Ready to Find Your Dream Home? Read This First

Buying a home is exciting, but the truth is that buying a home can be a pain-staking process, and that's if you have all of your affairs in order.

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Senior Accountant
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Buying a home is exciting, but the truth is that buying a home can be a pain-staking process, and that’s if you have all of your affairs in order. The best way to put it is that the only reason people endure the home-buying process is that they know they get a new home at the end of it.

While it’s not impossible to find your dream home, you’d be wise to prepare yourself for a long ride. Between saving up for a down payment, deciding on a location, and choosing a home, you have some important work to do. If you’ve been saving for a while and are ready to get the home you’ve always dreamed of, congratulations. You have an exciting journey ahead of you, but before you start it, read this.

Be prepared to have to do some remodeling right away.

The thing that makes finding your dream home so difficult is that you already have so many specific amenities and details in mind. It’s quite possible that you won’t find one home that has everything you’re looking for. You may search for months to find a home that fits your budget and meets most of your preferences, so finding one with everything is unrealistic.

While you’re searching for your dream home, you need to be cognizant of the fact that you’re probably going to have to do some remodeling to turn the house you buy into your dream home. The thing is to be selective about which amenities are must-haves and which ones you can add later.

If you’re buying a home in Florida, an in-ground pool in your backyard would be an excellent refuge on a hot summer day. However, because there are so many swimming pool companies in Tampa Florida, you can get a pool built at a competitive rate. If you find a house that has almost everything you want, but one of the must-haves it’s missing is a pool, then you should seriously consider buying the house and having a pool built later. It’s all a matter of prioritizing what you need from your dream home and what you can build or add yourself.

If you’re willing to do the work, a historic home could be the ultimate dream home.

If you’re a nostalgic person by nature, then a historic house might make the ultimate dream home for you. Even if the home is as old as the city you live in, it’s new to you, and its history has its own intrinsic value.

Before buying an older home, the most important thing is to get the home inspected. Many historic homes still have plumbing and electrical wiring that wouldn’t meet today’s more rigorous standards.

As far as finding a contractor to handle your renovations, it would be best if you did your due diligence to find someone who knows how to restore a historic house. You don’t want to do anything that will take away from the home’s value, but the right contractor can restore the home to its former glory, give it a touch of modern, and do so without hurting the home’s worth.

Decorating a historic house can be a little more difficult because you want to maintain the house’s old charm, but you want to have modern amenities too. If you’re struggling with how to mix vintage and modern decor in your historic home, you should call in an interior decorator to give you some ideas and possibly manage your renovations for you as well.

Look for unlisted homes.

If you live in a sellers’ market, an area where more people are trying to buy homes than sell them, you should try looking for unlisted homes. Unlisted homes may or may not be for sale and aren’t listed on the main platforms that real estate agents post.

There are several reasons that a home may not be listed even though it’s for sale. In some cases, the owner has not decided whether or not to sell. Sometimes, the home in question was on the market but failed to sell. On rare occasions, it could even be a celebrity trying to maintain their privacy and not alert anyone to where they live.

The thing about an unlisted home is that you need to be ready to pay more for the house than you would if it were on the market, that is, unless it’s unlisted because it was listed before and didn’t sell. If you see a home you really want and are prepared to make a gracious offer; you should approach the homeowner about selling it. You’d be surprised how many homes that aren’t for sale suddenly become available once the owner sees the offer.

If you plan to approach someone about buying their home, the best thing to do is knock on their door and introduce yourself. Tell the owners a little about who you are as a person and what you see in their house, and be prepared to make a generous offer. The key is to approach the matter sensitively and with confidence. People invest a lot of sentiment and money in their homes, and you’d do well to recognize that while making your pitch.

If you have pets, then you have to be extra careful about decor.

We sure do love our fur buddies, but they really can destroy a house. It’s not that they mean to, at least we hope not, but it’s a nuisance nonetheless.

Not only do you have to watch out for things that your pets might break or rip to shreds, but you have to be just as mindful about things in and around the house that could be harmful to them. If you love plants and animals, you need to be sure that they can live in harmony. If you have a feline in the house, then be sure to shop for cat-friendly houseplants like spider and peacock plants.

It’s equally important to protect your home from your kitty as well. When you go shopping for furniture and drapes, be sure to shop for tough, durable materials that your cat won’t destroy simply by being a cat.

If you can’t figure out where or how to find your dream home, your best bet may be to build it yourself. If you decide to build your home from the ground up, it would be wise to let a general contractor manage the project for you while you sit back and wait for the okay to move in.