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I can pretty much guarantee you that a good agent can probably knock off 10 from a good pre-interview of your wants/needs and of indepth knowledge of the houses themselves.
The max that I'll show to a typical buyer in a day is 8. Anything higher than that can be extremely overwhelming, tiring and confusing.
This is a corporate relocation from Baton rouge to Fairfax, Va. We're on an extremely tight timeline, and will probably have about 7 or 8 days in the area. This is our 3rd corporate relo, so we've done this in the past. Except in our last 2 towns, we had a lot less to choose from. We did the whole look for 2 days thing, and it was fine. We just never had 23 (let alone 50) houses that we'd consider the other times. I was just curious what was physically possible. I've researched these houses and areas to death, and feel pretty confident in my choices. Hopefully our agent has some additional insight that can knock another 5 or so off our list.
When we were looking for houses I searched myself and found a TON of houses online, but when I gave our realtor the list he was able to look at the agent comments, and many of them had multiple offers already and weren't taking any more.
So I would send a list of about 30 houses I wanted to go see, it would turn out that only maybe 10 were still really open for offers.
I'm in California though, and here investors are just picking up anything they can, so maybe doesn't apply to your area. Good to ask though, it may narrow your list down!
It also depends whether they are vacant or occupied. Vacant houses it is easier to go see more in a day than if you have to schedule with homeowners and keep to a strict schedule.
I think I could handle looking at 10 vacant ones in one day with no trouble, as long as I had a notebook and maybe a camera.
My record is 37 properties in five counties in 3-1/2 days. But that was a VERY special situation (husband transferring to Fort Hood, moving wife here, found out AFTER he got here that he would be shipping back to Iraq very shortly, his unit had already left, and we had to find her a place to land FAST).
That being said, it's my experience that more than six properties in a day start running together in the buyer's brain, so it's best, if possible, to limit it to that.
Tell your agent which 23 you're interested in. They may know of something about some of them that doesn't appear on the MLS that will knock them out of the running (they either do or don't have a dealbreaker that you will not/must have).
If you've got 7 or 8 days in the area, I'd recommend the first day be spent looking at neighborhoods that contain the houses you're interested in - just neighborhoods. You may find that you eliminate quite a few that way, because just like houses, what you see online about neighborhoods doesn't always tell the whole story, or give you the feel of the neighborhood when you're on the ground. Then, try looking at six per day of what remains. Take notes, take photos (preferably have a check-off sheet that you can use to grade the houses, and each of you should have your own sheet and not compare notes while you're going through the houses). That will help you in the decision process, too.
Here's hoping you find your dream home the first day out!
Bring a camera. Your first picture of every house should be the address. That way you can recall the houses with their addresses, but also to separate the pictures.
How many houses can you possible see? I just went through the MLS, and came up with 50 maybes, and 23 that fit ALL our criteria. Should we just plan on seeing those 23? I'm thinking we'll look for 2 days, make final visits and decision on day 3, and hopefully be under contract by day 4 or 5. Does this sound reasonable?
Be sure and send them to your agent to review. The internet is great but you can't really judge a home based on what you see. let your agent know what you like and tell him to feel free to add or take away.
One of the problems we have is people send us homes they see online. We end up showing them 30-40 homes they picked that is not the best selection because they think they like. Once that's done we then we can show them houses they really should see.
If your agent is good and a true relocation professional, let him help you with your selection of homes to see.
I had a client 2 weeks ago that sent me about 40-50 homes and she was very insistent on seeing them all. We spent 3 days looking at her list and she liked very few homes when seen in person. I then was able to show her what she really needed to see.
The internet can fool the untrained observer, give your agent a free hand in weeding out the bad ones.
send them to your agent to review. The internet is great but you can't really judge a home based on what you see. let your agent know what you like and tell him to feel free to add or take away.
One of the problems we have is people send us homes they see online. We end up showing them 30-40 homes they picked that is not the best selection because they think they like. Once that's done we then we can show them houses they really should see.
If your agent is good and a true relocation professional, let him help you with your selection of homes to see.
I had a client 2 weeks ago that sent me about 40-50 homes and she was very insistent on seeing them all. We spent 3 days looking at her list and she liked very few homes when seen in person. I then was able to show her what she really needed to see.
The internet can fool the untrained observer, give your agent a free hand in weeding out the bad ones.
What cracks me up is the "trained real estate professionals" who permitted these photos in their listings. What the funk where these people thinking?
How many houses can you possible see? I just went through the MLS, and came up with 50 maybes, and 23 that fit ALL our criteria. Should we just plan on seeing those 23? I'm thinking we'll look for 2 days, make final visits and decision on day 3, and hopefully be under contract by day 4 or 5. Does this sound reasonable?
Wow, I'm honestly impressed with this, LOL That's very ambitious and also very unlikely (my .02). It's probably recommended to see a lot. My husband and I looked at about 50 houses - but over the span of 2 years.
Are you sure you're completely 100% settled on everything about these homes? Neighborhood? Schools? What about the rest of the process? All the expenses, lawyers?
Like another poster said I probably wouldn't schedule more than 3-5 in one day. It really is overwhelming especially if it's your first venture (which it SOUNDS like). Take it one house at a time.. you might be surprised how much conversation stems from looking at just a couple - might cause you to think more things over for a few days.
What cracks me up is the "trained real estate professionals" who permitted these photos in their listings.
Pretty bad pics. It is conceivable in todays discount world they were provided by a homeowner who is paying a Limited Service company just to get the listing and photos in the MLS.
OR, you should have seen the houses before they cleaned up.
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