6 Steps To A Better Home Purchase
Have you ever found yourself stuck on the sidelines watching house prices soar out of your reach? Did you just lose out in your 7th offer night? Have you outgrown the home you just recently bought?
What is it that makes finding a great home so easy for some people and so difficult for others?
Purchasing a home is a big decision and can cause a great deal of stress, especially when done incorrectly. Without the right guidance, Buyers often feel overwhelmed leaving them on the sidelines or regretting their decision to purchase a home that doesn’t make sense for them. As a child, one of my Dad’s favorite spots for a family dinner was the Pickel Barrel. This restaurant has a massive menu and a seemingly endless number of meal choices. Spending 10 minutes deciding between these 300 menu items made me question my choice and lead to a bad case of food envy (I take my food seriously, folks.) This is one of the reasons this tradition does not carry on with me and my kids. Although some level of choice is crucial for happiness, too much can feel overwhelming.
Good decisions are often made when we allow the situation to guide us. The more experience you have with a particular type of decision, the safer it is to go with your intuition. When Buying a house, the number of choices can be overwhelming. To help clients avoid having home envy, we have come up with a guide for better Real Estate decision making. After all, purchasing a great home is simply a result of making a great decision.
See below for RelativeRealty.com’s 6 rules to better home buying decisions:
1. Identify a Realistic End Goal
Understanding market conditions and neighbourhood prices are essential to creating a realistic vision of your desired purchase. If you have an unrealistic vision of where and what your home should look like at what price, you are never going to feel comfortable making a purchase. Describe your desired home in detail and have your Broker show you recent solds (not active listings) which meet your criteria. If they don’t exist, you need to change your location or the vision of your dream home.
2. Setting Standards
Identifying your wants and needs is key to finding a home that will make you happy. Think ahead and ensure your purchase will meet your needs for the amount of time you plan on owning the home. For example, you may plan on growing your 2 person family to a 4 person family in the very near future. A house to grow into and school districts should be a consideration.
3. Don’t Get Caught Up with Finding the “Best”
Emotions can get the best of us; the need to win or get the best house leads to bad choices. You often see this when people get carried away in multiple offer situations and overpay for a home.
4. Be Aware of Biases
Being well informed with upfront and honest advice is critical to good decision making. It’s important to be aware of where biases exist, both your own and those of others. For example, a listing agent has a bias to the Sellers, so their advice may not be in your best interests.
5. Try Not To Rush
Making a rushed decision can lead to regret. Home buying is a process, practice patience and trust the process – you will be happier in the end.
6. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
With home buying, your focus should be on features that you can’t change. Home and lot size, layout and location are either expensive or impossible to change. Loud paint colours and outdated décor, while sometimes difficult to look past, can be easily updated. Don’t get overwhelmed by low impact items.
Photo Courtesy: Bostonist.com
Decision Making Steps Courtesy: Catherine Price
