To help you survive the journey, we\u2019ve researched the top mistakes buyers make when shopping for a home and how to avoid them. Our prevention tips include insightful considerations, links to resources, and professional advice from top real estate agent Grace Henrikson<\/a>, an expert house hunter with 12 years of experience helping clients find the perfect home in Seattle, WA, one of the country\u2019s most competitive housing markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even with today\u2019s digital house hunting tools, 52% of buyers say that help in finding the right home to purchase is what they want most from a real estate agent \u2014 that\u2019s because the information you find on websites can\u2019t hold a candle to the local knowledge and professional expertise an agent brings to the process.<\/p>\n Still, not all agents are equal. If you\u2019re not getting the proper assistance or advice you need during your house hunt, it can hurt your chances of finding the right home. A top real estate agent should provide the following:<\/p>\n Your real estate agent should act like your college tour guide who knows the caf’s top dishes and the best times to get a treadmill at the gym. If your target area isn\u2019t their niche, you\u2019ll miss out on some of the best insights a real estate agent can provide.<\/p>\n Red flags:<\/strong><\/p>\n A buyer\u2019s agent should be a consultant \u2014 not a salesperson. Remember, buyer\u2019s agents don\u2019t get paid until your home deal closes so if an agent is pushing you towards a house that\u2019s not a match, they might be more interested in their next paycheck than helping you find the best possible home.<\/p>\n Red flags:<\/strong><\/p>\n You want an agent who\u2019s got all the listing alerts set up and basically lives in the MLS<\/a>. Even today when 50% of buyers find their house online, 28% still find their house through their agent<\/a>. So if your agent isn\u2019t paying attention to the inventory, you might miss out on the dream home.<\/p>\n Red flags:<\/strong><\/p>\n Prevention tips: When you see red flags left and right, you need to quickly decide if you want to respectfully cut ties with your agent<\/a>. As we mentioned, buyer\u2019s agents don\u2019t get paid during the house hunt so you don\u2019t want to string them along and waste both of your time. If you signed a buyer’s agency agreement you also need to consider the implications entailed since you probably won\u2019t be able to switch agents without repercussion.<\/p>\n The best course of action is to hire the right agent from the start. Here’s how:<\/p>\n Get your agent search started on the right track with HomeLight\u2019s Agent Finder<\/a>. We\u2019ll match you with agents with the most relevant experience to your needs based on their transaction volume on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, their average sale to list ratio for buy-side transactions, and specializations such as first time buyer experience or property type (single family home, condo, townhome, etc).<\/p>\n You\u2019ve calculated how much you can afford to spend on a home with online affordability estimators<\/a> and come up with a rough monthly budget based on factors like your income and typical expenses. Great! You can\u2014and should\u2014do some budgeting legwork on your own headed into your house hunt.<\/p>\n However, before you start looking at homes (and ideally before you engage an agent in your search) go ahead and meet with a lender to get pre-approved for a mortgage.<\/p>\n To grant pre-approval, a lender will need to \u201clook under the hood\u201d of your financials, so to speak, to see whether you\u2019d qualify for a mortgage and if so, how big of a loan you qualify for.<\/p>\n The amount of documentation a lender will ask for to issue a pre-approval can vary greatly from lender to lender.<\/p>\n Some lenders will do a deep dive upfront and ask you for documentation to show proof of income and your current savings, take a look at your credit score, and evaluate your existing debts (think: credit cards, student loans, and car payments) to provide you with a pre-approval letter that essentially lets a seller know that if you make an offer up to your pre-approved amount, your financing is very likely to come through.<\/p>\n Other lenders, however, may issue a quick and easy pre-approval by only evaluating your credit score with a soft credit pull and accepting the information you estimate without requiring any documentation to verify these numbers until much later in the process.<\/p>\n The more your lender verifies before you make an offer the stronger your offer will be. A fully-verified or underwritten pre-approval, like HomeLight Home Loans Conditional approval<\/a>, will be particularly great for competitive markets. It\u2019s a good idea to talk to a lender or even multiple lenders to see who can provide a pre-approval that will best suit your needs before you make that offer.<\/p>\n Without a preapproval you risk:<\/p>\n 1. Making bids on homes out of your price range.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you start house hunting by looking at homes above the price range you actually qualify for, you might be disappointed at what\u2019s left when you have to reel the budget in towards a lower approved limit. (Keep in mind that your pre-approved limit may be out of your financial comfort zone and you\u2019ll need to factor in extra monthly costs like taxes, maintenance, and insurance).<\/p>\n 2. Losing out on your dream home because you don\u2019t have proof of likely financing.<\/strong><\/p>\n When you stumble upon a holy grail property, your casual online home browse instantly swaps into a hustle to make an offer. If the seller mandates offers include a mortgage pre-approval, you could face a delay while you wait for your pre-approval letter, potentially losing out to the more prepared competition.<\/p>\n Even if pre-approval isn\u2019t a requirement, without one your offer is weaker; it\u2019s risky for buyers to accept an offer not yet backed by a lender.<\/p>\n Prevention tip: Apply for a mortgage pre-approval<\/a> as soon as you\u2019re serious about buying a home. Your lender will send you a pre-approval letter that lists an exact loan amount so you know the ceiling price for your house hunt. With the pre-approval letter at the ready, you\u2019re ready to make a convincing offer as soon as you find that special home.<\/p>\n Note:<\/b> A pre-qualification is not the same as pre-approval<\/a>; to get pre-qualified, you provide the lender with an estimated overview of your financial picture, including your credit score, income, debts and assets and the lenders just take your word for it and estimate what they would offer you assuming everything you said was true.