The Home Search: How to Maximize Your Odds of Finding Your Dream House

You've done your prep work and saved up some cash. Now you're ready to start the house hunt. In this article you'll learn about how to approach the search to maximize your odds of finding something you love. We'll also prep you to be ready to move quickly when you find "the one."

1. Be Thorough at the Beginning

Tour your first few homes top to bottom. As you're learning what you want, walk through the entire home when you're first starting out, even if you intuitively know it's not for you. At the beginning, this will help you learn what kind of questions to ask, what you like and don't like. This will help you move faster in the near future and feel better equipped to make a confident and speedy decision later.

Exercise: What have you consistently liked about the houses you've seen? What have you consistently disliked? What has surprised you? Have any of your "must-haves" changed? What are they and why? Communicate any changes or learnings with your realtor.

2. Then, Don't Be Afraid to Walk Out

Once you get the hang of things, don't feel obligated to tour the whole home, if the first floor is enough to tell you it's not for you, walk out. Save your time and go look at something better. Sometimes it's just a feeling, but if there are tangible things that make it the wrong fit, communicate these to your realtor so they can avoid them in the future.

Exercise: Now that you've seen more houses, do the exercise again. What have you consistently liked about the houses you've seen? What have you consistently disliked? What has surprised you? Have any of your "must-haves" changed? What are they and why? Communicate any changes or learnings with your realtor.

3. Look at a Lot of Homes

There's no magic number, but look at a lot, especially if this is your first home or you're not sure what you want. View enough that by the time you find your home you are confident about the qualities you want and can envision yourself happily living there. We're aiming for a feeling that's closer to "I can't wait to live here" than "this is good enough." That said, don't over-search. If you've found something you love, don't keep looking because you think you need to look at some artificially high number. This is more about the exercise of looking at enough to really know what you like, so when it comes time to make an offer, you feel confident about the house you're choosing.

This step may not apply to people who are super decisive or who don't have the luxury of time to view a high number of houses.

Exercise: How many houses have you see so far? 
I've lost track" is perfectly acceptable; in fact, we like this answer a lot.

Exercise: Close, but no cigar. 
Who knows what that means. Grandpa used to say it. But the point is, have you seen any houses yet that felt close to being the right fit? What did you like about them? What made them close, but not quite right? Share your answer with your realtor so they can help you find more homes that are on the right track.

4. Mentally Prepare to Act Quickly

Take as long as you need to look at houses and see as many as you need to, but when you find one you love, but prepared (practically and emotionally) to act quickly. If you love it, other people likely do to. We'd rather you miss out on a home because you choose to, not because someone beat you to it. Bonus tip: Trust your instincts. If you really feel that unsure or have to convince yourself it's a workable option, it's probably not the home for you.