also have a clear idea of what you can and cant do.
if you dont think you can handle some physical labor dont get a fixer upper.
if you dont want to spend hours mowing every couple of weeks dont get something on 3 acres ect...
some realtors are excelent..
others not so much
when we came over here and started looking at houses we had one agent who was DETERMINED she kenw better about what we wanted than we did...
my dad had his set list of what he was looking for, how much work manually and time he could put into a house to make it a home (a few coats of paint may only take a few hours, updating akitchen or bathroom however was not on our possible list considering our time frame)
but our realtor kept showing us homes that needed alot of work, or houses that were way too small or way too big...insisting that wed "used the extra space"
yeah sure we would...but wed also spend a fortune HEATING the extra space that wed only use on occasion...
or why not get somehting with 1-2 extra bedrooms for guests? because we dont need them, its rare if ever that we have guests so why spend the extra money on having that extra space.
watch your budget...
if your only comfortable spending 150,000 then DONT look at 250,000 houses...dont let your realtor talk you into looking at something way out of your comfort range (this is how alot of the problems started with the current market, people buying more house than they could truly afford...
belive me, houses have a way of sneaking some extra costs in, 2 weeks in and suddenly the furnace is broken, or wait the inspection said the roof was fine whys there a leak ect...
have your top and dont go above that...
if right now your rent is $800 a month including utilities and you find your budget is a little too tight after the rent goes out, dont go looking for a home with a 1200 a month mortgage not including utilities...
it seems like common sense but youd be suprised...
the thing being, seeing a more expensive house and falling in love will ether tear your heart out when you admit you cant afford it, or get you in trouble when you say "well mabe..."
just because a bank pre aproves you for $500K, it doesnt nessicarily mean you as a family feel you can afford the payments on that kind of house...
the way we did it when we came over, dad had been pre-aproved for $350,000
we did the math and decided, realistically we didnt want to spend more than $250,000 because of the aprox ave cost to feed each of us, plus cas care insuarance, bills ect...
then we took in to account town taxes, and "hidden feas" and decided we didnt want to go anything over $225,000
that was our TOP LINE...
with everything else that comes with owning a home dad didnt feel comfortable spending any more than that on the initial purchase price...
we looked at a few over that top line that we liked but simply walked away because we knew we couldnt realistically afford more without making our lives as a family uncomfrtable for the next 30 years...
the house we ended up buying, absolutly perfect for our family at the time, needed some paint, love and eventually upgrades but nothign that needed to be done right away, $210K, UNDER our top...and after 8 years dad got some more money comming in from work and desicded to refinannce with a 15 year, payments whet up, but the house will be paid off sooner...
had we gone above our top theres no way he could have done the refi, and in the mean time weve slowly been upgrading the house and its value along with it...
be realistic...
if you dont think you can handle a coat of paint of removing wallpaper thats fine, but if your ok with a couple weekends spent painting, dont take a house off the list simply because you dont like the wall colors...alot of people get too stuck on "well i hate that color" or "i dont like the dining room table..."
well paint can be changed and unless your buying the house furnished it doesnt matter if you hate the table...its not staying...
its hard but youll need a good visualization cap on your shoulders...try to imagine every house you look at EMPTY, then with YOUR stuff, its tough, especially in homes where the owners are still living...but ive known people pass up the most perfect home for them because they couldnt visualize the house with THEIR touches, instead they kept seeing the color on the walls they didnt like and the current owners furniture and pictures which they didnt like.
they whent back 3 years later when the house was back on the market and had been emptied and repainted all white...and they bought it...at 50,000 more than they would have paid if theyd have bought it the first time they whent to see it...
the only difference...it was empty and the paint had been changed...they still kick themselves for it...