Buying a Home – Tips on Keeping Up With What You Have Seen

So you’re on the hunt for a new home and your Real Estate Agent has plenty of homes for you to look at. Just like you, REALTORS® can have a difficult time keeping track of the homes one has seen, especially when you make it a “day” of homes. I have had many clients bring along their yellow legal pads and cameras to take notes of the San Antonio homes they have seen, only to get confused because they have taken pictures of every home visited – even if they didn’t like it.

Here are some easy tips to help keep your mind clear and focused:

- Cameras: they are great, use them to take pictures of the homes that make it to your list of top picks. Don’t waste your time taking pictures of EVERY home; If it were a 35 mm film camera (remember those?) would you waste your negatives on pictures of the San Antonio homes that you didn’t care about? Be conservative, homes of interest deserve to be remembered, those that made you run the other direction don’t need to be recalled… unless it made you laugh.

- Taking notes: Put away that note pad! Your REALTOR® should be giving you a copy of the San Antonio MLS sheets (Multiple Listing Service)of the homes you will be viewing- in the order you are going to be viewing them. If not already stapled, number them in sequential order of viewing them to keep them in order. Use the back of these sheets to write your notes on the properties you have just seen while you are walking through the home. You will have all of the information you need on the property: on one side, specific details of the listing as entered by the real estate company, on the other side, your individual likes, dislikes, why it is worth a second look, or why you need to forget about it, even details that will help you recall the property later can be written in, such as a piece of furniture, interior colors, location, etc;

- The San Antonio MLS sheets you keep are also a helpful tool for reviewing the properties online at a later time in case you need to refresh your memory. One can log on to services like www.REALTOR.com and do a search by MLS # (found on the MLS sheets) and have the opportunity to see all of the pictures posted by the listing agent.

Google map it! Look up the San Antonio homes that were of interest to you and have the potential to be called “home”. It’s a good idea to get an idea of the location and routes to and from the home you are thinking about buying, it doesn’t hurt to print the map out and put it with your notes. This is another good resource for finding out what areas of interest are nearby… a golf course, park, schools, and yes, even shopping.

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