What Home to Buy
The Home Hunting List
I opened this category asking the question, “What type of home?” The answer depends upon your lifestyle, family make-up, and expectations. Size, location and value depends upon your income and now that you have been pre-approved by the bank or other financial institution you know what your price range is. It is time to decide; What type of home.
Single Detached Home
Single Detached House. A single family home built on a single lot.
Duplex. Two single family homes attached by a single wall built on a single or divided lot.
Townhouse or Row Housing. Several, 3 or more, single family homes attached side by side built on a common parcel of land.
Condominium. A bock of housing or apartments each owned individually sharing a common entrance.
Mobile Home. A factory built home moved to a private single lot or a rented space or space in a commonly owned parcel of land.
“Houses can be built in a large variety of configurations. A basic division is between free-standing or detached dwellings and various types of attached or multi-user dwellings. Both sorts may vary greatly in scale and amount of accommodation provided. Although there appear to be many different types, many of the variations are purely matters of style rather than spatial arrangement or scale.” Read more at: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
To find the perfect new home in your city or area of choice you want to have available all real estate listings to find all real estate for sale regardless of the real estate agents or company. Your computer is an invaluable tool for searching for real estate and searching the MLS Multiple Listing Service is a great place to start. In Canada the Nation wide MLS is at www.realtor.ca/ In the USA go to: www.mls.com.
On the website you will be asked to choose your Province/State, City, Type of Home, Price Range, House Style, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, and continues with Area and places to select by amenities. You have the opportunity to broaden or narrow your selections as you search. When you find a home that looks interesting and shows promise, open the print page option and print a copy.
Memory Stick
When I was searching for my new home I bought a new USB Memory Stick and saved each interesting listing page on the stick. I was able to select from a much broader area around the major city and placed each listing into a separate folder for each area. I now had approximately 50 home listings along with all the photos for each, on my computer memory stick and could view each one in turn and evaluate what I liked and disliked about each. I kept notes on each according to their MLS number for easy reference when showing my real estate agent my list of homes I wanted to view.
Between the MLS listings and Google Maps, I was able to see each neighborhood through Google Street View, and able to locate community amenities such as Parks, Schools, Shopping, Doctors, etc. This helped immensely in narrowing my choices down to the ‘Promising Dozen’.
I then emailed my list to my Real Estate Agent, who in turn sent back her agents MLS web page URL with the inside data on each listing showing; Listing date, Property Tax, and other information not generally given on public search of MLS. This gave me a better idea on each home we were about to view. I want to know before I view: Date built, Date of previous sale, Renovations and dates, Roof age, Hot Water tank and Furnace -type and age, Last inspection date, Listing date, Any previous offers and why refused, Area turnover rate, City property taxes and Why seller needs/wants to sell and also, Disclosure of Defects.
If looking for a Condominium or Strata home, Town House, Mobile, etc., I would want to know; Condo or Strata Fees, Who is/was the developer, Future plans for the area, Storage and Parking, -included -cost, Resident garden and common areas, Security, Number of absentee owners -units being rented, council address, conditions and rules.
If a new project; Don’t rush into a purchase and make sure you do as much homework as you can about the project. Go online and educate yourself about the builder and project prior to visiting. Do not be afraid to ask questions.
Don’t be afraid to have your agent work for his/her portion of the Real Estate Fees. (If you are reading this, Kelly, Thank you for spending the time to help me find just the right home.)
Giving the agent your ‘to view’ list ahead of time allows him/her to contact the listing agent for other pertinent information and contact the home owner to arrange a time for viewing.