It is very challenging to know from the internet, which is gonna be the best house for your family. So get out there and see the houses so that you can filter down the top home buying criteria that’s right for you and your family. It’s Eric Sztanyo from Keller Williams Realty and team Sztanyo.com, where we are helping you find your home and strengthen your family. And we will talk about how to choose the right house and how to prioritize your home buying criteria!
Know Your Home Buying Criteria
We’re in the team Sztanyo Vanyo. And just finished showing some houses to an awesome client who is here from out of town. And while I was thinking about it, I wanted to do a quick video talking about your home buying criteria. When you are a home buyer and you’re searching for houses, there’s a bunch of different home buying criteria that could be on your list for what matters to you the most. Just a few of those things could be the school district you’re gonna be in, could be how much land you want for the lot to be, you know, no acreage or smaller acreage could be the neighborhood that you want to live in. It could be certainly the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in the homes or the square footage or the budget. There’s the interior of the house and the style and the design of it. There is the layout of the home. Is it an open floor plan? Is it a two-story home? Is it a ranch? Does it have a finished basement? Does it not have a in space?
There’s all these home buying criteria that matter. And what we always do at team Sztanyo, we generally typically like to have a buyer consultation with you before we go out looking for homes. And before you spend endless hours on the internet, sorting through photos and getting your heart captured by some house that may or may not even fit your budget that may or may not hit your top home buying criteria in a house.
What Step Should You Prioritize When Buying A House?
We always want to connect you with you and check the steps we like you to take.
First of all, let’s get in the budget range and also a lender if you haven’t done that already. We’ve got a couple local lender that we work with that are fantastic. And the reason why we like working with them (we don’t get kickbacks or anything like that) is because they do the job and they have a team and they have systems. And if something goes wrong in the loan process, before you close on your house, which can happen, you want to have someone you can go to who you trust that you know, can fix the problem.
That’s a first step and the reason why we do that is we wanna know your budget range. I don’t want you as a buyer wasting a lot of time looking at beautiful photographs, online of houses that you are not even sure you can afford. Let’s get you pre-approved first. And particularly in a seller’s market, you can’t make an offer on a house without a pre-approval. So get that step done so that you can move forward.
But then we also have a buyer’s consultation with you where we say, what are the top things that matter to you? So that list that I just mentioned to you in terms of the neighborhood, the schools, the look of the home, the budget, the bedrooms and baths, is it an open floor plan or not, the kitchen redone, whatever. It could be anything, right? Do you want land or not? And all of that matters. It matters a great deal. But what I always say to buyers is you’re gonna have a list at the be beginning of this process.
We try to get you to make your top five of what is most important to you and go down the list. But, I also always try to tell my buyers is that you don’t know if that top five, more than likely that top five might not stay that top five as you actually get out there and see the houses and as great as real estate photographers are. And as much information as you can gather online. And I love for you to search online. You should always search online and get a feel for some of the houses that you think are a good fit until you actually drive through the neighborhood. Until you get out there and actually walk the property. Until you actually are in the house, and you can get a feel for the house and you can smell the smells of the house. You can like, you know, all the stuff that comes with actually being in the property. A, you might be surprised by one particular home over another, but B what more than likely what happens if your home buying criteria changes.
And so what I think the job of a good agent is to do is to listen really well. I’m never trying to sell you (when we go out and look at at houses) what I’m actually trying to do is listen, ask good questions, ask, “Hey, what are you feeling emotionally? What do you like logically?”, there’s two sides to that equation, right? Some people might lean on one side more than the other of personality type. And, are you gonna think all logic or is your heart gonna drive you? Or if you’re married, how do you come to that decision together that you can both agree on something that you both like? Cuz the truth is you’re never gonna find the house that is 100% checks every single box, you have to weigh the pros and cons of like different houses.
For example, the houses we just saw today. One house I know is their favorite house, the house itself, the style of the home, the finishes of the home, the design, when it was made. But the location is not the closest to work. There’s a golf course in the backyard and they’ve got young kids. And so like, do you want golf balls raining down on your backyard? Probably not. And so you’re like,” ah, I love this house. I love so many things about this house, but there are a few things that give it dings.” Whereas we just went and looked at another house and it’s like, “Ooh, this one, I didn’t think I was gonna like this one.” But then I showed up and the backyard’s great. The kids could play here without a problem. You know, it didn’t show up as well on my internet.
So we actually had marked it off our favorites, but then when we got there, it became our favorite. And so that’s why you’ve got to go see the houses. And then as an agent, just to kind of finish that thought, my job is to ask good questions, listen, play back to you what I’m hearing you say, as you go through the property to help you solidify and narrow down what is the best property to put an offer on?
We say it all the time on this channel that we believe that home is where your family grows stronger together. And there’s a lot of factors when it comes to family, family is messy. I’ve said in another video, families are broken and strong. Both. We all have our problems. We all have come from challenging backgrounds in one way or another. And we all have strengths and we all have unique gifts as a family. And so how can we find the right home that accentuates and accelerates those gifts and is a safe place or the right place for your family to grow both in age and over time, but in wisdom and in maturity and in stature in favor, right? And all those good things.
That’s what I feel like we did today. And I wanted to shoot this video just real quick to say, you’ve got to actually get out there. You can’t determine these things ahead of time or it’s very difficult to. Now if you have to buy a house site unseen because you’re moving in from out of town, that’s fine. And we’ll try to video, conference call you into the property to give you as much as that is possible, but whenever possible, try to get to the property so that you can determine your criteria, try to see multiple properties.
Why I Love And Enjoy My Job As A Realtor
I’ll say one more thing on this. And then I’ll wrap it up. A lot of times people say to me, I’m so I’m so sorry to take your time. I know you’ve got kids and I’m like, this is my job. Yes, I very much appreciate respecting my schedule and my wife with five kids, like trying to be home for dinner when possible. But, it’s a real joy and a gift to help people sort through that home buying criteria as they’re searching for the houses. And so they can find the best one or the one that will work best for their family. Again, you’re never gonna find the 100% check every box on your home buying criteria. But I think as you go through this process, what tends to happen is your list solidifies and you know, what really matters the most.
So I like coaching people through that process. So don’t feel bad for asking your agents to go show your houses. Now, Hey, if you get to 15-20 houses and you haven’t put an offer in, then we’re gonna have another talk. But I always tell people, “Hey, send me your favorites. Let’s go see them. And then we’ll know.” As you get through that and you go through this kind of this filtering process of which one’s gonna be the best.
As you guys are reaching out to me, especially if you’re coming in from out of town and you have kind of a limited timeframe to see houses in the Cincinnati area, it’s good to kind of have this mindset of like, “yeah, let’s get out there. Let’s go see the houses and we’ll find the right one as we go.”
Help In Finding A House That Is Right For You and Your Family
So I hope to be able to do that for you. We would love to be your agent. So give us a call team Sztanyo (513) 813-6293. Email me personally. I hope you guys have a wonderful day. I hope that very soon I’ll be able to help you find the right house for your family. See you later.