Buying a Home - Elimination or Selection?
Ben Schmidt of www.benschmidt.tv a Fredericton NB and Oromocto NB realtor video blogs about purchasing a home and how you don't select a home, you eliminate the un-wanted.
When purchasing a home, you generally start with a long/short list of wants and needs. your highest priority will be on your needs and then move onto your wants. After looking at some homes for sale, you'll start to get a better understanding of what you like, and what is really a need and what is really a want.
After seeing a number of homes, you and your real estate agent will now have a pretty good filter, and will start eliminating options much quicker.
Example scenario. You are flexible in location, North/South/Hanwell/Lincoln, you can spend up to $190,000, you could do a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom, and you'd like a quick closing. After seeing a number of homes come on the market, you now understand what type of home you can get. You know you can get a 3 bedroom, around 15 years old, and it doesn't have to be that small. Then you view a home that is exactly what you'd like to buy, but it's at the outskirts of Lincoln, a location you thought you would be open to. After speaking with your Realtor, you're confident a similar home will most likely be for sale on the Northside, and you'd like to be closer to your friends.
So what you learn from this experience is that you no longer need to look at homes in Lincoln, also Hanwell is probably out of the question too. You know a similar house should come online in Marysville or somewhere behind the Brookside mall, and that's where you'd like to be. You also now know exactly the type of home you can expect to get, and you should only have to pay mid $170's. So now the moment a home that meets this criteria become available you can jump on it.
What you've done through this process is not "selected" the home once it comes available, you've eliminated locations, 2 bedrooms, and selected a the type of home to expect. When one does come online you know that it's the home you should get, because it has the most boxes checked off your list.
If this makes sense, or even if you disagree with this process, I'd love to hear from you. You can always email me at ben.schmidt@me.com or leave your comments here