It is an awesome feeling to be looking for the new place you will be calling home! But this isn’t the time to be an impulsive buyer. The more you know going into shopping for a house the better off you will be. What should you look for when choosing a house?
We talked with Luka Mihovilovic, a former model from Croatia, who turned his background in hospitality into a real estate career, to get the scoop on what to look for when buying your first home.
Check out as many houses as you can – the more houses you see the better idea you will have of what’s available in your price range. You may find you need to spend a little bit more or that you will have to settle on doing some work on the house you buy. The more you see the more you will know about the neighborhood as well. You will get a feel for the people that live there.
“When buying their first home, the most common mistake is that they have not done enough research they should explore all their options,” said Luka Mihovilovic, a real estate agent with Keller Williams.
Check your neighborhoods – usually, when you see a house it’s on a nice afternoon on the weekend. You go and see kids playing and everything looks hunky dory. But you need to know the whole story. You need to see what the area is like on a Saturday night. Are there kids and such all out driving with music blasting? What is it like during rush hour in the morning or in the evening? How about during the day in the middle of the week? Are there trucks going down the street making deliveries to local stores? How far away is the fire and police department? Will there be sirens at all hours? When choosing a house; consider all the options.
“I’m not just interested in whether you want four bedrooms or five, I’m going to learn about your likes, your habits and your future goals so we can find the house and neighborhood [that’s right for you],” he said.
Talk to friends, family, co-workers, and potential neighbors – the more you talk about the neighborhoods you like and about owning a house in general the better off you will be. The current owners won’t tell you it costs $400 a month in utilities to keep the place warm in the winter but your friend who lives down the street will. You may have to take what you hear with a grain of salt but the more you hear the better.
Call Luka directly at (626) 765-5318 or visit him at Keller Williams Realty Pasadena 251 South Lake Avenue, Suite 150 or visit him online at luka.kwrealty.com/about/.
