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Home Buyer's Game Plan
If you've saved enough for a down payment on a house (or gone with 100 percent financing) and have your other financial ducks in a row, you don't want to be haphazard about this next stage. When you find your house or condo and start the buying process, you'll be glad to have your system in place.
The main categories of things you'll want to hang onto are:
You need a method for keeping track of what you saw and where you saw it. Clear notes and photos (got your cell phone camera?) are better than hazy memory. You should also save homes of interest in My Zillow where you can compare them with others you've seen.
Pretend you're starting high school again and get yourself a three-ring binder, three-hole paper, and those dividers that kept your class notes separated. You can use the dividers to separate one house from another or, if you're looking at a couple of different neighborhoods, to group the houses by neighborhood.
Luckily, he could afford to hire someone to take over all that raking, and mowing, and trimming, and gutter cleaning. Had that not been the case, his weekends would have been consumed by yard chores - not something this single young professional had intended or wanted at all.
Whatever Works for You
You will be accumulating a lot of paperwork over the next weeks and months. The idea is to keep this stuff in a way that lets you find your notes or a particular document again when you need it. You can do this in a number of ways, such as:- A filing cabinet with a dedicated file drawer
- A cardboard box and (labeled) hanging file folders
- A set of large (labeled) manila envelopes that you keep on a shelf or in a drawer
The main categories of things you'll want to hang onto are:
- Financing - Your pre-qualification or pre-approval letter from the bank needs to be here. Make copies!
- The offer - Get a blank copy of the Real Estate Purchase Contract either from your agent, online sources, or a local office supply store so you can study it and know what to expect when the time comes. Remember that contracts vary by area.
- The agent contract - A copy of this from your agent is useful to study as well.
- Home insurance - Your mortgage lender will require this. If you are using an agent, they may be able to recommend an insurance broker, but you might want to start researching firms, asking friends, etc.
- Home inspection - A good home inspection is critically important. You'll need to do some homework to find a reputable (and thorough!) inspector.
- Closing documents - You'll start filling this folder or envelope when your transaction is in escrow. It will be bursting by the time you become a proud owner.
Which House Was That?
Unless you hit the jackpot on your first day of looking, the homes you've visited will start to run together. "Was the house with the great view from the dining room the one that had the seriously moldy basement?" you wonder. "Or was the bad basement in the house with the walk-in closet off the master bath?"You need a method for keeping track of what you saw and where you saw it. Clear notes and photos (got your cell phone camera?) are better than hazy memory. You should also save homes of interest in My Zillow where you can compare them with others you've seen.
Pretend you're starting high school again and get yourself a three-ring binder, three-hole paper, and those dividers that kept your class notes separated. You can use the dividers to separate one house from another or, if you're looking at a couple of different neighborhoods, to group the houses by neighborhood.
- At the front of the binder you may find it helpful to place a cheat sheet itemizing the dimensions of each room where you live now. When you're reading a listing description that gives the dimensions of various rooms, you'll have a much better idea how your own furniture will (or won't) fit into an 8 x 8 or 12 x 14 space.
- Print multiple copies of your House-Hunting Scorecard - or modify it using the wish list you've already worked up - and place the blank forms in the binder so you can keep notes on each house you visit.
- Print your digital photos on three-hole paper to keep those in the binder, too.
Beware of Tunnel Vision
As you probably sorted out earlier when you established your criteria, some of the items in the scorecard are "wants" rather than "needs," and some of them may actually be "don't wants." Be sure to think through - and pay attention to - those "don't wants." Sometimes we can be so focused on the features we love about a house that we don't even notice something that will come back to bite after we've moved in.Real Life Example
Who: After years of condo living in the District of Columbia, one young marketing executive decided to move out to the Virginia suburbs.
The reason: "I was tired of driving around and around the block after work hunting for a parking space, and I was really tired of taking the elevator up and down six floors to do laundry in the basement only to find all the machines in use."
The house: One of the first houses he looked at seemed perfect: three bedrooms and one bath, a driveway, a one-car garage, a Metro stop he could walk to in 15 minutes when he didn't want to drive. And the washer and dryer were right next to the kitchen.
Why: The house had great curb appeal - the front yard was immaculate and the azalea bushes nicely trimmed. The house was empty and the seller had polished the wood floors to a fare-thee-well. The afternoon sun came through the front windows and the living room just glowed. The backyard, as well-groomed as the front, was also delightfully shady, thanks to several towering old oak trees.
The problem: "I loved the shade that summer," the man says, "but once they started, those oak leaves didn't stop falling until nearly Christmas. Seemed like all I did for weeks was rake leaves and unclog gutters."
The reason: "I was tired of driving around and around the block after work hunting for a parking space, and I was really tired of taking the elevator up and down six floors to do laundry in the basement only to find all the machines in use."
The house: One of the first houses he looked at seemed perfect: three bedrooms and one bath, a driveway, a one-car garage, a Metro stop he could walk to in 15 minutes when he didn't want to drive. And the washer and dryer were right next to the kitchen.
Why: The house had great curb appeal - the front yard was immaculate and the azalea bushes nicely trimmed. The house was empty and the seller had polished the wood floors to a fare-thee-well. The afternoon sun came through the front windows and the living room just glowed. The backyard, as well-groomed as the front, was also delightfully shady, thanks to several towering old oak trees.
The problem: "I loved the shade that summer," the man says, "but once they started, those oak leaves didn't stop falling until nearly Christmas. Seemed like all I did for weeks was rake leaves and unclog gutters."
Luckily, he could afford to hire someone to take over all that raking, and mowing, and trimming, and gutter cleaning. Had that not been the case, his weekends would have been consumed by yard chores - not something this single young professional had intended or wanted at all.
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