The Best Way to Start Searching for a Home
When searching for a new home, the process can be as fun or as stressful as the agent you have representing you. I work with a lot of buyers and have heard horror stories about other agents, lenders, etc, and try my best to make your search and purchase as stress-free as possible.
When you first start looking it is likely that you will get online and look at listings, maybe pull up some market data on the area, and probably get a real estate magazine. Some key factors to remember before you really get serious though:
- Contact an agent that will represent you (see Agency). As your agent, I will use my expertise to help you find the perfect home, negotiate a better price, and include contingencies that protect your interests – and your money. If you contact a listing agent directly – they represent the seller and their goal is to get as much money from you as possible at terms that weaken your ability to get out of the contract should you find something wrong with the house.
- Magazines do not contain even a small percentage of available listings and are very unorganized. These are publications that are paid advertising by real estate listing agents. If you want the most up to date listing of ALL actively listed properties, see my MLS Search and create an account. You can search without ever revealing your name to me, but you can also create an account to get the ability to save searches, favorite listings, and have email updates sent to you automatically.
- I have a LOT of information on communities and market data here on my site, however, this information may be slightly out of date for the area and time you are looking at as this blog spans information over half a decade. Feel free to contact me and ask for more up to date information. Much of this information on my site is updated as I have requests for it and am actively pulling it up for clients.
- Search the MLS – keep in mind that some agents do not give me permission to put their listings on my website. It is highly possible that by contacting me and requesting more direct attention, that I may find other properties that are actively listed but not shown online.
Searching for a home should be fun and exciting. As your agent, it is my goal to help make this an enjoyable process and I hope that I achieve that every time. Contact me and let me help you start your search!
