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Linda Reeves, Realtor® |
If you have children, you may want to consider asking someone to care for them at your home, while you drive or fly to Nashville for a visit. Children sometimes get restless going in and out of cars and houses, especially when they are in unfamiliar surroundings. If it is not possible to have someone keep them while you make your house-hunting trip, you may want to consider bringing a "baby-sitter" with you. If a friend or family-member could come with you to take care of your children while you are looking at houses, this could help you relax as you search for your new home. This also allows you to all be together in the evenings to "experience Nashville" as a family. If neither of these two options is possible, don't worry about it. I'll have a "Kid's Kit" prepared for your children, stocked full of things to keep them occupied as we go.
Measure your furniture, and bring the measurements on your house-hunting trip. This will help you to know whether or not the houses you like will work with your furniture. You don't want to end up buying a house that won't hold your furniture.
Bring a list of things you need to accomplish on your trip. Do you need to enroll a child in a school? Do you need to find good elder care for an older parent who may be moving with you? Do you need to know where the local health care facilities or veterinarians are? What other things do you need to check out before you move? Bring a list so you won't forget to do your tasks. Also, try to plan a day for doing only these types of things. It's easy to get caught up in looking at houses; but remember, you're not just moving to a house, you're moving to a new city/community, and it's helpful to get to know a little bit about it before you move.
Bring a camera, so you can take pictures of the house(s) you are interested in. Many times, the houses run together in your memory after a house-hunting trip. The easiest way to fix this is with pictures. Write down the address and the corresponding picture number, so that you will remember which house is which. This is also a great way to show your friends and relatives what "your house" looks like, if you decide to buy one of the houses you looked at.
Bring a checkbook. In the event that you find "the perfect house" and you want to make an offer on the house, you will need to "provide consideration" (earnest money) for the contract to be valid, should the seller accept your offer. You may also want to open a new checking account in your new area. This may help you to write checks for local services much more easily.
Bring necessary financial records, so that you can be pre-qualified. Pre-qualification is a great thing! There is no reason not to pre-qualify. If you plan to get a loan to buy a house, you will have to talk to a lender at some point, and it's easier if you do it before you start looking for a house. Lenders will provide this service FREE, and it will give you peace of mind. It shows you what you can qualify for (based on industry guidelines), and it shows the seller that you are qualified to buy his house. This is very motivating to a seller, especially when he gets more than one offer on his house. On equivalent offers, the offer from the pre-qualified buyer almost always is accepted over the offer from a buyer who has not been pre-qualified.
Check out the forecast weather in Nashville.
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Linda Reeves, Realtor® |
