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Logistically, the house hunt is a three-step process. First, you will work with your Realtor to determine your search criteria - the characteristics and features you are looking for in a place. That will give you enough insider knowledge to meaningfully complete a Wants and Needs Checklist. Next, your Realtor, and sometimes you yourself, will find prospective properties that are up for sale which come close to your description of the property you are looking for. The most common place to find such properties is on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), an online database in which Realtors place their listings in order to make properties known to other Realtors and their buyer clients. Finally, you will get in the car (or on the bus, or subway, as the case may be) and go out and do an in-person visit of the properties that have been identified as potentially meeting your criteria. This is the phase I call your Buyer's Tour.
On average, Buyers look at five to 25 properties before locating one that speaks to them enough to make an offer on it. Some buyers see one place and buy it, while others look at 50 before making an offer on one. The clearer YOU are about your wants and needs, the more efficient and less painful your house hunt will be. Also, changing your priorities drastically and repeatedly can result in a house hunt so long that homes in your area actually rise in price while you sort yourself out. Make sure you tell your Realtor if and when your priorities change. They're professionals, not mind-readers!
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As a general rule, you should try to see no more than six or seven properties on any given Buyer's Tour - more than that, and the features of one place will start to blur with another. A full tour like this will take in the range of two-three hours, and sometimes longer depending on the types of properties you're seeing (condos can take a long time, especially if you look at all the complex amenities too, including community gyms and pools), how many of them interest you, and the distance between the properties.
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View the first Buyer's Tour as a purely educational exchange of information between you and your Realtor:
- On the first tour, your Realtor will show you properties meeting as many of your criteria as possible, and should provide a representative sampling of such properties that are presently on the market in your price range;
- Your Realtor should not censor the first tour much based on aesthetic or subjective details. (In cases where there are a large number of properties on the market in your price range, your Realtor can exercise a little bit more discretion.) I like to use red carpet as an example; on the first tour, I won't rule out showing a house because it has red carpet, because my client may like red carpet - even though I don't;
- Your job for the first tour is to provide your Realtor as much feedback as possible about the features and characteristics you like, dislike, or REALLY dislike. If you communicate your feedback effectively to your Realtor, then on subsequent tours, your Realtor should show her respect for your time by not showing you houses with characteristics you have already designated as deal breakers (without some incredibly redeeming quality).
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