Home Checklist – Advice for First Time Buyers

When you’re searching for the perfect first home, you will probably visit a lot of homes for sale along the way.  After a while, you may lose track of what you’ve seen, and which houses contained certain features.  Jodi Baker, our first time buyer expert recommends you develop a home checklist to help you remember everything that’s important to you.

MLS listings contain reasonably thorough information about homes for sale, but it’s basic info and not exactly consistent.  You can make a checklist that contains the specific attributes that are important to you (and maybe things that you won’t accept, as well).

Of course each family’s checklist for rating homes will differ, as each family has different needs and wants.  When you are compiling your house checklist, try to think of all the things that you require, those that you’d like but aren’t absolutely necessary, and problems that you aren’t willing to deal with. Maybe your family needs:

• Enough bedrooms so that no-one has to share;
• Easy access to transit;
• Proximity to certain schools, work or recreation;
• Wheelchair accessability for an immediate family member or someone who visits frequently;
• A pet-friendly neighborhood, or
• A sound-proof room for your teenagers’ band to practice in!

On the negative side, list potential problems that are unacceptable. Deal breakers might include:

• Too many stairs;
• Proximity to busy streets or intersections;
• Industrial development nearby (could be noisy or smelly);
• Plans for major neighborhood changes (construction of new major roads or large property development that could adversely impact property values), ask your realtor about this, or
• Really loud or messy neighboring properties.

A pros and cons section on your home checklist will allow you to make note of factors that aren’t on your checklist that may affect your decision to buy a home.

Take your house checklist whenever you go visit a property that you are interested in so that you have a record of each home and the attributes that are important to you.

When the time comes for you to make a decision about which home to buy, your home checklist will make it easy to compare the homes for sale that you’ve visited.  And you won’t be confused about which place backed onto a park, or had that extra-nice ensuite bathroom, or the neighbours who were yelling at each other during your visit.  For more advice about rating homes for sale, ask Jodi Baker, our first time home buyer expert.