Going to look at a house

[sierramist03]

Do you take anything with you? A checklist, etc. we are just starting to look. I know it's recommend to be pre approved but there aren't many houses for sale at one time so we are planning on taking our time and I know pre approvals expire.

[stephm0188]

We did not take anything, at least not ever to a first showing. We took a tape measure to the second showing to measure certain spaces for planning purposes, but that was it. It was our second home and we had a very clear idea about what we wanted in a house. Make a list of things you have to have (location, size, ect.) things you'd like to have (extra bathroom, attached garage, granite, whatever) and dealbreakers. It doesn't even have to be a checklist, just something you can keep in the back of your mind when you're looking.

GL.

[slug*bug]

Jun 24, 2012 12:27:10 GMT -5 stephm0188 said:

It doesn't even have to be a checklist, just something you can keep in the back of your mind when you're looking.

Ditto this: our REA did a good job (as they should) of screening the houses that would fit our must haves when it came to number of bedrooms, bathrooms, school district and, in our location, amenities like whether or not there was a neighborhood pool.

Outside of that, I took mental notes of things like the overall flow of the house, where the laundry room was located (we saw 50/50 that were near bedrooms vs. near the kitchen), whether or not there was a space that could be used as an office and how accessible it would be from the rest of the house and a general idea of closet sizes.

As far as writing things down, our REA suggested giving houses that we liked a 'grade' (A, B, C, etc.) which was helpful when narrowing them down. You can also make notes on the printout your REA will give you. GL.

[sierramist03]

We want to stay in our current town which is a population of 1000 so school district, etc isn't an issue. There are only about 5 houses for sale in town and several are out of price range or located on a busy street (main street) this one seems like a good starter home 3 bed 1 bath with a garage and basement. It's located in a little subdivision type housing area on the west edge of town. 2606 sq feet which I'm guessing includes the finished basement. So we decided to it was probably worth it to go look since there aren't any inside photos. Seems like a good starter home. House payment would be less than our rent currently.

[adhdfashion]

Notebook and a camera. I need to make my own lists and snapping photo's helped me decide between houses.

[sailorgray]

Definitely a camera.

We saved checklists and all of that for the 2nd showings. Some good advice we got was to go in see everything positive the 1st time (which you tend to do anyway) and then go in the 2nd time with your pad and paper and write down all of the negatives.

[lys]

We had a check list and also brought our camera to take photos.

[stephm0188]

The tape measure in my case wasn't for the rooms/ furniture. I wanted to measure for the fridge we'd need to buy and curtain rods... stuff I wanted to start buying so I'd have it ready when we moved in.

[emoflamingo]

I don't take any lists, I just bring back one of the things they have on the counters. Only one we have looked at twice (and only H went to look the second time -- we went for a scheduled showing and then he went to an open house later that day), I had H take pictures of a few things that I forgot about (i.e. what the counters and cabinets looked like in the kitchen and bathrooms) but I generally use the listing information.