<\/p>\n Typically, you can do this online, and get a pre-qualification letter in just a few minutes. The catch with a pre-qualification is that the lender doesn\u2019t verify much, if any, of your information so they can only estimate how much they might be willing to lend you, assuming the information you provided is true.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re unable to later support the numbers you gave for to get that pre-qualification letter, or if your credit score is less than you estimated, the lender may not be able to loan you the full amount included on the pre-qualification letter.\u00a0 That said, a pre-qualification letter can be fast and easy to get, so if you need something quick, it could be a great option for you.<\/p>\n If you want to go a little further into the process and get a pre-approval, it\u2019s good to remember what we mentioned above: all pre-approvals are not created equal.<\/p>\n For ultimate house hunting confidence, go above and beyond the traditional, partially verified pre-approval and obtain a pre-approval with a full, upfront financial underwrite. Underwriting is the process where a lender looks at your entire financial history and all the associated documents and makes a call on whether your loan should be approved.<\/p>\n While the majority of lenders hold off on underwriting until after your home offer is accepted and only verify simple things like your credit score, HomeLight Home Loans<\/a> conducts a full underwrite for borrowers upfront. In other words, we look at every puzzle piece that makes up your financial picture within 24 hours of application.<\/p>\n We can tell you within a day exactly how much home you qualify for with our Conditional Approval, boosting your credibility as a buyer and protecting you from closing delays.<\/p>\n House hunting is as emotional as it is logical. It\u2019s difficult envisioning yourself in a home with grandma\u2019s furniture and a pink bathtub even if it ticks all of your \u201cmust-have\u201d boxes.<\/p>\n On the flip side, you can easily fall in love with a home that\u2019s professionally staged down to scent of soy candles in the air, forgiving its lack of storage and central heating.<\/p>\n Prevention tips:<\/b><\/p>\n As of 2018, homeowners live in their purchased abode for a median duration of 13.3 years<\/a> before moving elsewhere \u2014 a lot can happen in that time. If you base your home evaluation criteria solely on your current lifestyle, you may prematurely outgrow the home and need to move for practical reasons sooner than anticipated (even if your heart is still attached).<\/p>\n Prevention tips:<\/b><\/p>\n No matter which demographic you belong to, consider how the home will suit your future needs. Here\u2019s some considerations if your plans entail:<\/p>\n Growing a family:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Investing in assets:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Closing in on retirement:<\/b><\/p>\n The newly added bathroom looks amazing, but was the plumbing installed correctly? If it wasn\u2019t, you need to know because once you purchase the home, you\u2019re liable for any unpermitted construction.<\/p>\n Homeowners policies typically won\u2019t cover damage caused by unpermitted work<\/a>, nor will they cover damage to unpermitted extensions. There\u2019s also the risk a city inspector discovers the work-around and forces you to bring the project up to code or tear it out.<\/p>\n Prevention tips:<\/b><\/p>\n Start by asking the listing agent if a permit was required\/granted for any additions or major remodels. The sellers legally must inform you of any known unpermitted work in the disclosure<\/a>. If you\u2019re still skeptical, you can find a record of the permits pulled for the home\u2019s address through the city\u2019s building department or respective webpage.<\/p>\n You can remodel your home, but you can\u2019t extend the renovations to the neighborhood. If your new area makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or even just uninspired, you\u2019ll have to live with it or house hunt all over again.<\/p>\n Prevention tips:<\/b><\/p>\n Spend as much time researching the neighborhood as you do the property \u2014 you won\u2019t regret it. The best location is one which flows with your everyday life, that is one that\u2019s close to where you spend most of your time outside the house. You might love the latest borough for the multitude of trendy cafes, but if it\u2019s a 45 minute commute to work and 20 minutes to the gym in the opposite direction, your daily drive leaves little time to enjoy the local lifestyle.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve narrowed down your options, dig deeper to evaluate neighborhoods for safety, community, and development activity (crucial factors for resale).<\/p>\n Research online:<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cCrime rates are important \u2014 buyers should be doing their due diligence in that area,\u201d Henrikson weighs in. \u201cIf they have kids, they should be looking up registered sex offenders just to see if there’s any nearby. Sometimes an area as a whole might seem like a match and buyers are so excited about the homebuying process that they fail to do that search.\u201d<\/p>\n Explore the area in person:<\/b><\/p>\n Research and attention to detail are key to avoiding most house hunting mistakes. Just don\u2019t obsess over a home for too long before placing an offer or you could lose out to a faster competitor (especially if you\u2019re in one of the nation\u2019s fastest markets<\/a>).<\/p>\n Prevention tips:<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Paper](\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/house-hunting-mistakes-agent.jpg\")
<\/a>Mistake #1: You partnered with the wrong real estate agent.<\/h2>\n
1. Deep local insights and knowledge of the area<\/h3>\n
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2. Objective advice, not sales pitches<\/h3>\n
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3. Inventory obsession<\/h3>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/house-hunting-mistakes-lender.jpg\")
<\/a>Mistake #2: You didn\u2019t meet with a lender first.<\/h2>\n
\n<\/b><\/p>\nGo a step further with a full upfront financial underwrite<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Lights](\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/house-hunting-mistakes-light.jpg\")
<\/a>Mistake #3: You\u2019re obsessed with cosmetics.<\/h2>\n
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Mistake #4: Short-term thinking clouds your long-term vision.<\/h2>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/house-hunting-mistakes-bathtub.jpg\")
<\/a>Mistake #5: You turn a blind eye to code violations just to get the house.<\/h2>\n
Mistake #6: You put location on the backburner.<\/h2>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/house-hunting-mistakes-list.jpg\")
<\/a>Mistake #7: You lack the confidence to make an offer and overthink every little \u2018what if.\u2019<\/h2>\n