Once upon a time, we lost our everlovingminds and booked a trip to Disney. Like, four days before leaving. Our {last} house had been listed in a bad market for over a year, and we were determined to do something that felt a bit like the antithesis of waiting. Because that was all we’d been doing for nearly 365 days. One night, when we’d boarded the tram with satisfied, sleepy kiddos in-tow departing the Magic Kingdom, something magical happened. The text came in: “We have a contract on your house”. Cue the excitement: to say we were thrilled would be an understatement. There were cheers and tears from everyone. Fast forward after signing the contract while we sat on Pirates of the Caribbean and the jovial cheering of animatronic pirates couldn’t override that quickly fading euphoria: reality set in. “Oh crap, we’re homeless and in Disney”. So in celebration of what shall always be known in our family as the best vacation ever, we thought we’d share some of our tips for buying a new home and a cool new website we simply adore.
Tips for buying a new home
As we sat in the hotel room that night, one of the very first things we figured out is how limited we were in our ability to search for a new home. There was the traditional way with the real estate agent we were working with, but when you’re hundreds of miles from the home you’ve sold and hundreds more from where you’re moving, time can move slowly as you wait for the home reports to come in. And that’s after you’ve answered the agent’s list of questions, and then revised it 20 times. We tried really hard not to be those people, but I’m afraid we were.
Of course, there are online tools you can use, but to say those websites are limited in their search capacity is stating the obvious. So the process was much more difficult, because we were either left waiting, or scratching our heads trying to figure out which search parameters worked best for a given website. They were all different, and in a market like Nashville, we were running out of time. As soon as we actually chose a house to go see, they were gone within 24 hours. We needed to step up our game. Enter Homes.com.
1. Tips for buying a new home – use the right tool
Our first tip for buying a new home is simply this: use the right search tool. We live in a digital age where we want everything at our fingertips, and nothing can ever compare to a great search tool. Real estate agents are obviously essential, but it’s why we love this site – homes.com is a wonderful compliment to the entire system.
Homes.com has developed what is possibly the most extensive home buying search tool on the market. It allows you to cater your search to your wants in almost any variation that you can imagine, in an instant. It’s light years ahead of other tools, and {bonus!} your agent won’t hate you for the 20th email requesting a different search criterion.
The right tool for the right job always makes the experience that much better. Sure, you can build a house with a traditional hammer, but having a nail gun, makes the job much more efficient and enjoyable. The same is true for the home buying experience. There are a ton of tools out there to go about the process, but having the right tool makes the process so much better.
2. Tips for buying a new home – the obvious
Know your price range, your location and the number of bedrooms/baths you want. Duh.
But here’s the thing…maybe you want some variations, Maybe you want more variations than the usual.
Maybe you’ll go bigger in this area, but smaller in this one. Maybe you’re willing to pay “X” here, but not there. And maybe you don’t want to have to wait on someone else to do this search for you or need a way to easily change these variables anytime you get a new idea.
The “Match Tool” on homes.com does a wonderful job of allowing you to play with toggling on and off all the variables you want, giving you the option to grab as many variations as you’d like. Mix and match price, sqft, bedrooms, neighborhood and so much more on a second’s notice.
You can even decide is a walk-in closet is a “must have” or a “nice to have”? Because these things are important.
I know. Say what?
This is a great tool because it lets you really get specific on your search. Maybe some things are deal breakers and others aren’t. Maybe they aren’t deal breakers if they have “X” feature. So many ways to search homes, it’s kinda crazy.
What’s even better is you can search with your partner or friends, and customize your own search perimeters and see who comes back with the better home. It’s just fun to do for kicks. Yes, we are nerds like that.
Oh the fun we would’ve had with this tool when looking for our home in Franklin, on that drive up. Hours would have been saved as we did a bit of playing around to figure out what combo we actually needed. This tool is a game changer.
3. Tips for buying a new home – know your style
Next in our tips for buying a new home is, know the style of the home you want. Do you love split-level ranches, farmhouse, multi-levels, modern… the style option is kind of endless.
Even if you know the style you love, this can still prove to be problematic in your search as you weed through all the photos of homes you don’t like. Wasted time.
This is what is so fantastically amazing about the way homes.com allows you to search: Simply upload a photo of the exterior of the home that you love, and you can search via style. How cool is that!?
You don’t even have to know the name of the style, you just simply need to know how to snap and upload a photo. Genius!
4. Tips for buying a new home – know your current home value
Before you make a dash to put down that earnest money on your new dream home, you might want to find out what your home is worth so you can sell it.
This tool is great because it can help you in the planning for selling your current home, but can also help you figure out what the value of homes are in the area you want to move to.
It’s a great game planning tool as you navigate the waters of real estate.
5. Tips for buying a new home – find a professional
Once you have an idea of where you’re going in style, size and features of the home, you might need to hire a professional.
While we’re big advocates of the do-it-yourself movement, we’re also big fans of doing it right. And that often means getting the right help.
Homes.com has a developed a great database of professionals who are ready to assist you with everything from viewing a home to applying for a mortgage and even renovating the home you built.
So really, homes.com is a one-stop shop for transitioning from one home to another, or even simply planning renovations and refinancing for the home you’re in. We hope this helps anyone out who is on the verge of making that big move. We only wish a site with such helpful options had been around when we were in the middle of our transition!
As always, we’d love to hear what fun combos you try out on their site as you look for a new place, or just find the value of your current home.
Have an inspired day!
::This post was sponsored by Homes.com. All opinions are 100% ours. Please read our full disclosure pertaining to partnerships here ::
aron says
These are awesome tips. I wish a website like this had been around when we were searching for our first home. It would have helped so much. Thank you for sharing!