How to Narrow Your Home Search

 

Leverage the power of the Venn diagram to clarify your criteria and accurately target your home search.

 

So, you’re ready to set out on a search for a home. You head to Zillow, Redfin, and five other property search sites...and you’re suddenly drowning in a sea of options, but most of them aren’t what you’re looking for.

 

Working with an agent allows you to set up a specific search that leverages the power of a Venn diagram and only shows us the homes that are truly viable options for you. There are a few key factors to consider as we set up that search to help us find the house of your dreams.

Our first step is to narrow our search in terms of price. After you’ve spoken to a lender about pre-approval and monthly payments, you’ll have a clear view of how much house you can afford. Eliminating everything outside of that price range is a huge step forward to understanding our options.

Once we’ve narrowed by price, we’ll draw some boundaries on our map of the city. Are you looking to live downtown, where entertainment and dining opportunities are within walking distance? Do you prefer to be mountainside, where you step out the door and onto the trailhead? Maybe shortening your commute is your top priority.

 

Eliminating properties outside your preferred area will give us a great start to finding the right home for you.

This aspect of your new home requires some forward thinking. Maybe a one bedroom feels sufficient now, but how long are you hoping to live in your new house?

 

Consider how frequently you’re expecting to host guests and whether you’d like to grow your family while living here. Plus, remote work is increasingly common - will you need a home office, or even two?

In many floorplans, the number of bathrooms aligns logically with the number of bedrooms...but not always. We’ll set your minimum to be sure you’re only seeing homes that you’d be comfortable in.

How much space do you and your family need? Are you hoping for a spacious kitchen, a dining room, and plenty of living spaces in addition to your bedrooms and bathrooms? If so, we’ll set a square footage requirement that will eliminate homes that aren’t going to provide the room you really need.

 

This is also a great metric to come back to once we’ve begun our home search. Square footage can be tough to conceptualize before walking through a property, so it may be that we see a few with the right bedroom and bathroom counts, but they feel too cramped. Those learning experiences will show us we need to get specific on our square footage requirements.

Maybe you’re not one for indoor entertaining, but a yard is important to you. Are you moving with or planning to adopt some furry friends? Want an at-home playground or trampoline someday?

 

Or maybe it’s the opposite you’ve got no use for a yard and you’re tired of worrying about mowing and landscaping. Regardless of what you want from your outdoor space, we can set minimums or maximums for lot size that will help us to only see homes that offer the right lot size for you.

Homebuyers who have or are planning to have children often take some time to research school districts in the area. District and school boundaries can vary from one neighborhood to the next, sometimes with drastic differences in ratings.

 

Once you have an idea of what school district you’d like to live in, we can adapt our search radius to ensure you’re only seeing homes that align with what you want for your children’s education.

Our search software allows us to get pretty specific on features, so be sure to communicate about any must-haves for your new home. Air conditioning, fenced yard space, dishwasher, and washer and dryer hookups are a few common features we can search for.

Our conversations about your budget and your desired features in your new home will help us to narrow our search appropriately and keep us from wasting time looking at homes that aren’t right for you.

 

Once we’ve set up your search, we hope to see 15-20 homes on the market within your criteria. With that specific list, we’ll be ready to get out there and start looking at houses in person! If you’re ready to set up a search, please Contact Me.