Planning in advance to find the right property
Let’s say you’ve been looking for a home to buy for months. You finally see a listing you like. Knowing that the California Real Estate Market is changing, you don’t know whether to cast caution to the wind and make an offer, or wait to see if something better comes along. How do you decide what to do?
To avoid making a costly mistake, analyze what you want and need in a home before you start looking. Make a list of features you desire in a home to refer back to if you lose focus. Buyers usually focus on price and size when they fine-tune their housing preferences. But, don’t overlook the floor plan. The floor plan of a home, or room layout, will affect the way you use the space. A home that’s big enough in terms of overall square footage may not work well for you unless the space is organized appropriately.
Some buyers find it useful to sketch the floor plan of a home they’re interested in buying. Some floor plans are better than others and a desirable layout will have a mix of public and private spaces, preferably with a nice separation between the two. For example, you may want a home with a kitchen that opens to a family room. After looking at listings in your favorite neighborhood, you discover that the homes were built without family rooms. So you’ll have to compromise. Every home purchase requires some degree of compromise. But it’s difficult to know how you’ll need to compromise until you look at some of the local housing.
The more you look at homes, the more you’ll be able to refine your list of housing priorities so that it’s realistic for the marketplace. Then, when you see a home that looks promising, weigh it against your list to see how closely it comes to fulfilling your housing needs. Don’t decide for or against an exciting new listing if your only exposure to the property has been a viewing at a Sunday open house. Open houses can be great exposure for listings, but it’s difficult for buyers to carefully examine a listing when crowds of people are milling around.
Before you decide to buy, ask your agent if there’s anything about the property that would make it difficult to resell in the future. Well-located and well-maintained homes with good schools and good floor plans are the easiest to sell, especially in a down market. Homes with defects, like a poor floor plan or a location too close to a busy highway may be difficult to resell without discounting the price. Resale potential shouldn’t be the only consideration before purchasing, but an important factor.
Contact me to set up a personal and confidential interview. We can sit down together and develop your personal list of desirable property features.
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