Choose A Home

Once you've settled on a couple of neighborhoods for your search, it's time to pick out a few homes to view. Refer back to your Wish List and see which features are absolute requirements and those amenities you'd like to have if possible. When narrowing down your home search, consider

• Do you want a brand new home or prefer an existing home?
  
• Do you want a condominium or townhouse where all exterior maintenance, including landscaping, is covered by the community association? (Of course, you will pay fees for this service.)
  
• Do you want to be in a specific neighborhood because of the school system or because of access to your job?
  
• Do you like a specific style of house, such as rambler, colonial, split level?
  
• What physical house characteristics do you need, such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage, garden? Would you want a property that you can add to later? If so, you'll want to look for a property that can accommodate an expansion and where additions are permitted by the local jurisdiction. You would also want to consider the rest of the neighborhood so that you don't "over improve" the property.

It's important to prioritize choices and to know what you can't live without and what is nice but not essential. This will be important as you begin to make trade-offs on price versus features. If two of you (or more) are buying, make sure you establish your priorities together.