Make a Shopping List for your Dream House

Before you hit the road looking at homes, you must take the next step—a crucial one—and work up a checklist of what’s important to you in a home.
It’s helpful to divide your list into ‘‘must have’’ and ‘‘like to have’’ amenities. This won’t be easy and may take some soul searching, but the more time you spend crystallizing your thinking, the easier and shorter the search.
For instance, Randy and Jennifer looked at dozens of houses and spent a big chunk of their Saturdays driving by open houses. Whenever they walked through a home she liked, he didn’t. What got Randy excited, Jennifer balked on. It had the trappings of a power play—if she couldn’t get her kitchen island and crafts room he wasn’t going to get his garage.

The real problem was that Randy and Jennifer had never sat down and worked out their priorities—the important things they both wanted in a home in the order of their importance. They just started looking at homes, assuming that everything would fall into place, that their tastes and dreams would mesh into a cute cottage with a white picket fence. Reality, unfortunately, is usually much different. However, once Randy and Jennifer—with a little prodding—met with an experienced agent who was able to get them talking about their ideas together, it started coming together. They were able to work out compromises and establish a workable plan. They did this with a wants and needs list.