House Buying Steps 2 & 3

I've been so busy studying for the GMAT that I haven't had time for a proper update, but the house hunting is moving right along. Let me catch you up....

Step 2 - Picking a Realtor
This step took me about a week. There is no proper way to find a realtor so I decided to ask around at work, at church, and through some friends that had recently bought homes in Utah Valley. I got a couple references but nothing solid. My boss's husband is actually a realtor, but after some thought we decided we didn't want to get in a messy situation if something went wrong. So he referred me to one of his coworkers.

Jeff and I went up to meet her one evening and I was immediately concerned. When I asked her to tell me about her style she didn't sell herself at all. She didn't present us with any houses to look at and just immediately gave us the contract to sign her as our agent.

After that meeting, I decided to search resumes online. Utah has a great website http://www.utahrealestate.com/ and it has a comprehensive listing of realtors with all of their contact information. I found a couple that "looked" the part and called to do a "get-to-know" you session. The first one I called showed a great personality - she was pretty chatty and had a good amount of knowledge. I invited her to come meet with us and she showed up two days later with a thick stack of homes as I described to her what we were looking for. Our basic search included minimum 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1500+ sq ft, 2 car garage and built after 2000.

She had some great resources for us, told us about her experience, and had great credentials. The feeling was great and we decided to go with her.

Step 3 - Home Viewing
Jeff and I did some homework on the houses that she gave us to look at. We drove around and checked out the neighborhoods. Some we could immediately cross of the list because the outside did not me our needs...i.e. it had a shared driveway or not a good outdoor space.

So these are some of the houses that we have looked at:







We've seen 8 houses and we already found one we love....Step 4 The OFFER coming up next