Choosing your dream home is a bit like finding a life partner: it may take some time, but once you find it, you know it’s the one.
1. Understand What You Want in a Home
Do you need a swimming pool? Is a bathroom with two sinks a must-have or just a desire? In order to streamline your search and focus on your preferences and your family’s needs, the first tip is to list what you want in the house you’re looking for.
Then, you should refine that list by ranking items by importance, marking those that are essential (you won’t buy a house that doesn’t have them). It’s also advisable to mark the issues where you can make some concessions because you may need to review and adjust that list when you define your budget.
2. Set a Realistic Budget
This tip is crucial to ensure that buying your dream home doesn’t turn into a nightmare. Budgeting starts with understanding your net income and your debts, meaning analyzing your financial situation.
Next, you’ll need to determine if you have savings to use as a down payment for the house and the amount you can afford to pay each month. Regarding the latter, many financial experts suggest that 30% of net income is a reasonable amount, while others advise you to be cautious and allocate only 25%.
Visit various financial institutions and research which one offers you the best loan (not the highest one) that fits the budget you prepared earlier.
Don’t feel bad if you have to adapt your wish list and make some concessions. This is better than ending up drowning in mortgage payments.
3. Consider the Location
When you’re in the process of choosing your dream home, location is a crucial aspect that largely determines the current value of the property and its future price increase.
The following questions can guide you in defining the location of your dream home:
- How long will it take you to get to work?
- Does the area have good and safe public transportation?
- Are there schools in the area?
- Is it close to commercial areas?
- Do the roads get flooded during heavy rains?
- Are there parks and recreational spaces nearby?
- Are there hospitals nearby?
When you buy a house, you’re not just acquiring the structure itself. You’re moving into a new community, and the location is something you can’t change.
4. Research the Market
If you’ve followed our tips, you’ll already have your list of essentials, your budget, and your preferred location in hand. With these three tools, you’ll conduct a thorough search of properties for sale. To do this, you’ll consult various websites and listings, taking into account the supply and demand of properties in the area, analyzing price trends, the availability of services, and the growth prospects of the area.
If you don’t have enough time to dedicate to this task, you may need the help of a real estate agent. They will do this search for you and present you with a list of properties that meet the criteria you provided.
5. Visit Different Homes
Even if you think you’ve found the home you’ve been looking for during the first tour, keep visiting other options. The average homebuyer looks at eight houses while searching. The advantage of not buying the first property you see is that you can assess and compare different possibilities.
We recommend that you bring a camera with you during the tours to document what you like and don’t like about each property. Once you’ve visited some houses and have several options that appeal to you and meet your criteria, you can narrow that list down to your top two or three favorites.
Then, make a second visit to those preferred homes, and you might be ready to make an offer on one of them. If none of them convinces you completely, you can always continue your search.
Choosing your dream home requires a lot of reflection and preparation. To find it and catch good deals, you need a well-designed action plan, like the tips we’ve provided.
Finally, remember to be patient and stay alert to make an offer when the right time comes.
