Have you tried to buy a home lately? Your Realtor will show you many times the number of choices that you would have had two years ago. This proliferation makes it difficult to decide! Unless you have a "photographic" memory, you will probably get somewhat confused by the time you look at the 15th home! I have seen many buyers get "brain freeze" when it comes to making a decision, just because the amount of information becomes overwhelming...
When I work with a buyer client, I prefer to implement a "drill down" approach to the search, designed to narrow choices from the general to the specific. Therefore we first work on identifying preferred areas/neighborhoods, then subsections and maybe streets! This then makes searching for a particular home much simpler!
Once we are ready to look for a specific home in a neighborhood, here's what I recommend to my buyer clients (I tell them this may not work for everyone - it works for people like me, who like numbers):
1. Take abundant notes at every showing. Most people will forget details by the time they look at their 10th home! If you take notes and identify salient characteristics of each home, this will help you later.
2. Design a "Criteria Grid" where you write and prioritize your buying criteria, assigning relative importance to each criterion.
3. Rate every home you view against your buying criteria. This will produce an "absolute grade" for each home which may help you decide between homes that are "tied" in your mind...
In addition:
- Check your criteria grid grading against your emotional and "gut feel";
- Ask your Realtor to help you choose by playing "devil's advocate"
- Don't act until it feels absolutely right! These days you will not need to rush into making a decision (unless the price is very right!)
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