I have a friend who had asked me for some advice about purchasing his first home. He let me know that he had seen a loan officer to be preapproved for his mortgage. Excellent! This lets people know if they are able to qualify for a mortgage (and if not, how they can improve their ability to borrow) and how much the lender feels that their mortgage limit should be. It’s wonderful that he has this important first step out of the way.

So what’s next? Most searches suggest a zip code-number of bedrooms-number of baths approach. This isn’t the way people would naturally search for a property; these searches are devised for computers, not humans. There will be more organically-based search paradigms available in the future. I just recently sat in on a teleconference/presentation for one- Onboard’s Lifestyle Listings Engine- that will be rolled out soon.
These searches will allow you to find homes by lifestyle choice. Interested in homes with the best ranked school systems that will be 20 miles from your office? Maybe you want to be as close as possible to the city, yet remain a half hour from work. You will be able to prioritize the characteristics that are important to you, and narrow your choices of home to the most relevant.

But for now you have to work with the search options available, and this can be difficult given that a search of, say, single family homes in Lowell, MA for under $300,000 gives you more than 125 choices. Even if half of these appeared unsuited to you by appearance, condition or size, checking this many properties out is a daunting task.

This is how I would begin. Where you work determines to a great extent where you live, unless you are Tom Cruise. I would decide the maximum I would drive, then get a map (paper or virtual) and draw a line circumscribing the area that that would include. This gives you the starting-off point, and will keep you from looking at houses within a town or zip code that are too far away.

Then I have to sit down and really think. What would my next set of requirements look like and how would I order them? Things to consider and decide the importance of:

• Size of yard
• Proximity to parks or conservation land, or to an urban environment
• Quality of school
• Amount of cosmetic upgrading you want to take on
• Actual length of commute (are you willing to bend on this to accommodate school quality, for example)

These are things you cannot change. On average, homeowners move every 7 years according to Realtor.com, and survey respondents indicate the majority do this for lifestyle reasons. You need to decide what is important to your lifestyle, and look for homes within communities that can provide that. If schools are important, research which communities within the circle that you drew can provide the best education, and start there. You can do much of this on your own, or you can ask for the help of a real estate agent to narrow your search.

At this point in your search, I would be speaking with friends to see if they can recommend a real estate agent. Plan on speaking with more than one to see with whom you hit it off and feel is knowledgeable of the process.

How exciting! You’re nearly ready!

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