction to take notes or photos or videos. Still, if your search will include more than couple houses, it will help you tremendously to have notes and photos to give you clarity when you are reflecting on your choices.
Ideally, you have been making note of those characteristics that may cause you to eliminate a home. Keep those notes so that three days into your search you can reference them to recall why you eliminated the beautiful center hall colonial you saw on the first day. But, keep them in the back of your note book.
A useful system for always knowing which house is the best choice is to start ranking the homes after you see the second one. Before you walk out of the house, ask yourself, “Do I like this house more than the first house?” If your answer is “yes,” put the information for that house on the top of your pile. If it’s no, put the first house on top. Similarly, before leaving the third house, do the same evaluation. You now know your top three choices at the moment.
From here going forward, you should evaluate every house against these three. If a new house knocks one of the previous houses out of the top three, put the less desirable property at the back of your list or bottom of the pile.
Now, at any given time in the process, you clearly know which three houses are your favorites and what it would take to knock one your favorites out of contention. This is a valuable time-saver. From this point forward, it will take you only moments to discern whether or not a property will “be a competitor.” For example, if you enter a home and find a kitchen or perhaps a floor plan that is less attractive than those in your “top three,” and there are no other outstanding features to compensate for the shortcoming(s), don’t waste time looking for something to like. Move on to the next one. You have three homes that work better than this one. It’s highly unlikely you will ever consider an offer on this house.
The brokers at Just For Buyers Realty want to help you choose the right home! For more tips on how to select the right home for you, call us at 910-202-4813.