Buying a House Part 2: Figuring Out What You Want

When buying a house you'll want to be very careful to find a place you can still see yourself occupying several years from now, perhaps even for the rest of your life. Unlike an apartment, you can't just up and move in a year or so once you realize that the location is a little too far away from your job, or perhaps you don't have enough room for your growing family, or you wish you had more/less yard to work with. Selling a house is a lot tougher than waiting out or breaking a lease.

Given that, there are countless things to consider when finding the perfect place or, as is more likely going to be the case, the place that's "good enough." Houses come in all shapes and sizes with all sorts of features you may never have considered. To some degree you're going to need to keep an open mind once you start touring actual houses, but you're definitely going to want to have an idea of what you want before you start your search. Just remember that you're not just looking for what you need now, you've also got to keep in mind what you may need in the future.

For the purposes of this step we're going to keep things fairly general.

Buying a House Part 1: Figure Out Your Budget

A few months ago I found myself very suddenly in the market for real estate. Having recently come out the other side, decompressing after buying a house, I find myself with an abundance of information for anyone interested in the process. In fact, it's is not nearly as frightening as you might think, so I hope I can demystify the process for you. I'm going to lay out the process in 8 steps:

1. Figure out your budget
2. Figure out what you want in a house
3. Find an agent
4. Check out houses
5. Choosing a house (earnest money/early negotiation)
6. The inspection period
7. Negotiation and paperwork
8. Closing

This first post will be entirely dedicated to that first step.