Home Buying Process Part 3: Finding your new home

In previous posts I've discussed how we narrowed down what we're looking for as well as how to finance your purchase.

First, if you are really serious, you need to treat home shopping like a part-time job.  Homes are going to go up for sale and in hours they can be sold. While that's not always the case, it can be.  Brace yourself for let downs!

While you may have a realtor "helping" you, many times they are just using a search service to generate matches and email you. They may not follow-up with an email or phone call, so you may still have to make the contact.  I daily check a variety of source for potential purchases. There are plenty of apps to help you as well.

My paranoia may stem from the time I pushed our realtor to get us to see a home at 11 am the morning it was listed.  Apparently, someone else scheduled a 9 am showing and by the time we had finished the tour, they put in a cash offer.  Mortgages just can't compete with cash offers.  That home sold within 3 hours of being listed!!! We actually bought our current house the day it went the on the market.  Because of those experiences, I guess my poor brain thinks if I slack off, I will miss a great opportunity.

1. The most common way to get a home is with a realtor.  You want someone who feels like a friend.  Friends contact you right away when something exciting happens, they ask questions to make sure they understand you, and they truly care about what happens to you.  We had a really crappy first realtor who came very highly recommended.  We stuck with her because of that recommendation; we never should have done that, but we were first time home buyers and learned a lot about what not to do!  Looking back, she didn't get to know us.  She saw us as a way to earn more money.  She even gave us some pretty bad advice which is part of why I want to share with you some of the things we've learned.  Remember, if you are using a realtor (which I still recommend) make sure you spend some time getting to know them.  We love our current realtor. (She has helped us through making several offers that have fallen through for a variety of reasons.  I'll share more about a couple of those in a future post.) She took time to get to know exactly what we were looking for and has even spared us a few visits by asking the right questions to another realtor about some of our "non-negotionables."
2. You can also go for drives through the neighborhood or area you are looking to purchase.  If you are willing to buy for sale by owner home, do this!  Some realtors won't even mention a for sale by owner home.  Many sellers won't list the homes on the web and they usually aren't even mentioned in the for sale column of the local paper.  I'm not sure how these people think they will sell their house, but I think they are truly counting on people driving by and spreading the glory of their home by word of mouth.  
3. Looking online is an increasingly popular approach. There are plenty of apps to help you as well.  Trulia had great mapping feature where you could draw your own search area and then use settings to narrow down specifics you are looking for in that area. They've redone their website/app, and as of writing this, I don't see the pen icon that let you draw, but you can still zoom in and search the area that fills the window.  Realtor.com allows you to easily look at price history.  
   
   This can be helpful in determining how much you should offer or to get a feel for how much value they are adding to the improvements they've done.  It may also help you better understand how much under asking price you can safely offer if the home has been on the market for awhile.   You could also search Craigslist (buyer beware) or Forsalebyowner.com.  Just know that these sites still won't have all the for sale by owner options on them.  Again, driving is a great way to make discoveries.
4. Buy from a friend.  We know people who have mentioned how cute a friends' house is and they've said, "Wanna buy it?" Little did they know that they had been thinking of up/down sizing or changing locations.  We've even had people tell us that they'd sell us their home.  The problem is, they don't live in our little area. But hey!  It might work for you!