Buy a House in Colorado – Finding the Right House

So you’re ready to buy a house. You’ve gotten your finances together, your lease is about to expire or your current house is on the market, you’ve researched neighborhoods and looked at a multitude of houses online.

All you have left is the fun part – going to look at houses and picking one. Easy, right?

Sometimes, it is just that easy.

If you’ve got a small geographical area chosen, and know what features are ‘must-haves’, and there are plenty of houses to choose from – but not too many – you could easily pick a house to write an offer on the first day out.

But one annoying thing that can happen is having too many houses to choose from. That’s annoying because you might feel like you have to see every single one, or you’ll miss out on something. So, you find one you really like, but you decide to see a few more, then when you’ve seen them all and you’re ready to write an offer on that first one, it’s gone!

This annoyance is compounded by not narrowing down the area you want to search in, or not being certain what kind of home you’re looking for.

Also, if you allow yourself to be put off by things that can easily be fixed, you’ll never be happy with any home you see. I once had a lady look at one house that she said had ‘too much grass’, then the very next one had ‘not enough grass’.  Sheesh!!

If you’ve decided that your entire future happiness and the well-being of your family depends on you finding just the right house, and any mistake means the end of life as you know it, you will not be able to make a choice. It’s called ‘analysis paralysis’.

The keys to solving this annoyance are prioritization and compromise. Seriously consider all the options and make a list of the most important to the least important. Highlight the items that are ‘must have’, as opposed to those you could live without.

Then, work with an agent who will take you to see only the homes that have all your most important features. If you cannot find a home that has all your must-haves, you need to sit down and talk with your agent, to figure out which things you could compromise on. If your agent has been paying attention to you, listening and watching as you view homes, she’ll be able to help you work out the knotty parts.

In other words, start out with as narrow a focus as possible, then broaden the search from there.

For most people, the #1 spot is usually filled by price, location, size, or a combination of those. A large family may be limited by price, but must have a home that’s comfortable for everyone. So they may have to ‘give’ on the location.

And I really hate to bring up the other main annoyance in finding your new home, but I must because it happens so often. That’s working with an agent who doesn’t have time to show you houses, or who expects you to do their work for them and find the house yourself.Then, call them when you’re ready to write an offer.

There’s not a lot I can say about this matter, because I don’t want to get myself in trouble. But you might be happiest working with an agent who isn’t trying to be the most-mega-top-producer-money-making-machine, but who instead limits the number of clients they take at any one time, so they can give great service to each one. Which is what all homebuyers and home sellers deserve, after all.

(This is the third post in a series. See the first post. See the next post.)

I write posts on real estate issues and local events in the Denver metro area, especially those *communities between Denver and Boulder, as a public service. My hope is to give people an idea of the ‘flavor’ of our community, in case they’re new or moving to the Denver area.

I am a residential real estate agent, happily helping folks buy a house or sell a house in the beautiful and friendly *suburbs northwest of Denver.

*Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster, Thornton, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Northglen, Lakewood
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