home. Th is will eliminate a lot of wasted time and energy looking at homes that don’t meet your criteria, and your budget, and will bring you that much closer t o fin ding the right home for you. Keep in mind that no home is perfect. Be prepared to make some concessions, and remember that your ultimate dream home might be out of reach — for now. Nobody said that your fir st home has
to be your last home! Step 4: Look at Homes
Now comes both the fun part as well as the tricky part — looking at homes. Th e fun part is searching and viewing online homes that meet both your budget and criteria, as well as visiting open houses, allowing you to fig ure out and see for yourself what is and isn’t the right home for you, and the n fin ding it. You should make sure a thorough search is completed on all the available for-sale homes that fall within your price range and meet all the needs — and at least several of the wants — on the lists you wrote out in the third step. Th e tricky part? You need to examine each property’s condition so that you know exactly what it is you’re getting. Who knows what a seller or a listing agent is disclosing to you? Hire a qua lifi ed home inspector to inspect all aspects of the home, such as structural and foundational issues, the yard, driveway, and walkway, the quality of water and plumbing systems as well as electrical work, water damage or mold, infestations requiring extermination, as well as doors and windows. Step 5: Choose a Location Location, location, location! You probably hear that term in real estate a lot. Th is term can mean several diff erent things, but here I’m referring to the fact that one of the most important choices 78
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