We’re Ready to Look at Homes
You’ve completed the hard part: determining your needs and wants. Now it’s time to get busy looking!
Depending on what city you’re interested in living in, your REALTOR will find homes that matched your checklist of needs and wants. This list could get really long. Therefore, when dealing with my clients, I narrow houses down to the ones I think they’ll like best based on what they’ve told me and I explain to them the Rolling Top 3.
Term to know:
Rolling Top 3: When looking at homes, keep a list of the homes you like and upon seeing them, rank the top 3. The word “rolling” comes in because the top 3 can and will change when visiting homes.
To help in understanding this, I’ve provided a scenario below:
Scenario:
Your REALTOR has found 6 properties that he/she believes may work for you based on your needs and wants. You venture out to look at each property, keeping the Rolling Top 3 in mind.
Home #1: You love it! It matches all of your needs and most of your wants. Seeing as this is the first house you visit and you like it, this home takes the #1 spot.
Home #2: This house seems perfect! You loved the first one, but you love this house even more. Therefore, this home takes the #1 spot and Home #1 rolls down to spot #2.
Home #3: You instantly know that this home is not the right one for you. Therefore, it does not go on your list at all. Why doesn’t it take spot #3? You didn’t like it, so it’s not an option.
Home #4: This home doesn’t spark your interest, either. So, it does not go on your rolling top 3 and your first and second home are still the only homes in rank.
Home #5: This one is beautiful. It feels right. You think it might be “THE ONE.” Immediately, you rank it #1. As a result, the previous homes you’d ranked #1 and #2 each slide down a spot to become #2 and #3, respectively.
Home #6: This house is quite nice – just as nice as the house you currently have in the #2 spot. But, it’s a little closer to your wife’s job than the other house. It’s not quite as nice as the house in your #1 spot, but the better travel distance means this house now becomes #2 as it knocks the former #2 down to the #3 spot.
That’s the Rolling Top 3.
Regardless of the number of houses you see, you’re always ranking only the Top 3 in your head, or even on paper. This makes it easier to make a final decision in the end.
My advice: Take notes and come up with a silly name for each house!
When looking at houses it’s easy to get the houses confused and forget what you did and didn’t like about each one. By taking notes, you can stay organized and keep your thoughts in order more easily. And finding a name to fit each house helps to remember as well. Such as, the animal house, the fruit house, the wooden bird house…..whatever is fun and helps you remember!
If you missed former steps of the first time home buyer process:
Phoenix first-time home buyer: Steps to take – Step 1
Phoenix first-time home buyer: Steps to take – Step 2
Phoenix first-time home buyer: Steps to take – Step 3
Phoenix first-time home buyer: Steps to take – Step 4Keep an eye out for the next step a first-time home buyer should take when buying their first home.
Also, you may have noticed words in italics in this post, and you’ll see them in future posts. These are real estate terms home-buyers should be aware of. These definitions and more information can be found in my FREE ebook, 8 SECRETS to make buying your first home EASY. There’s no catch. Just sign up and I’ll email it to you! This is a great resource and opportunity for first time home buyers to learn more about the home buying process.
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