One question you might want to ask yourself if you’re starting to get frustrated with your homebuying journey is: Am I seeing too many houses? After all, if you have a clear idea of what you want, with all of the information and pictures now available online, you should only be having to see the best of the best in person if you’re doing everything right. Consider the following five questions to see if you might need to circle back and reconsider what you’re really looking for and if it exists.One question you might want to ask yourself if you’re starting to get frustrated with your homebuying journey is: Am I seeing too many houses? After all, if you have a clear idea of what you want, with all of the information and pictures now available online, you should only be having to see the best of the best in person if you’re doing everything right. Consider the following five questions to see if you might need to circle back and reconsider what you’re really looking for and if it exists.

1. Have you seen more than 20 houses? 

While 20 houses may not seem like a crazy amount, according to Million Acres, the average homebuyer only searches for 8 weeks and looks at 9 homes. Does that shock you? If so, it may mean that you don’t have quite enough of a specific grasp of what you’re looking for, and you may need to narrow down your options by having an in-depth discussion with any co-buyers as well as your agent so that you’re all on the same page. After all, it’s your agent’s job to show houses, not yours! There is absolutely no reason to waste your weekends and evenings driving to and from houses that could be easily knocked off the list. 

2. Do you like at least 30% of the houses you see? 

While you’re considering how many houses you’ve seen in person, you should also sit down and think hard about how many of the houses you’ve seen have actually been close fits to what you need. For our team, 30% or higher needs to be the magic number, or it’s back to the drawing board to make sure that your agent knows what you’re looking for and is aware of any must-haves or non-negotiables so that no one is wasting time. 

3. Do you disagree with your co-buyers while at showings?

When you are seeing houses, do you find yourself fighting with your spouse or co-buyers? Are you looking for different things? If so, you will need to be on the same page before you see any more houses so that you don’t end up damaging relationships instead of finding a house. A home is an expensive, worthwhile expense, and you want to make sure that everyone participating wants the same things before you end up falling in love with one that won’t work for the other person. 

4. Is there someone influencing your decision who isn't attending showings?

This is a question that we always like to ask our buyers since sometimes there is going to be another party with a vested interest in the house that our buyers are going to end up in. For example, with first-time homebuyers, a lot of times the buyer will call their parents immediately after finding a home that they love, This is wonderful and is a great sign of a close-knit family, but if their opinion of a house is going to influence yours, then you want to make sure that they are attending any showings as well so that they are seeing the same houses that you are comparing and understand the market just as much as you do. After all, the market shifts monthly, and the market where they purchased their house is likely to be a very different one than the market you are dealing with, and if they are going to be helping you make the decision, they need to be educated as well.  

5. Have you terminated more than one contract?

Terminations are never fun and usually result in wasted money, whether that is on an inspection or an inspection and an appraisal, so you want to avoid them as much as possible by doing as much work up front as possible. Before you even look at a single house, you will need to make sure that you are fully aware of the hoops you will need to jump through to complete the process. For example, make sure that you have the funds you need on hand (Earnest money, inspection money, appraisal funds, and down payment, closing costs, and some funds for repairs or upgrades), or you may end up having to terminate even on a house you love. 

Now, you may say—"I’ve terminated two contracts, but that’s because of bad inspections! It’s not my fault.” While there may be an element of truth to that, we also want to make it clear that every single house is going to have some problems, and if you’ve terminated two or more, you may either be searching in the wrong price range, leaving you with no money to address common repairs, or you may not be quite ready for some of the necessary items that come along with purchasing a house. Your agent will be able to give you guidance on whether this applies or not, as they obviously don’t want you to have to keep throwing money away on inspections where you have no hope of following through. Sometimes there truly is a bad inspection, but if you’ve had more than one, you’re probably not paying enough attention to important items during the walkthrough or need to adjust your search parameters to make sure that it doesn’t happen a third time. 

The homebuying process should be an incredibly fun and rewarding one, so make sure that you’re approaching it in an intelligent way. There’s absolutely no reason why you should be wasting your time looking at houses that are clearly not a good fit for you for one reason or another. The best way to have a great experience is to spend time upfront determining what important details your future home needs to have in order to really make it the right fit. If you need help figuring out these details, feel free to send us a message using the built-in chat feature on our website or text/call us at (678) 242-9981.