During your search for the perfect first home, you will most likely visit a lot of homes for sale. After a while they begin to blur together, you may lose track of what you've seen, and which houses contained certain features. An experienced realtor and first time buyer expert recommends you create a home checklist to help you remember everything that's important to you.
Usually the MLS listings contain relatively thorough information about homes for sale, but it's certainly not consistent. Each listing will refer to different features that the sellers feel are going to promote the sale of their home, and they may not be the particular features in which you are interested. You should develop a checklist containing the specific attributes that are important to you (and maybe some things that you won't accept, as well).
Every family's checklist for rating homes will vary because each family has different requirements. While composing your house checklist, try to include everything that you must have, features that you'd like but aren't absolutely essential, and issues that you aren't prepared to deal with.Perhaps your family would like:
€ Proximity to certain schools, work or recreation;
€ Easy access to transit;
€ Wheelchair accessability for an immediate family member or someone who visits frequently;
€ Enough bedrooms so that no-one has to share;
€ A pet-friendly neighborhood, or
€ A sound-proof room for your teenagers' band to practice in!
On the flip side, record problems and issues that are unacceptable to you. Deal breakers could include:
€ Proximity to busy streets or intersections;
€ Really loud or messy neighboring properties;
€ Too many stairs;
€ Plans for major neighborhood changes (construction of new major roads or large property development that could adversely impact property values), ask your realtor about this, or
€ Industrial development nearby (could be noisy or smelly).
You can take note of unforseen factors on a special €pros and cons€ section on your home checklist. You might find that when it's decision time it comes down to small differences between two properties so every detail you can record will help you make your final choice.
You must take your house checklist on every house-hunting trip so that you have a record of each home and the attributes (both positive and negative) that are important to you. Otherwise you might have trouble remembering which home had the beautiful marble floors and which one was located next to a kennel full of barking dogs.
Eventually, the time will come when you have to make a decision about which home to buy. Your home checklist will be a valuable source of detail so that you can compare all of the homes for sale that you've toured. The best part of compiling a detailed home checklist is that you won't be confused about which place had that extra-nice ensuite bathroom, or backed onto a park, or the neighbours who were screaming at each other during your visit. For more advice about rating homes for sale, ask your realtor.