How to Find Your Dream Home
You’ve been dreaming about finding your perfect home for a long time and you’re finally ready. Congrats! Now it’s time to start the search process. If you go into it prepared, you’ll find it less stressful. Here are some tips to help you on your way:
Make Detailed Lists
- Yes, please!
- Absolutely not!
First, make a list of your needs and your wants. (Yes, those are different, so mark each item as to whether it is a WANT or a NEED.) Consider layout, space, style, lot size, neighborhood, and special features (like large windows with a lake view). Scott Rose of Baird & Warner Real Estate told us this: “I always ask buyers what is important to them, i.e. schools, close to work, close to family, community activities, or being close to highways if they go downtown a lot.”
Pro tip: Always consider school districts even if you have no children and no plans to have any. A home in a high-rated school district is likely to sell faster later and more like to increase in property value.
Click here for a more in depth list of questions from Zillow to dig deeper.
Next, make a list of what would make you nuts over time. Be honest. You need to keep those items firmly in mind if you find a house you love that also has items on your “absolutely not” list. Are stairs a deal-breaker? Don’t even look at homes with stairs. Don’t fall in love with a house that has a feature that will ultimately make you unhappy. Same with your budget – don’t torture yourself with beautiful homes you can’t comfortably afford. Don’t even look at homes outside your budget.
Prioritize and Compromise
Prioritize your needs and wants, then prepare to compromise. It’s unlikely you will find a home that meets absolutely all of the items on your list, so go into the search process knowing you will need to make some compromises.
Be sure to consider your most lived-in spaces. If you love to cook, a high-end kitchen should be higher on your priority list. If you spend hours watching movies, the living room will be more important. If you work from home, a fabulous office space will be high on your list.
Outside the Box Viewing
Once you find a home you think could be the one, do some outside-the-box scouting around. Consider what’s next door – but also what could be next door down the road. Really analyze the neighborhood, neighbors, stores, parks, traffic, and changes that might be in the works in the near future. Try this list of questions to consider from Zillow.
View the home at different times of the day. Even if you can’t do another walk-through, it’s worth standing across the street and listening to the noises at night, or making the drive from that home to your office at drive time in the morning. Visit on weekends and during the week. This can cut down on surprises (like super loud neighbors) when it is too late.
Try Houzz
If you haven’t already, sign up for Houzz. You can make ideabooks with images of homes you love from every angle to help your realtor understand your perfect home. Houzz is a wonderful tool to help you organize your needs and wants and to communicate them to the pros.
Happy house hunting!
The Upside of Down-sizing
- At August 10, 2017
- By catherineschager
- In Tips and Advice
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Many of my clients these days are down-sizing their homes. Maybe they’ve decided that the home they’ve raised their family in is now just too large for the two of them. Maybe they’re moving to a retirement complex, or assisted living. Whatever the reason, down-sizing can be challenging (but it doesn’t have to be!) Clients will generally tell me that they need my help because they don’t know what will fit in their new home, or how to arrange the furniture, or what they’ll need to rid themselves of.
In these cases I recommend that clients do 3 things:
1. Go through their home, and determine what pieces of their existing furniture they really love and which ones they could give away, donate to charity, or just chuck.
2. Consider how they will be living in their new space (will they be doing any entertaining or having overnight guests?) and make some notes.
3. Call me to see their existing space and favorite items. Then we take a look at their new home and determine together what will serve them well. I will often create floor plans so that when they move in, they can have the movers put everything in its place.
Although moving and down-sizing can be very stressful, it’s also a great opportunity to consider just what “stuff” is really meaningful and what can be let go of. It can be a very freeing feeling and offers clients a fresh start. A recent client was so excited that she’d be able to keep many of the upholstered items she thought she’d have to get rid of and loved how with the addition of some new pillows and rug her pieces got a new look!
How to Find a Home You Love
Our special thanks to Stephanie Hofman of Stephanie Hofman Homes for contributing this article to our LOVE YOUR HOME MONTH theme.
It’s February, the month of love…so this blog is all about how to find a home you love, and will love years to come.
♥ Have your financial ducks in a row. Make sure you know what you can and cannot spend. Think about the taxes, moving costs, closing costs and costs of improvements to a new home that will be involved in your purchase. Speak with a reputable lender and get pre-approved before you begin your home search—a pre-approval letter will expedite the process once you find a home you’d like to pursue.
♥ Create a “wish list.” Know what your priorities are and, if you are purchasing a home with a spouse or partner, make sure you are on the same page—or at least in the same book! Define what’s non-negotiable and what you can compromise on.
♥ Work with a Realtor®. As a buyer, it costs you nothing to work with a Realtor®. Nada. It’s free. You get someone to do your homework for you, provide access to homes for sale, negotiate the deal, and basically provide expertise, guidance and education throughout the entire process. For free. But more importantly, the risk of costly mistakes that can be made by not having a professional looking out for you can be high.
♥ Investigate the neighborhoods you are interested in. Spend a weekend afternoon in the area to see who your neighbors are, and ask them questions about the area. Clock the distance from your potential home to important places: schools, shopping, your workplace. Check out the website for your new city and see what kind of services they provide. Are you religious? Maybe you want to see how many churches or synagogues are in the area. Is there vacant land nearby? Find out if it’s zoned for commercial or residential building—you don’t want to find out your new home is smack in the middle of the traffic pattern for a new Costco! Is your new home close to a main road? Listen to the noise volume both outside and inside the home. Finding the right location and neighborhood is essential to finding the right home!
♥ Commit to buying a home. With the crumbling of the housing market in the mid-2000s, we learned one important lesson: our homes are a place to live, laugh, love, raise our families and create memories. Our homes are not meant to be a bank or ATM. Look at this purchase as a long-term one, —don’t buy now unless you plan to stay in that home for at least five years. In addition to likely being the largest asset you will own, your home should be a place that you enjoy waking up in and coming back to every day.
Use these tips for help finding the home you will fall in love with. For more advice on buying a home you’ll love, contact Stephanie at [email protected].
Stephanie Hofman is a residential real estate broker with Coldwell Banker, based in Highland Park, IL. For more information, check out her website or Facebook page.
