Listing Drive By's

Hey home buyers!  I am sure this has happened to you, you book a house to go see with your agent. Its perfect, you know it is, it has that walk in closet and 4th bedroom for the out of town guests, and it is right down the street from the school. The pictures look awesome, huge kitchen overlooking the huge yard and lots of space to entertain and play.

 You arrive at the showing only to discover that the house is on a busy intersection, or next door to a cemetery, or something that would be a deal breaker for you and your family. This is an understandably disappointing situation and we agents don't like any client to feel like this.  I have had clients so crestfallen from finding that their dream home was next to a noisy machine shop they almost gave up house hunting on the spot. Since giving up means you won't be getting a house anytime soon, we definitely don't recommend that! (ps, they forged ahead and bought a house the very next day!)

 What I learned from that experience years ago was to recommend to my buyers to do a drive by if they can.  Drive by and check out the neighbourhood, distance from the stores, how busy the street is.  Drive down the back lane and check it out.  These dive by visits are totally valuable!  One of two things will happen: You will find a deal breaker and know you don't need to waste valuable family time looking at a house that just will not do...or... you will now be even more excited to see it.  Frankly that makes things just that much more fun for us agents!  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that this will be required for me to even book a showing with you, you may not have the time or means to do this, totally understandable.  Its just one of those things that if you have the time and are in the area you can go do.

 So, remember, looking for a house means checking out its online merits, its outside merits and its neighbourhood merits all before checking out its inside merits.  You will feel better about booking any showing when all of those three things look great:)