House Hunters Can Avoid Wild Goose Chase

The couple were approaching 30 when they felt it was time to buy a house. So, although they were enjoying city life in an apartment near the Spanish restaurant they owned, they phoned an old friend in the real estate business.

Weekend after weekend, they hunted for “just the right home,” until they’d visited more than 70 properties. “We had no clue what we were looking for,” the wife recalled.

The couple had been on a wild goose chase, triggered by the fact that they had not clarified their goals. But a fortuitous event helped catalyze their thinking. The wife, a Spanish teacher, became pregnant.

Immediately, their fuzzy house search came into focus. “We finally sat down with our agent. He helped us create a formula for what we wanted most,” the Spanish teacher said. This dose of realty therapy revealed a conflict in their thinking.

Should they pick a new five-bedroom house on the outer limits of suburbia or stay close in and settle for an older place that had just three bedrooms yet cost the same price?

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Knowing that a baby was on the way helped them resolve their dilemma fast. Relatives lived in the close-in neighborhood, able to help with the child care they would need. Their decision made, a home was found just a few days later.

Lack of focus is just one reason a small percentage of home buyers meander about, aimlessly searching for the Holy Grail of housing.

Some buyers were born indecisive and need prodding. Still others trick themselves into thinking they’re ready to buy when, in fact, they’re mentally unprepared for the commitment, said Kenneth W. Edwards, author of “The Homebuyers’ Survival Guide” (Dearborn Financial, 1994).

“Some people are just ‘professional lookers,’ ” Edwards said. “They make a hobby out of searching for the ‘perfect home.’ But somehow they just never seem to find it because they’re really just window shoppers.”

A seasoned real estate agent knows how to discover whether prospects are truly serious. The answer to a question such as “When do you expect to be in your new home?” can be very telling, Edwards said. If the response is vague, the buyer may be kidding himself that he’s ready to buy.

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Another way your agent may test your resolve is to show you a typical sales contract that (when signed) commits you to buy a particular home. “Are you ready to sign such a form?” the agent asks. Again, if the answer comes back unclear, the buyers may be “professional lookers.”

“Sometimes we have to play psychiatrist, probing people’s psyches,” said Thomas L. Nash, who sells homes through the Re/Max chain.

But fewer than 5% of buyers fall into the “professional lookers” category, real estate specialists say. Those who see 40, 50, 60 or more homes and still can’t find what they’re looking for are often casting too large a net, unless they’re hunting for a highly unusual property, Nash said.

Nash worked with a set of out-of-towners who looked at a remarkable 100 homes before concluding their search. The problem, he said, was not that they had exotic tastes but that they demanded to see everything they could afford in a half dozen different neighborhoods. Had they first narrowed their hunt to a single community, a look at 20 homes would have yielded the same result, he said.

Still, the leaving-no-stone-unturned approach makes good sense when you’ve already narrowed your search criteria by type of home and area. “Next to your wedding vows, buying a home is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make,” noted Edwards, the author of several real estate books.

Here are three pointers on picking the best property without exhaustion:

No. 1: Recognize that virtually every home decision represents trade-offs.

Unless you’re Bill Gates, you have definable limitations on price. The couple with the Spanish restaurant, for instance, had to trade off a bigger home for one near their relatives. The choice was a wrenching one between two “A-level priorities,” but it had to be made.

Shopping without knowledge of your financial ceiling is no longer as common an error as it once was. These days, agents direct most buyers to a lending institution for mortgage pre-approval even before launching a house hunt.

Knowing what you can’t afford is critical, said John Rygiol, a buyers’ agent who owns his own independent realty firm. It spares you the grief of visiting deliciously inviting homes that are well over the price your paychecks will allow, Rygiol said.

No. 2: Set your search criteria slightly above and below your price range.

These days, it’s easy for agents to crank home listings out of their computer on the basis of price, neighborhood and many other factors. “But price range is still the most important determinant for most people,” Edwards said.

For sure, you want to avoid looking in an area where your chances of buying are equal to those of winning a ticket for a moon voyage. Still, he suggests you include properties that are $20,000 to $30,000 above your price range.

Why? Because some homes are listed higher than market value yet owners can be talked into reality, especially after they’ve been worn down after months of fruitless efforts to collect more than their homes are worth.

Edwards also encourages buyers to search $10,000 below the price ceiling set by their lender. The reason is that a rare homeowner will underprice his property, usually with the intent of making a quick sale. “There’s an occasional swan swimming out there,” he said.

No. 3: Take pencil to paper several times during the buying process.

Many housing priorities are unconscious. You may not be fully aware, for instance, that having a prestigious exterior is more important to you than a large backyard--not until you’ve started looking at homes and tested your emotional reaction. It’s important to rank your priorities before you first start looking, but you may need to modify your list during your search period.

Staying focused is one secret to a fruitful and time-saving home search. Another is to recognize the inevitability of trade-offs.

Virtually all home buyers must settle for something shy of their ideal abode. “To decide on the right home, you have to make peace with yourself,” Edwards said.

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Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.