Finding houses to buy or rent is easy. Finding the perfect house to buy or rent that suits the specific wants and needs of everyone who’ll live in it is the real challenge.
But there are a number of ways to ensure that your house-hunting journey ends with a property that everyone can be happy with.
Below are a few things to consider that can help make finding a property that little bit easier.
Communication & Compromise:
It seems simple, but if no one is willing to budge on certain details of their dream home, you’ll still be searching for a place to live when the rest of us are driving electric cars and having robots do our gardening.
Kristen Hatt from buyer advocates WoledgeHatt says that all too often couples, families and renters treaded water while trying to find the perfect property because they wouldn’t give any ground. You can waste far too much time looking for something that ticks every single box, when you’d be better off looking for something that ticks a lot of them and with a bit of work later on can tick the rest.
“Buyers are looking for different things and often what they’re looking for and what they need they haven’t even considered,” Hatt says.
“It’s just through communication that you work out where the most important things are. We had a house we bought last year and the husband was so specific on the address in terms of proximity to the station and things that he didn’t really care whether the house was falling down around him.”
“And then the wife has got a small child and another one on the way and the functionality of the house was far more important for her. In the end we actually found something that worked for both in an area they hadn’t really considered.”
Get the Inside Word from a Real Estate Agent:
Competition is tough out there in the world of property buying, so it’s always a good idea to be the first one through a new listing. The early bird catches the worm as they say. So why not register your details with local real estate agents and give them an idea of what you’re looking for. That way when a suitable property comes along they can give you an instand heads up.
Nelson Alexander real estate agent James Pilliner says receiving a tip-off from a local agent is a huge advantage.
“They can tell you about things that trade off-market, which is probably roughly 10 per cent of the sales. If you’re not registered with an agent you never have any clue about that,” he says.
Relocate Your Perfect Location:
With the price of property continue to head in an upwards direction finding a property, getting everything you want from a house in the location you want it is an increasingly challenging proposition. Add in your partner or future housemate’s ideas on where the perfect place might be and you’ve got a one-way ticket to a giant real estate roadblock.
So consider a more affordable suburb nearby, or one where you’re more likely to get what you want for your hard-earned dollar.
“Sometimes people think they know where they want to be but they could actually be in other areas that would work better,” Hatt said. “Other times they focus on something so much and it’s not what they can afford and they’re never going to get quite what they want, when the next suburb out can give them a much better outcome.
Size Isn’t Everything When it Comes to Property:
If you’ve picked your dream suburb and desperately want a property in that location it’s definitely worthwhile considering sacrificing the size of the property you’re after. Often a sought after suburb will have limited space, so that block of land with plenty of space is going to attract a huge price premium.
Often a sacrifice has to be made between the perfect property and the perfect location. Accepting that you may need to make this sacrifice is going to be a good thing for your bank account.