When buying a house in Austin TX, there are several steps to follow, but if broken down, it's much less intimidating. What else helps? Doing the steps in a particular order.
For example, Part 1 of this series talked about getting Pre-Approved for a mortgage.
The second step is Looking for Homes.
Many people think REALTORS® are tour guides and just drive buyers around to look at houses. This is so far from the truth. You, the buyer, need to learn the areas and decide where you want to live, and a Realtor can't do that for you.
Many buyers aren't quite sure where they want to look, so they want to see listings in several areas. This is not a problem as I can set up several searches in the MLS for you, each with different search criteria.
As the buyer, you then need to take those listings and drive through the neighborhoods to see if you could live there and if these neighborhoods were what you were expecting.
What I mean by this is to not just drive by one time, but to drive by a few times, and at different times of the day. Are you interested to know if kids are around? Drive by a Saturday afternoon or when the school bus stops by the neighborhood. Are you interested to see if the street is lined with cars? Drive by in the evenings.
Drive to and from your office a couple of times, and make sure at least one of the times is during regular rush hour traffic. You might do the drive on a lazy Saturday afternoon with no traffic and be ok with it, but come Monday morning, traffic might add an extra 15-20 minutes. Are you ok with the drive now?
Once you've been able to narrow down areas based on neighborhood and drive times, pick out a good 7-10 houses you want to see.
The average first time home buyer will actually buy a house the first day out looking, within 5 houses they see. Why look at 7-10? To make sure you're ok with the variety and not second guess your decision when only looking at 5.
The average move-up or move-down buyer will buy a house the second day out looking, within 7 houses. If you looked at 7-10 houses the first day, you might actually buy something that first day as well, which is another reason it's good to look at a variety.
There are many things to look at when looking at houses, and you'll have to come back for Part 3.
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings, click here.
** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **
Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Buying a House - Austin TX- The Simple Steps to Follow- Part 2 * was first published on donnahomesblog.com
In Atlanta it is almost a matter of survival to take into consideration the traffic patterns and where you are going
Great series Donna! Driving to and from your office and kid's school a couple of times, and make sure you do it at different times of day is essential to happiness!
Hi Donna
Thanks for sharing your insight, great post.
Good luck and success.
Lou Ludwig
Donna Excellent info - too often buyers listen to co-workers regarding travel time and wind up unhappy Karen
Charlie, Here in Austin also.
Paul, Exactly!
Lou, Thank you.
Karen, I know! 30 minutes to an ex-Californian is a lifetime to an Austinite!