Way back in January I wrote about the five steps to buying the right house in Palmer or Wasilla, and I said I would follow up on each of the five steps.? The first was to pre-qualify and then I dropped it?so I?m following up with the second step.

You have already pre-qualified for a loan since that is the first step.? You know about what the payment will be and should have decided your top dollar that you will pay for a house.

Now you need?to decide what you really need.? What is it that you really want in house?? Do you have a growing family?? Do you need a newer home with fewer allergens?? Are you tired of walking up and down stairs and want a single story home?? There are all kinds of possibilities and you need to sort them out.

Begin by writing down your desires on a yellow pad.? Ok, you can use any kind of paper but a yellow pad seems to help.? I?m sure?Ben Franklin probably used a yellow pad and he was great at homing in on the essentials.? Anyway?write down all the things you want in a house.?? This is open brainstorming time so if it comes to mind, write it down.

Then rip that piece of paper off the pad and label the next one needs on the left and wants on the right.? Spend some time sorting out your list so that your needs are all on the left.? Hopefully this has pared things down a bit.

Now put letters by all your needs.? Put an A by everything that you absolutely must have.? You won?t buy a house without it?period.? Put a B by everything that you might give up if you have to and a C by everything else on the left.? Really, the Cs can be moved over to the wants side.

List out your As and begin your search.? If possible don?t even look at a house if you don?t know ahead of time that it has your A list.? Sometime you do need to go inside to tell if it has the As but often you can see from the listing and for sure from a driveby.? Don?t bother going into a house if you can tell ahead of time that it won?t work.

As a Realtor, some of the things I like to see on the A list are:

  • Location.? School district, comute area etc.
  • Price range.
  • House size.
  • Garage, or not.
  • Lot size.

We can sort through all the above fairly quickly without going out to each house.? It makes the search more efficient for you and for me.?

I will not try to talk someone out of their A list.? Occasionally people make an unrealistic list of absolutely must have criteria.? When that happens I try to gently point that out, and suggest that the list is so specific that likely we will need to build the house to meet that particular criteria.? And of course, that?s an option.? Many times we can get a house built to meet specific needs without sacrificing price or time.?

Builders are still pretty competitive with existing construction.? For example, I mentioned in my deals of the week just 4 days ago about new construction in the $150K ranges.? Since then we have begun 4 contracts for that builder.? These 4 buyers recognized a deal when they saw one.

Oh yeah, back to the A list.? Once you make it, it?s time to SHOP, SHOP, SHOP. And that will be the next post in this series.

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