For those house hunting...
Just a suggestion: you might want to call around to a few real estate agents in the towns you like, or think you like, and have them show you what they have. Not everything is listed in the newspaper, and sometimes that dream home might never make it to the paper if an offer is made and accepted on the day the house goes on the market.
We contacted four different real estate offices, and told them what we were looking for, and a price range. We never told them the exact amount we pre-qualified for. They were all pretty good, and lined things up for us.
On our first appointment with this one agent, the fourth we met with, she showed us some nice homes, none of which were going to work for us. One, that we loved, already had an accepted offer on it, and the other two just didn`t feel like home.
Anyway, we felt very encouraged at the end of the day`s journey, and she said should would call if she got anything in. Just two days later, she called me with a house that had just gone on the market for a different agent in their agency. It was a cape! We loved capes, but had basically ruled them off our list because all of the ones we had seen just didn`t seem practical floor-plan wise, and storage-space wise.
My then-fiance didn`t want to go, and neither did I, but I thought we should so the agent would call us for the next one that would come up. So, we went that night just to stay on good terms with this agent.
Well, we`re glad we went. I knew this was going to be the one when we pulled up (in the dark). Before we even got to look at the upstairs, I was already running numbers through my head of what we should offer! At that time, homeowners were getting offers above asking price, sometimes well above because they would rack up as many as 15 offers before accepting any.
Mike and I went back to the agent`s office, and we called the sellers with a full-price offer. They accepted after a few questions .. like how quickly could we move in, and that was it. They accepted and after a couple of months stressing through the closing process, we moved in.
I wish you all the best in your house search!
