When you decide that you are going to get a new home, it can be a pretty exciting thing. Of course, there is a layer of fear that might arise too. What happened if you pick the wrong home? What happens if you choose the wrong area?

Well, with some careful planning, you will choose the perfect home for you. 

You Are It

When you are viewing homes, and there is a time pressure, you might think a home is perfect, but it doesn’t meet all of your criteria – just most of it. And you might want to walk away, sleep on it, take a few days. Well, the housing market moves incredibly quickly, and the house that meets 90% of what you want is better than having to put an offer in on another because you are out of time. Most of the time, your gut will have a lot to do with knowing if that house is for you. 

“The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back.”

Future

When you are in the house, if you begin to picture your children playing in the garden or your dog asleep at the top of the stairs, then you are already halfway to making the decision. If you are getting a good feeling and the rest of the house, and can already see yourself living there, that is a positive thing. 

Front Door

Many people know from the moment they see the front door if a house is for them or not. If you just don’t want to go inside, then you’re probably not going to have an excellent viewing. When you walk along the street take a look at the other homes, are any of them speaking to you personally? Curb appeal really matters, and you can usually narrow down what you don’t like quickly and decide if it is something you can change if you were to buy the house. 

Needs

Before you go to view any homes, make a detailed list of the things that you want right now and then things you want in the future. If you know that you need two bathrooms, but your ‘almost perfect’ house has one, but space for a second, you need to decide if they need for two is worth it. 

Be flexible about what ‘needs’ you can accomplish after you move in, and which ones just aren’t going to be met at all. 

Possessive

If you are midway through the viewing and find you are defending things like the leaky tap, and the odd creaky floorboards. There is a high chance that you are warming to the house rapidly. If you defend the flaws in the home before you have even purchased it, take it as a sign that you’re falling in love. 

Funny Feelings

Sometimes you just get an odd feeling about something, and it may happen when you are touring some homes. Other times there are individual rooms that you won’t want to go in. Usually, this is the bathroom. Potential buyers might refuse or simply not want to enter a room, or touch anything in there – even if it is clean. Even when you consider that you will clean it before you move in, if you get an odd feeling, or are really uncomfortable in the place, this should be something you walk away from. 

“Home is not a place…it’s a feeling.”

Community

Many people want to feel like the live as part of a community. A safe to walk in the evenings, or to wait at a bus stop alone. Somewhere their children can walk to school and feel safe doing it. There are some development companies that strive to make this a reality. AVID is one of those companies. Looking after the needs of the people and the local area. You should think about how far away the school is, the local stores and the bus, tram or train stop too. 

Budget

Strangely when people are making a list of what is really important to them in a house. They forget to talk about their budget. It sort of lingers there in the back of their minds but really should be on their wishlist. This will ultimately be the deciding factor, so it should be top of the list. 

When you are viewing homes, you shouldn’t feel any pressure from the estate agent to sign there and then. A second viewing should be on the table, so you can perform extra checks and don’t hesitate to speak to the neighbours either.