Searching for a Place to Call Home…

Let me start off by saying, home buying should be FUN & EXCITING!  But truthfully?… Aside from planning a wedding, the home buying process is probably the 2nd most stressful event in a persons life.  Especially in today’s hot market.

As if finding the perfect place to call home wasn’t hard enough…  It’s a huge possibility that you may get outbid by another buyer that loves the home just as much as you do!

It’s extremely important to not only be ORGANIZED, but you need an agent that is a part of your team.  One that is working just as hard as you are (actually harder)!

Don’t get discouraged, stay POSITIVE, & have FUN! 

Our Story

It took Marc & I about 4 months from April to mid-July to find our home.  It’s the most competitive time of the year to shop… so if at all possible, I seriously recommend buying outside of that time frame.  At least for the sake of your sanity!

We were my 1st & worst clients EVER!!  Thank goodness I was smart enough to get my license right before our purchase.  I couldn’t imagine putting another agent through all that.

We drove around looking almost everyday.  Looked at atleast 5 homes each time.  Would even travel from Des Moines, to Kent, to Covington, to Maple Valley, to Renton… sometimes all in the same day.

After about 8-10 offers on homes where we were outbid, we finally had an offer accepted, and went pending on what eventually became our home.  It was actually the 2nd time that we have placed an offer on this house.  We were outbid the 1st time around…

Luckily for me, I’m a meticulous freak, and tracked EVERY home we had interest in…even after they went pending.  I noticed that the previous offer on this house fell through, and we jumped on it right away!  The competition went elsewhere, and we even got the house FOR LESS than we originally offered.

I use this strategy with all my buyers now… in fact, my next 2 sales were accepted the 2nd time around.

In my opinion, 2nd time around is INCREDIBLE!! You’ve already seen it & loved it…  So you’ve got the edge over buyers that have not seen it yet. Maybe the seller remembers that you submitted an offer the 1st time around too, so now they know YOU ARE SERIOUS!!

New listings always tend to have an enormous amount of hype. So, even though you get outbid, don’t disregard that home. You’d be surprised how likely it is for that offer to fall through. Believe me, there’s a million reasons. Ok, ok, maybe not a million, but A LOT!

Sorry guys, I can go on & on about real estate for days… So, with all that said, let’s get to the real purpose of this blog post.

I decided to create a home buying journal for my clients. It’s a place to keep EVERYTHING! From homes that you have interest in, to your own design thoughts & ideas.  Just in case you are thinking about taking on a fixer upper like I did.

I even added a section to track all the details of your financing,  including a long list of items that you’ll need to get to your lender.  If I didn’t have a background in mortgage financing, I would’ve been completely lost as a first-time home buyer!

Anyway, here’s a sneak peek of what I came up with…! 😊

P.S. Are you a Realtor and want one of your own for your clients?  Here’s where I got the inspiration from.   They have an amazing store full of fun stuff for your real estate business!

I just decided to create my own so I could add my own creative flair!

Thanks for reading!… & don’t forget to like, share or follow! ❤

4 Replies to “Searching for a Place to Call Home…”

  1. Very informative. I wouldn’t have thought to bid a 2nd time. And the home buying journal is such a wonderful idea and very beautiful done!

  2. I just wish I would have had a home buying journal when we first bought our house! After looking at all of the possibilities, we’d sometimes lose track of which houses we’d looked at, liked, and vetoed!

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