Reasons to Go to Open Houses Before Buying

We’ve all heard that the early bird gets the worm, and the same can be said for real estate. Touring homes for sale isn’t something to save for when you’re ready to sign an offer. The more prepared you are, the faster you’ll be able to act when the time comes. Open houses are opportunities to save time later so that you can make a bite on the house you know you want when you’re ready to buy.

Discover what matters the most to you

Buying a home is a big deal and most buyers start with equally big wish lists. Daydreaming about everything you can get in a property is fun, and we encourage it.

Touring homes and finding our what actually needs to stay on your wish list and what needs to go is important and will help you save time down the road. Or maybe you simply need inspiration if you plan to do a renovation on the house you do buy. 

Think of it as speed dating, within 5 minutes you’ll know if that is the house for you or if you need to move on to the next.

Find out what your budget can buy

You may be going into the home buying process knowing that you want 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,500 square feet, 2 car garage, and a bonus space. But, your budget may not be able to handle all of that depending on where you’re looking.

While you may be able to find all of this in your budget, it may not be the perfect house right off the bat and will require renovations that exceed your house-buying budget.

From this point you have a few decisions to make:

• Up your budget to get everything you want without having to do any renovations
• Keep your budget, buy the house that max’s it out and hold off on any renovations until you can save up more
• Buy under your budget that would need a lot of renovations

However, keep in mind that the above can change based on what you offer and what is accepted. The list price and the sale price tell a story about whether the home was priced above or below its value.

Get design ideas

As mentioned above, looking at open houses can help give you inspriation whether you’re getting ideas for a home renovation or even for home decor purposes. Homes for sale are often staged to look great, which means you can easily find looks to borrow for your current home or the one you’ll eventually buy. 

Explore new neighborhoods

One of the most, if not the most important factors of buying a house is the neighborhood you buy-in. Driving around your future neighborhood on different days and at different times will help you see how busy it is traffic-wise and whether people like to take strolls around the neighborhood.

Another benefiting in touring neighborhoods lets you figure out where the closest grocery store is, what type of restaurants and shops are in the area, and what schools your children would attend.

Surprise yourself

Just like going wedding dress shopping, you go in with the type of dresses you love and want to try on. However, bridal consultants will usually throw in some other dresses in the mix that you weren’t interested in trying. A lot of the time, brides will actually love the dresses that weren’t on their list.

The same goes for a house. You may love super modern looking houses or maybe colonials, but you could end up falling head over heels for a tudor-styled house.

Cast a wide net when you’re touring homes to leave yourself open to surprises. Your gut may tell you that you’re a charming tudor instead of the colonial you’ve always thought you were.