In our last article in this home buying series we discussed the best way to get your finances in order and preparing for your home purchase with a mortgage pre-approval. Now that you have done all that what next? Should we head out into the marketplace and look at everything in your price range? We could do that but it would not be the best use of your time and energy. You would also run the risk of buying a home that is not entirely suitable and above all we want to make sure that you purchase the right home.

How do we do that? We need to sit down and discuss your needs and wants and how they relate to your affordability, the price range that you will be shopping in. We will consider the following items in order to determine your must haves, could haves and even a few must not haves;

• What is your current lifestyle and what type of property supports that lifestyle?
• What is your expected or future lifestyle and how does your property choice allows you to transition from now to then?
• What amenities would need to be present within a neighbourhood to make it suitable for you to live in?
• What size and type of home is most likely to have the features and functions that you require?
• What room types do you require such as a formal living room or dining room and how many bathrooms, bedrooms etc..?

What do we do with this information and how does it help us to find the right home for you while avoiding wasting too much of your time and energy?  Here’s how;

• From the answers to the questions above we identify the features and amenities that you need and/or want.
• We separate the must haves from the nice to haves.
• The must haves form the criteria for our search of the MLS, For Sale By Owner and our client databases.
• We identify the housing options available to you and which type contains the most of your desired features and amenities.
• We narrow down our search criteria based upon what we have found.

This critical step will allow us to move forward with your home search with confidence, saving you a great deal of effort and stress. Another way your Realtor helps you.

For more interesting articles, videos and podcasts please visit;

Website, www.freehomeevaluations.ca Blog, www.alasdair.ca Facebook, www.facebook.com/FreeHomeEvaluationsInKitchenerWaterloo YouTube, www.youtube.com/alasdairtherealtor