The Home Search Process: The Essentials

The first step in the home search process is to determine what you can afford with the help of a loan specialist and or financial advisor. Do your research. Look at online reviews and ratings to ensure you're working with a reputable lender and or better still seek a recommendation or two from your realtor who in all likelihood has the advantage of having worked with several. For my part, I advise seeing at least three local lenders. Each will work on setting you up for what is called ‘pre-approval’. While a pre-approval is not the final step in the process of qualifying for a loan, it signals to the seller and all parties involved that the buyer is serious and more likely to qualify. 

Knowing your price range will bring your house hunting into focus since there is no sense in chasing after something you can’t afford. How much house you can afford depends on many factors, including your ability to cover the monthly housing payment and how much you can contribute toward the down payment. Monthly payments include principal and interest on the mortgage loan, property taxes and insurance against fire and other hazards. These four costs are often abbreviated as PITI. For some buyers, monthly housing costs may also include HOA dues, condominium fees and mortgage insurance.

The next step is to make a checklist of what you are looking for in a home and or to build your buyer savvy whether it’s viewing real estate websites, reading newspaper/magazine ads, home publications and design magazines, or watching real estate television shows and visiting open houses, and most importantly signing up with an experienced realtor who can guide you through the process. The advantage of working with a realtor of course is that they see many more homes than you possibly could and or have been involved in a variety of transactions from good to bad and everything in between. 

Here is my list in order of importance: 

• Price range?
• Number of bedrooms?
• Number of bathrooms?
• Location?
• Rowhouse or condo or either?
• Move-in ready and or needs work? 
• Parking?
• Yard space? 
• Distance to a metro?

If you are not ready to sign a buyers agreement with your realtor which you will need in order to get full representation, I suggest signing up for a day of showings for a test run. This strategy has worked very well for me in the past since I know, for my part, that I work more effectively with people I get along with and respect, and vice versa. 

On the search side, your realtor will attach your desired criteria to an auto e-mail within their local area multiple listing service, the frequency of which can be set to once daily or twice daily or any combination of days or weeks even. Since many of us are working and or lead busy lives I go over the new listings that come up for my clients every morning just in case I need to give my clients a heads up. From the MLS portal both my clients and myself can ‘favorite properties’, ‘add as a possibility’ or give feedback in the form of ‘notes.’ This is a very good way to keep on top of the market as well as to keep track of your clients preferences and or make recommendations. Should a client be interested in seeing a property the realtor can also schedule showings from the portal or give a heads up for an open house. Typically, Thursday’s coming into the weekend are the most active days as far as new listings coming on. 

In the meantime, I also very much recommend that clients continue to conduct their own searches on the consumer side just in case they should find a home that is not on the MLS or doesn’t quite fall within the search parameters that were given. For instance, I recently sold a $1.7 million condo to clients who had given me a cap of 1.5M because it caught their eye on Zillow. Similarly, I also recommend that buyers who are just getting their feet wet attend as many open houses as possible. 

In summary, when working with clients it is critical to establish a healthy working relationship. Each client is different: There are some clients who have bought and sold homes multiple times and there are others who are buying for the first time. The former will typically require more input from their realtor as far as the minutiae and the latter will require more guidance and education. Real estate is seasonal so you should expect more listings to come on in the spring than the winter but keep in mind with that comes more competition. I have found some of my best deals in the off season, especially around the holidays when people are otherwise preoccupied. 

And if you are interested in trying me out for a day you have nothing to lose: I'm here to help. In the meantime, happy hunting and please feel free to like or comment, or share!