Your Complete Home Buyer Checklist: Part 2

Finding Your Dream Home

In our first installment of The Complete Home Buyer Checklist, we covered the preliminary steps you need to take when you’re starting your house hunt. Now we’re going to discuss the next steps, including walking through homes and putting in an offer.

If you’re interesting in buying a home in MD, VA, or DC, call the experts at Coakley Realty today—our number is 301-340-8700.

Finding a Home

Easily one of the most difficult parts of the home buying process is actually finding the home you want to buy! Thankfully, if you’ve been following along with our checklist you should already be prepared with a few things:

• An experienced real estate agent from Coakley Realty
• A list of priorities for your new home
• A knowledge of the areas where you want to live
• A budget

These are all the things you need to prepare for a successful house hunt. But now it’s on to the fun part—actually visiting potential homes!

Here are the next steps you need to take on your house hunt:

Have your real estate agent make a list of possible homes – once you’ve shared your list of priorities and your budget with your real estate agent, he or she can get started finding homes that suit your needs. The search can be confined to specific areas and neighborhoods or spread out throughout a larger area, depending on what you’re looking for.

Walk through the homes you like – after your real estate agent has found a few possible homes, it’s time for the fun stuff—doing the walk-throughs! When you’re walking through the homes, don’t worry about paint colors or how things are decorated. Try to imagine how the home will look if you were living there—see past any clutter or paisley wallpaper and imagine your belongings filling the spaces. Keep notes of which houses you really liked and what you liked about them—it’s easy to get them mixed up later.

Don’t worry if you don’t like some of the houses your real estate agent finds—our professionals can comb the listings and find other properties that meet your needs and budget. And never rush into a decision about choosing your home! This is a decision you’re going to be standing by for years to come, so make sure it’s right for you.

Narrow down your options – sometimes, people walk into a home and that’s it—that’s the one for them—but more often, it’s a difficult process. Narrow down your home options to the top two or three choices. If necessary, make another visit to each of the properties and weigh the pros and cons of each. Your real estate agent can help you in many aspects of this decision, but ultimately, you need to decide on the best place for you and your family.

Place an offer on a home – the last step in this portion of the process is to place an offer on the house you’ve decided on. Your real estate agent can help you determine the best bid to place, but be prepared for a counteroffer. Most sellers are going to give a counteroffer to see if they can bring your price up—this is the time when the advice and help of your real estate agent will be invaluable.

Find Your Dream Home Today

Let the experts at Coakley Realty put their 20+ years of experience to work for you! We can help you find the home of your dreams in MD, VA, or DC. Contact us today to get started.

Stay tuned for part 3 of our Home Buyer’s Checklist!