Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
[quote=Djuna;13957558]We thought we had done a lot of research online prior to looking at houses but I found out pretty quickly that photos online do not always reflect the truth. They obscure things like bad paint, ratty carpet and joinery issues. Photos online don't give the correct scale either. In one photo we looked at the neighbours house appeared fairly distant but in real life the neighbour was way too close for comfort.
I seached on line a lot but you don't really know what's behind the property.. it can be active on line but with mustiple offers or it can be active but and in reality has a contigent offer...
The trick to viewing a lot of houses in a short time is to purge the losers from your mind.
So you may see 15 in a day, but retain only 3 or 4.
I prefer to stay under 15 in a day, but I can recall whether a home has possibility, or has deal-breakers and can keep the short list in my head. The rest usually do not matter and keeping track of them in detail just clutters the mental hard drive.
We never keep more than 2 on the short list. Maybe 3. When one gets bumped, we ball it up and throw in the back so it can't get mixed up with the ones on the short list.
The last two times we bought we looked at about ten houses each day.
In the first case, we were moving to a different state and had set apart about a week to find, offer, and inspect. We looked at about 20 houses on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday we looked at a couple more, then did second visits on two. Saturday evening we made our offer. We were looking at rural properties in a spread out area, so those were long days.
The second, a rental, we bought in a city about three hours away from home. So again, we weren't going to drive there to look at just a couple houses. We made three trips (or 4?) and each time had about ten to look at. The last time we went we had a pretty good idea which house we would make an offer on even before we saw it, and that's the one we bought.
Just do a lot of research ahead of time, as Charles said. Also, if you are looking in an area with HOAs, see if you can get any more information on those before you go (rules, financial statements, budget, minutes, website). You may discover that one is borrowing a bunch of money to build a playground, or that one struggles with teenagers misbehaving in the pool area, or that one is always dealing with bickering about rule enforcement. Or you may discover that the rules don't fit your family.
Some cities have crime information online, too. You may be able to find out what kinds of crimes have been committed in a particular neighborhood over the last few years.
If you're prepared, and if you have a prepared realtor who has been able to set aside the time for you, then yes, it is possible.
Great tips and advice! We've been in our current house for 9 years, so it's been a while since we've done this. I totally agree that renting is a good idea - but if we can find the right house right away than we get ALOT more benefits from the company. If not, than we'll just deal. Since we visit VA often due to DH's work, we've already been through most (if not all) of the neighborhoods we're considering in previous visits. So we're really not trying to do it all in 3 days - lots of the background work we've already done. Still though, I totally understand how things can appear online vs. in real life.
Both DH and I are incredibly decissive - we'll know right away if a house will work or not. Thankfully we have similiar tastes/ opinions so I'm confidnet we won't disagree too much. I have no problem saying no before we go in, or leaving in 2 minutes. That method will probalby knock half off our list pretty quick. With our first house we narrowed it down to 3 pretty easily. With the house we're in now, it was the only 1 we seriously wanted. Hopefully 1 or 2 will jump out in the same way, and make this easy. As long as we don't hate everything, we're good.
I also plan to find some prospects first on the internet, and then drive by them on my own before having my realtor take us out there. We've done that on a few homes already (on a brief trip back to FL) and wow, some of the homes were just totally different in person! I remember one that looked so nice and seemed to have a huge yard on the internet, but when we drove by, it had a tiny yard and the neighborhood was terrible. I gave that one my "most different from on-line to in person" award! LOL
When we bought our current house, we came to GA from FL and were in a rush. I was also about to have a baby in 2 weeks. We made a lot of mistakes for sure. My husband and I also do not agree on houses at all. I still remember the one place he wanted us to buy that had no garage, a tiny kitchen, and shared a driveway with the neighbor. How in the heck was that going to work for us, esp since he packs the garage full of his "man stuff"?
Second was the time we drove up to a house that our realtor choose. I could tell right away it was not for me at all. It looked ugly, the yard was tiny and sloped, and it had giant power liines running in front and behind. Still, my husband said "We're here, let's look at it anyway" Ugh. No, we should move on and use our time wisely.
Needless to say, I am not looking forward to our upcoming house hunt very much.
I do plan to take a camera and take photos of the address and the home, as well as taking notes of course. I also will demand a final walk-through before closing this time. (long story) Also, don't wait until the last minute to try to find a home inspector and have him fit you in. You want to take your time with that most important step.
I just bought a house 350 miles away from where we were living and everytime we came down to house hunt, we had a list of about 20-25 houses to see. Thankfully our realtor didn't mind giving up her entire weekend for us . We would drive down on Friday afternoon and be out house hunting by 10:00 AM Saturday morning. We'd spend the entire Saturday looking and if there was anything we didn't get to see, or if we wanted to do second visits, we did that on Sunday morning before leaving for home around 2:00 PM Sunday. It worked out fine. I picked my favorites and saw them early on and made a return visit later in the day or the next day if it was something we wanted to offer on. I might add we did this with 6 yr old twins in tow!
I don't know if anybody tried this approach, but it was recommended in a magazine about deciding where to move to in retirement.
Say you start with 20 places ( or 20 houses).
Visit the first and take notes.
When you visit the second, compare it to the first. The one that wins out ,is the only one that advances and is then compared to the next.
Thus you are never comparing more than two location( or houses) against each other.
It sure simplifies things.
This is exactly what we did. The first house we saw was #1 until the very last house we saw, which is the one we bought. I think you have to use this system when time is tight or you'll totally confuse yourself. But you do have to have a pretty good idea of what you like and don't like in houses - probably doesn't work very well with first time buyers.
Your mileage will vary. Make sure that your agent absolutely knows your criteria so that he/she will be able to add homes to the tour to replace the ones you've picked that will already be under contract by the time you hit town. Certain areas of FFX are moving quickly, some aren't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alibaba1579
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.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,313,597 times
Reputation: 6471
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuckity
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.
Mine is 4 and even then, I think I'm not listening well enough to the clients needs.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. We would drive down on Friday afternoon and be out house hunting by 10:00 AM Saturday morning. We'd spend the entire Saturday looking and if there was anything we didn't get to see, or if we wanted to do second visits, we did that on Sunday morning before leaving for home around 2:00 PM Sunday. It worked out fine. I picked my favorites and saw them early on and made a return visit later in the day or the next day if it was something we wanted to offer on. I might add we did this with 6 yr old twins in tow!
