10 Insider Tips on How to Find the Perfect Home for You
Before going out and obliterating the little free time you have on the weekends by schlepping from one open house to the next, fending off 50 different realtors who are trying to “sell” you a specific home, use this list to help you organize your thoughts and make each trip out with your agent productive!
[Before we get to the fun stuff, I am going to assume you have already received a pre-approval from a qualified lender or mortgage broker. I know, I know! I tried so many ways to start this post without saying “get pre-approved first”…and yet, here we are: Get pre-approved before you start your home search! The best reason to begin with a pre-approval is that your lender will explain what mortgage products are available to you, based on your income and credit score. There are other recurring expenses you need to budget for other than the mortgage payment. You may also have a mortgage insurance (depending on your down payment), there’s property tax, hazard insurance and the estimated closing costs. Only then will you truly know what you can afford. Second reason to get pre-approved before you start looking at homes is to prepare you to write an offer! If you find a house you absolutely love and you want to write an offer to purchase it, it is standard practice in Los Angeles to attach your pre-approval to the offer to demonstrate you are a serious, qualified buyer. When competing against other buyers on a hot home, your offer will be overlooked if you don’t show you actually have the ability to pay for it!]
Now that you’ve got that pre-approval in hand, you’re ready to go shopping! This is the fun part! Here are some tips to make your search effective, focused and productive:
Ask your real estate agent to show you what homes have sold within the past 6 months in the specific neighborhood(s) you want to live, based on your budget. This will help you start an informed, realistic search.
Unless you are the sole decision maker, sit down with whoever you are buying the home with and together make a list of what features in a home you consider to be “must-have”, and make another list of features that you “want” but could live without. To be honest, especially if this is your first home and you’re working with a tight budget, you aren’t going to find everything on your list in a single home. And that is OK! When you find “the one”, everything you love about the home will make up for some of the small things it may be lacking. Click here for a full list of features you want to consider.
When creating your list of “must-haves”, focus on the things you cannot change - such as the location of the home or the size of the lot. Hate carpeting? Great! So do most people - but that is so easy to fix down the line! Don’t rule out a home simply because the carpet is the wrong color, or the interior is painted violet or blood red. In fact, if you are willing to put a little work, and you can easily identify simple home improvement projects, you may end up with a great deal that others have skipped over.
Don’t rely only the pictures presented online! Some agents (don’t get me started…) take terrible photos with their iPhone that completely misrepresent a home on the MLS (The Multiple Listing Service). Here’s a great story: I was working with a young couple buying their first home. We saw everything on the market. Right when they were about to give up hope, we revisited a home that had been on the market for over 3 months. Everything “on paper” looked good: It was a house in LA under $600,000 that had 3 large bedrooms, 2 full baths, what the agent described as a “renovated kitchen”, fully gated with a large backyard. But the pictures were blurry. There was clothing strewn about, dirty dishes in the sink, and you couldn’t even tell what type of flooring was in home. We scheduled a showing and were blown away. The kitchen had granite counter tops, a brand new island and a new range. The bathroom was upgraded with dual sinks and a jet tub and a skylight. The flooring was brand new high-quality laminate. The backyard was beautifully maintained. Because they were desperate to sell and everyone had skipped over this home (probably due to the poor marketing), we were able to negotiate the sale for $25,000 less than what it was listed for and my clients were so happy.
Get to know the neighborhoods you are considering. Don’t just drive by! Walk the neighborhood and speak with some of the neighbors if possible. Drive down any nearby major boulevards and check out the restaurants and retail stores. If a sense of community is important to you, check out local Facebook groups and join them to see how neighbors interact and what local issues they are discussing. If there is a commute to work you are concerned with, go there in the morning and make the daily commute from that location. It’s easy in LA to dismiss traffic as an inevitable part of life, but there are nuances to neighborhoods that can make a large difference. Check out Great Schools to see the ratings of the schools in the district.
Bring the following items with you to each open house: your smartphone or digital camera to take pictures or video, a pen and a piece of paper that you can jot down notes with. Don’t rely on the marketing material or the print-out you may receive from your agent. That print out most likely comes from the MLS (The Multiple Listing Service) and is created by the Seller’s Agent (also called the Listing Agent). There may be mistakes on it, and they definitely won’t highlight anything that could be construed as a negative. I would suggest taking your own notes, especially so you can jog your memory or compare it with others homes after your outing. Click here to download a list you can print and take with you!
If you find a couple homes you love, be sure to revisit at night! I know - it may not be conventional wisdom, but think about it… You definitely want to know what goes on when everyone is at home in the evening. The first time I saw my home was actually at night. The only way I could squeeze in a showing was after work, and it was dark by the time I got here. It wasn’t so much what I saw, but what I heard that I loved… nothing. It was silent. No street noise, no traffic, no loud neighbors. My little cul de sac is so peaceful and quiet. Another good example: about a block away from where I live, there is a home that is in slight disrepair, but something you may glance over during the day. At night, it comes to life with large industrial-looking spotlights that are attached to the roof and they are angled outward, glaring into their neighbors front windows. So, swing by after hours and make sure your favorite house still checks out!
Don’t jump the gun. If you find a home you absolutely love, visit it twice. Be quick about it - in a competitive market, houses sell in less than a day. But do visit it twice. The second time you won’t be as emotional and you’ll be able to be more calm and analytical.
Ask your agent to run “comps” on the house you want to buy. Asking for “comps” means you’re asking for a “comparable sales report”. Your agent can use the MLS to pull up a list of other similar homes in that neighborhood and see what they sold for. Don’t take the list price as gospel - validate it with comps.
If you find a house you love, and you can afford it, and your agent and the comps advise you that the house is priced appropriately, don’t be afraid to write an offer for the full list price. If it’s priced well, it may be slightly under-market. This is a technique used to get people excited about the home and elicit multiple offers. So if you can afford it, and you want it, be competitive and offer the sellers what they are asking for. This is where an experienced and savvy agent comes into play. They should be able to tell you how to write the most compelling offer… Use their expertise.