Buying a Home: The Missing Manual

Chapter 5. Shop for Your Home

You’ve laid the groundwork—taken a good, hard look at your finances, gotten preapproved for a mortgage, written a wish list for things you want in your new home, and started putting together your real estate team. Now, you’re ready to look at some houses.

In this chapter, you’ll learn the art of touring houses and how to reconcile your wish list with what’s on the market. You’ll find homes for sale from both traditional sources (real estate classified ads and working with a real estate agent) and nontraditional sources (websites that let you sort listings by your preferences). And you’ll scour the market for bargains, like homes that are owner-offered, bank-offered, and in foreclosures or at auction. Read on to search for your new home and keep your priorities in mind, even as you face a bewildering choice of listings.

Select Homes to Tour

It’s time to go house hunting! Before you get out the tape measure to see if your king-sized bed fits in the master bedroom, you need to put together a list of homes to tour—houses that fit your price range and meet your needs. In this section, you’ll find out how to add houses to your list by working with your agent, searching the Internet, and pounding the pavement in your target neighborhoods.

Working with a Real Estate Agent

When you’ve got a buyer’s agent on your team, real estate listings come to you. It’s your agent’s job to keep an eye out for houses that fit your price range and wish list. So after you choose ...