House hunting both is and isn’t fun at the same time. It’s fun, because seeing many properties in a short time can be interesting, give you a clearer idea of what’s going for your price point on the market, and also, you get to imagine how you’d live in or improve each property.
It’s unfun because this is a highly administrative process that can fail repeatedly before an offer is accepted, or you even find something you like to begin with. Moreover, house hunting takes time, effort and money, especially if you’re looking at homes further out than where you live. It’s not like you have to stop working in that time either, meaning that you’re likely taking annual leave or putting your life on pause to achieve this outcome.
For this reason, it’s not uncommon for even well-meaning, intelligent, capable people to feel exasperated with the whole process. In this post, then, we’ll determine what your next steps could be if you find yourself in this space:
Consider Home Builders
If you have the time, the means, and understand what you’re looking for, then it can be healthy to use luxury home builders or custom home builders to design a house from the offset. Here you can stretch your project over a little time, making it more affordable, and you may be able to purchase the exact land you need for such construction planning ahead of time. In the long run, that gives you another option, especially if nothing else fits or you’re planning for retirement or investment.
Hire A Real Estate Agent
It can be nice to have someone ready and willing to scour properties left-right-and-center around a specific area (or multiple!) Using networked contacts, these professionals can guide you in the right direction, help you avoid making bad investments, and will also filter homes they show you as part of your needs, wants, nice-to-have priority list. This effectively takes out the research effort from your house hunting process, which not only serves as a nice surprise as you see each property anew without spoiling them in advance, but you may have access to more and better properties thanks to their industry expertise and knowledge of the current market.
Wait For A Little While
If your house hunt isn’t necessarily urgent, it can be good to give yourself more space or to wait until the market settles down a little. It might be that waiting for a potential new set of constructed houses to be finished and reserving your spot can be a good way to save money through onboarding incentives, or perhaps you can leverage the time of year when most people sell instead of looking through the holidays. Practice self-care, and nurture your interest in buying again as opposed to feeling obligated to. Remember, if you need to sell now you can always temporarily rent as you find somewhere new to move to.
With this advice, we hope you can avoid feeling exasperated with house hunting, and instead find helpful alternatives for moving forward.
