House Hunting Part 11 of 11

Keep them straight

Looking at a bunch of houses? With digital photography making it easy and inexpensive to record images, be sure to take a digital camera along, first taking a picture of the listing sheet so you can remember which pictures go with which home, and then key elements of each home.

Work with your REALTOR to make a list of your "must-haves" before you visit the first house. For example, fireplace, master bath, walk-in closet, two (or three) car garage, dining room, open floor plan, eat-in kitchen, screened-in porch, large (or small) yard are typical "must-haves". You will also want to create a list of features that are important but not necessarily a "must-have" so that you can take notes in such a way that allows you to compare apples to apples later. Buying a home is an emotional experience. Doing this will help take some of the emotion out of the process.

Here is a list of items might want to include (rank each as either excellent, good, fair, needs repair soon, needs repair now).
• Kitchen
• Bathroom(s)
• Roof
• Windows
• Furnace
• Air conditioning
• Floors (rate by each level of home)
• Closet/storage space
• Plumbing
• Electrical (does it have 60, 100 or 200 amp service?)
• Basement
• Master bedroom
• Siding
• Garage

To reduce the number of homes you view, it is also a good idea to sit down with your REALTOR for a buyer's consultation before you start looking at properties. I do this with all of my clients. The consultation takes about 45 minutes but it takes weeks off the home search process.

David Edwards
Real Estate Agent & REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty Southeast Sound
425-890-8045
E-Mail: david@davidjedwards.com
Website: http://www.davidjedwards.com
Blogsite: http://www.davidjedwards.com/renton-info-blog.asp

David J Edwards is a full time real estate agent and REALTOR® with Keller Williams specializing in Residential Real Estate for buyers and sellers in Renton and Newcastle Washington.