The New England Real Estate Team

Step 5: Finding the right home.

We will do our best to match your needs to houses currently on the market. However, there is no such thing as a perfect home. Every home you will look at will have it's positives and negatives. What you want is to find the most perfect home meeting most of your needs, wants, and financial position. Here are some tips to help you focus as you conduct your home search.

• Weeding through all the homes for sale.
• Identifying homes you are interested in viewing.
• Viewing a home.
• Ranking the homes that you have viewed.
• Take into account life-style.
• Take into account current and future needs.

Weeding through all the homes for sale.

This is one of the hardest step to mange. Weeding through all the homes that are available. Best way to weed through them is to have some idea of what you are looking for. In Step 4 we covered finding a suitable neighborhood and a school system. This will weed out most of the properties. Next we need to weed out the properties themselves. Most of the properties you will be considering for review are either searched and weeded out by us or by your own via the Internet using MLSPropertyFinder. The steps bellow will be helpful in weeding them out:

When you are all done searching you may be left with less than 5 to 10 homes.

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Identifying homes you are interested in viewing.

Once you have a short list of homes that you find meet your interest. You should next put them in some order of priority. From the most desired to the least desired. The next step is for you to go over this list with us so we can review it with you to see if there are any issues with these properties like:

Any properties that have issues that do not meet your approval will be eliminated from the short list. The remaining properties will be scheduled for showings. As such:

1. We will enter the remaining properties, to be viewed, into a mapping software to determine the most efficient travel route.
2. We will coordinate with you a time that is convenient for you to see the properties.
3. We will call the listing agents for each property in the order laid out by the mapping software with a time for viewing. Each appointment will be coordinated and confirmed.

At the scheduled time we will either meet you at our office and travel to the first showing location or meet you at the location of the first scheduled property scheduled for viewing.

It is a good idea to view only 4 to 6 homes per meeting. Any more viewings and each property seen will begin to blend or blur and it can become confusing.

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Viewing a home.

When you have look at a number of properties, it is easy to begin forgetting which home had which features. At each showing we will provide you with a detailed listing brochure to help you remember. You can also pick nicknames for each home you want to remember. Also we recommend you bring along a digital camera to take pictures. Also take notes on the listing brochure.

Please ask questions. If we do not know the answer we will let you know we don't have the answer; however, we will get you the correct answer very shortly.

Ask your self the following important questions while viewing a home:

• Can I see myself and my family living in this house?
• How do I feel about or in the home?
• Do I like this house?
• Does the house have most of what I need?
• Does this home work with my life style?
• If I don't like something, can I change it?
• Does the house look well-enough-maintained to me?
• Does the home meet my future needs?
• Do I like the location?
• Can I sell this home in the future?
• Are there any features in this home I will add to my search requirements?

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Ranking the homes that you have viewed.

A great strategy for keeping track of homes, pick one house that is the 'house to beat' (i.e. the best house you have seen so far) and forget the others. As you view a new home, compare it to the top runner. If the home does not hold up, then forget about it. If it is an improvement then it becomes the 'house to beat' and forget about the previous one.

You may also rank each home using a 1 to 5 scale (i.e. 5 being the perfect house and 1 being not at all what you are looking for).

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Take into account life-style.

The best home isn't the home equipped with everything you want but, rather it is the best home you would like to live in. Imagine living in the house. Do you have teenagers? Do you want a bedroom next them? As you walk through the home, 'imagine' a typical day and night in the home:

• Imagine your daily routine.
• Where will you sleep? Watch TV? Cook? Eat? Work? Play? etc.
• Imagine your entire family in the home.
• Walk through the house and check the traffic pattern.
• Are the bathroom accessible for you and your guests?
• Look at the lighting in each room.
• Will you have enough privacy?
• Do you like to entertain?
• Do you have guests stay over?
• Do you like cozy, private area for snuggling?
• Think about your possessions and where will they go?
• Do you like a wood shop?
• Do you need storage for a boat, bicycles, car, motorcycle?
• Think about the household chores. Is the home easy to keep up?
• Where is the laundry room located?
• Easy access for bringing in the groceries?
• Enough room for all the appliances?
• Imagine your current furniture or new furniture in the home.
• Does the home provide enough entertainment space.
• Is the home suitable for teenagers?
• Is the home safe for toddlers?
• Doest the home provide access for technology items?
• Do you feel secure in this home?

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Take into account current and future needs.

You may want to consider how the home will be able to accommodate your needs in the future:

• Does the home have enough unfinished space in the basement, attic and above the garage?
• Are any bedroom large enough as your kids grow up?
• Does the home have enough bedroom for all new and current residents?
• Will there be enough storage space?
• Will the functional rooms be large enough (i.e. kitchen, dining, living and family rooms)?
• Does the home have a bathroom for every two residents?
• Will there be enough room for any project/hobby work place?
• Does the home have enough office space or a quiet study place?
• Will there be enough electrical capacity for all the electrical needs?
• Does the plumbing infrastructure (i.e. hot water heater, septic, water pressure) keep up with future family needs?
• Does the lot have enough space for additions, children, sports, pool etc?
• Will the garage be large enough for driving teenagers?
• Is the drive way big enough to handle cars from visitors?
• Will the yard be big enough for pets?
• Will the yard work be too much to handle?

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