It’s not uncommon for a first-time home buyer to say to me, “Gosh, just last week I called you about buying a home and now I’m in escrow! How did this happen so fast?” The answer is it didn’t. First-time home buyers start the search long before most even realize it. Here’s what you can expect from your home shopping experience.

Figuring Out the Benefits
You should buy a home. That’s what you’ve been hearing from friends and family, right? So, by now you have likely already weighted the benefits and decided that home ownership or moving was the best decision for you. That’s a major hurdle now passed. You are focused and certain. Good.

Defining Search Parameters
Almost 80% of all home searches today begin on the Internet. With just a few clicks of the mouse, home buyers can search through hundreds of online listings, view virtual tours, and sort through dozens of photographs and aerial shots of neighborhoods and homes. You’ve probably defined your goals and have a pretty good idea of the type of home and neighborhood you want. By the time you reach your real estate agent’s office, you are halfway to home ownership.

How Long Should It Take to Find What You Want?
In seller’s markets such as Austin, realtors often show only one home. A few buyers will look for years, but buyers who do that usually aren’t motivated. Most likely, a motivated buyer will find a home within two weeks. Most top realtors even say a great deal of their buyers find a home within two days! Of course the ability to search for homes and narrow them down first on the internet certainly helps the process along in today’s high-tech world.

Good real estate agents will listen to your wants and needs and arrange to show only those homes that fit your particular parameters. Your agent should preview homes before showing them to you as well.

How Many Homes Will You See?
Studies show that the your memory dramatically improves after consumption of carbs and slows upon consuming sugar. So, it may sound funny, but one realtor advises you to layoff the soft drinks and have a hearty meal of carbs before venturing out to tour homes. The average number of homes that one realtor we heard from says she shows in one day is seven. Any more than that, and the brain is on overload. Therefore, don’t expect to see 20 or 30 homes; although it’s physically possible to do so, you probably will not remember specific details about any of them.

At Buffington Mortgage we can provide a checklist and information page for you for every home that you plan on visiting to make it easier for you to review later and remember the things that stood out most to you about the home, but you can do this on your own too…take full notes as you go so all the houses don’t “gel” together in the end.

The “Red Shoes” Experience
Women will relate to this. Say, you need a new pair of red shoes. You go to the mall. At the first shoe store, you find a fabulous pair of red shoes. You try them on. They fit perfectly. They are glamorous. Priced right, too. Do you buy them? Of course not! You go to every other store in the mall trying on red shoes until you are ready to drop from exhaustion. Then you return to the first store and buy those red shoes. If you do find a home that fits your needs, remember that in a hot market such as Austin, it is a little different than what’s happening in the rest of the country. Our population will be double in 15 years according to statistics and there are not enough homes available now for the buyers investing in Austin homes. This is entirely different than the housing market elsewhere but that also means that if you bypass a home that’s perfect for you, odds are it may not be there to return to in order to make an offer later. Keep this in mind and act accordingly.

How to Rate Inventory
• Bring a digital camera and begin each series of photos with a close-up of the house number to identify where each group of home photos start and end.
• Take copious notes of unusual features, colors and design elements.
• Pay attention to the home’s surroundings. What is next door? Do 2-story homes tower over your single story?
• Do you like the location? Is it near a park or a power plant?
• Immediately after leaving, rate each home on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

View Top Choices a Second Time
After touring homes for a few days, you will probably instinctively know which one or two homes you would like to buy. Ask to see them again. You will see them with different eyes and notice elements that were overlooked the first go-around.

At this point, your agent should call the listing agents to find out more about the sellers’ motivation and to double-check that an offer hasn’t come in, making sure these homes are still available to purchase.

Making the Selection
Real estate agents are required to point out defects and should help buyers feel confident that the home selected meets the buyer’s search parameters. Choosing a lender to complete your home purchase should actually be done prior to this step so that you can then go to the seller pre-qualified—meaning if there are two offers on the table, the seller most often will choose the one they feel will go the distance and not fall through. Sometimes this is even the person with the lower offer! If they are of the same amount, certainly the pre-qualification can put you on top.

At Buffington Mortgage, we can not only offer you a complimentary pre-qualification, but we also have an advanced electronic system that will compare points on your credit report and tell you what to do in order to raise your score if you are not where you need to be for the purchase. That may sound like an easy process, but most buyers pay credit-assisting agencies quite a bit of money for the service as it truly is quite a science! For more information, call us at 512-672-4729