Congratulations on your decision to purchase a new home! Your first step toward buying your new home will be to analyze your family’s needs. We would be happy to assist in analyzing your needs so that you will be able to get a clear picture of exactly what your new home should be.

First, you should write down what you are looking for in your new home. For example, are you currently renting and would like to have a home where you can begin building equity? Maybe you recently married and have outgrown your current residence. Or, maybe you have just gotten that promotion, which allows you to move to your Dream Home. There are many factors that will have a bearing on how you approach your home search.

Second, establish a time frame that you would like to stay within for buying your home. Depending on your reasons for wanting a new home and the current state of the market here in the area, you will be able to come up with a rough guideline, which you can finalize as you gather more information.

Last, you most likely have a mental picture of what you would like your house to look like and what features it should have. It’‘s very important to write these ideas down to avoid any ambiguity later in your home search. You should make at least two lists: one should be a list describing your dream home and the other should list the features of the home that you feel are absolute must have in order to buy the home. In a perfect world, your new home would fulfill both lists 100 percent. It is more likely that you will end up blending the two lists into a schedule of prioritized items as you progress through the buying process. This is a natural and evolutionary process that will become much clearer as you find out what is available here in our market.


Pick The Area

Now that you have your list of needs and wants and you know how much you can afford to spend, it’s time to look at some houses! Not just yet. Step back for a moment and consider the larger picture. You are not just buying a house, you are buying the neighborhood the home is in. Use our website to view many area subdivisions. When you find your dream home, you want it to be in a neighborhood that is to your liking with the amenities that you need. So, you will need to make another list of what type of neighborhood you want to live in. You will most likely want to consider things like how living in the neighborhood will affect your drive time to and from work, what amenities are offered (swimming pool, tennis courts, park, etc.), and, if you have children who are attending school or soon will be, what school district you will be in and how close the schools are. You may even want to make two lists just as you did with your home criteria.

We will be able to help you consolidate the information from your list of needs and wants for your home, your pre-approval, and your list of needs and wants for the neighborhood. From this, you can incorporate the information into a search profile, which you can then narrow down to specific areas dictated by the market in which you will be looking. Our experience in our local markets will be a valuable resource during this step.