How many times did you see your house before you made an offer?

[Anonymous]

I think we saw our house twice, but only because we saw it on a saturday with out realtor and the open house was on sunday. I think we had a contract in that evening. It wasn't a dream house, but it was a house with good bones in a wonderful location for us in the neighborhood we had targeted. We had decided not to offer on a completely updated house about a week earlier because it was in a part of the neighborhood that was too far from the schools and shopping centers for our liking. We have been updating it since we moved in, but you can't beat being on the same road as all 3 schools!

Our previous home, we saw the house early afternoon, had to rush home to draw up the contract by 5ish, and had beat out another contract by that evening. I'll never forget signing those papers in a CVS parking lot on the trunk of my husband's car.

[Anonymous]

Twice.


We probably looked at 100 houses when we bought...we narrowed it down to 2 we really liked--one was my favorite, the other my husband favored. We did a 2nd walk through of both houses and decided on the one that was my favorite.

[Anonymous]

Twice, but I knew it was "our house" as soon as I walked in the front door. We had been looking for years, and I was thrilled to finally find "the one".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're looking for our first home and it seems like the norm is to make an offer after 2 viewings. I know we'd see it again on various walk-thrus or inspections but I can't imagine deciding on a house that quickly. Did it happen that way for you?

Well, how many times do you want to go in and look around? You either like it enough to make an offer or not. Will going back to the same house 5, 6, 7x be any different than after one or two - thorough - viewings? Serious buyers will spend a good hour at a house viewing - thinking about projects, budgeting things that will need work/replaced, visualizing furniture, walking around the yard, looking at the foundation, compromising on the must-haves, etc. but they don't need to revisit a house over and over again to do this.

[Anonymous]

Once before making offer - came back the next day so that my husband could see it, as he wasn't able to come the first time.

[Anonymous]

Once. It was scary, but we just knew. I am a bit indesicive, so my husband did have to urge me on. So lad he did.

[Anonymous]

One time---a few minutes at an open house (for both our houses).

Fwiw, I had been inside 15+ homes in each neighborhood so was well educated on price.

Both homes were in neighborhoods where same day multiple offers come in--there were a few other bids on each. No time to fart around in those scenarios.

[Anonymous]

bought two places, and looked at each twice.

[Anonymous]

Once! We had seen hundreds before that. Many of them more than once.

[Anonymous]

my buyers looked once for about 5 min.

[Anonymous]

Buyers, especially those who are seriously looking, already know a lot of the important information before they set foot in the house - schools, commute, crime, etc. Plus, they know the house fits their basic criteria - bedrooms, bathrooms, finished basement, whatever. Finally, they've likely seen pictures online, so they at least have an initial impression they'd like it. Why would it take more than a first visit, then maybe a follow-up to address lingering questions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buyers, especially those who are seriously looking, already know a lot of the important information before they set foot in the house - schools, commute, crime, etc. Plus, they know the house fits their basic criteria - bedrooms, bathrooms, finished basement, whatever. Finally, they've likely seen pictures online, so they at least have an initial impression they'd like it. Why would it take more than a first visit, then maybe a follow-up to address lingering questions?

This. I am sooooo indecisive by nature, but when it came to houses I looked at each house once for about 5 min at an open house before making a bid. It is crazy the amount of $ I was spending and I could make such a momentous decision in that time--but there you go.

Like the quoted poster, I already had the neighborhood nailed down, even the sections of the particular neighborhood, I had previously been in a ton---so it was very easy to assess in a matter of minutes whether the house was 'the one' or not. I had zero buyer's remorse with either home. Each as a 2 year search prior to finding it. We even rented in one of the neighborhoods for 1.5 years prior to finding one.

[Anonymous]

Twice.

A buyer who views a house many more times than that prior to making an offer is usually indecisive and odds are will pull out before closing. If you are a seller, pick another offer, or require a pile of earnest money.

[Anonymous]

Different experience with us. Between my husband and me, we've bought 8 pieces of property in the last 8 years (starter homes, condos, investment properties). Our last home, which is our primary residence, we looked at 3 times before submitting an offer. We brought our contractor and closet designer/second contractor to the second viewing to get a rough estimate for the work we expected to do so that we could account for that in our offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just once. We knew our budget and new how rare a listing in our budget came on the market in the neighborhood we selected, so it met our needs and we offered right away. We felt great afterwards becasue an entire year passed and nothing else came on the market in that price range.

same here