1. Deciding Where To Buy
Congratulations on taking this first step toward buying a home. Pride of home ownership is indeed one of life’s greatest joys and biggest accomplishments. It is an exciting time and our hope is this guide will bring clarity and peace of mind during your home-buying journey. Let’s get started! The first step is deciding where you want to live, what type of home you are looking for, and what features are “must haves” or “would be nice to haves” in a home. Invariably, there will be tradeoffs, but rest assured I am here to help sort through the options to find you the best house, at the best price and with as many of your wants and needs as possible.
If you are unsure about what neighborhood suits you best, you can head over to our neighborhood guide where you will find detailed neighborhood guides with info like walkability, amenities nearby, how family-friendly a neighborhood is, and how investment-wise it might be. Alternatively, you can start searching active MLS listings on our built in MLS search (be sure to register as a member to get extra data).
2. Deciding What To Buy
Now that you know what area you want to buy in, the next step is what to buy? Going through the following questions should help you narrow down your must-haves:
- What about the age of the home?
- How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you need?
- What are you looking for in a kitchen, family room? Do you want a separate
dining room? What is your preferred layout? - What are your high priority features? Appliances, ensuite, fireplace?
- What other types of rooms do you need? Main floor laundry room, home
office? - What about storage space? Basements, lockers?
- Do you need a garage or extra parking spaces?
- Is energy efficiency important? Newer windows or a high-efficiency
furnace? - How is your daily commute? How easy is it to get to the places you need to go?
- How close do you need to be to transit, shopping, schools, hospitals?
- Are there any important location factors? Backing on to parks, road traffic?
- What size of yard are you looking for? Is the backyard important? Or is a
side yard okay? What about the front yard? - What other landscaping features are important? A fenced yard, play areas,
pool, gardens? - Is it important what direction the house faces?
- Who are you sharing this home with and what are their needs? For example,
pets might need a fenced yard or extended family wants a separate
entrance. - How much do you want to invest beyond the purchase price of the home in
terms of financial or sweat equity, if you can’t find all the features that you
want? - How long do you plan to live here? That can impact the type of home, the
location and how much you will spend.
3. Choosing the Right Team
Finally, it is time to choose the team to help put your home-buying vision to work! We love working with all sorts of buyers, first timer’s, downsizers, investors, and everyone in-between! You can learn more about who is in the Local team here, and learn more about our home-buyer’s system that has proven results!