Largely, what you look for in a home is up to you. There are some constants in real estate, of course--keep in mind that you're making an investment, and choose your property accordingly. Unless you've got the time, energy, and resources to do the work, a fixer-upper can turn out to be a money pit. A flood plain isn't the most intelligent place to purchase a home. A home on a receding bluff has a limited life expectancy. And, if your next-door neighbor is an airport, your resale value will be impacted, no matter how lovely or charming the house is.

Most of these cautions are just common sense. Where a real estate agent can help you is with the finer points of choosing a wise investment. Your agent will know the area where you want to buy, including what's going on in the real estate market, local industry, and the community.

Your home has to meet your needs. Your home will most likely be one of the largest purchases of your lifetime. It's especially important not to buy too quickly, or because you are eager to get into a home. Defining what exactly you're looking for in a home can be time-consuming, but will save you time, energy and money in the long run.

Keep your home search on track. Before you start looking at homes, sit down and make a list of the characteristics you're looking for in a home, ranked from most to least important. Keep those priorities in mind as you look at homes, and update the list based on the homes you tour. Important considerations include everything from affordability to ample closet space, the style of home (rambler, split-level, etc), size and location of property, proximity to bus lines, and home condition (i.e. fixer-upper, move-in ready). If you have strong feelings about particular items, keep them in mind throughout your search.

Plan to look at a wide range of homes before making the decision to buy. A lot of buyers find a Polaroid or digital camera really handy - snapshots can help you keep track of the good and bad things about the homes you see. Take good notes on the homes you tour, and keep track of how they rank on your list of "must haves." Also, keep in mind that you may not be able to find every single "must have" in one home. Don't rule out a home, sight unseen, because it doesn't have a swimming pool or hardwood floors--you can always make cosmetic changes once you've moved in. The most important items to look for are the ones you can't as easily change--the surrounding area, the school district, and so on.

There are some great online resources for the home-search process. If you'd like to search for homes, visit my listing search and look at properties throughout Washington State and across the country. Doing some basic searching can be particularly helpful for seeing what the going rate is for a home in your chosen areas.

And, while the first goal is to find that perfect house, if the search is getting exhausting, you can always scale back your wish list and look for a home that's a good investment but may not have everything you want. Buying an "investment home" helps you by letting you build up equity instead of burning rent money. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for your next house. If you're really wedded to one area, but can't find the perfect home, you'll have a much easier time keeping your eyes open for "For Sale" signs if you walk or drive through the neighborhood daily. Also, a good buyers' agent will often do postcard mailings to neighborhoods to let residents know that people are interested in buying their homes.

Once you've narrowed down your choices, you have some more homework to do. Investigate the area schools, taxes, the cost of utilities, the quality of services such as police and emergency medical facilities, and any other external factors that will affect your quality of life in the neighborhood. Your real estate agent is the best resource here -- they can prepare a detailed property profile for each home that lets you view not only community resources near a given home, but also comparative sales and other neighborhood information. This property profile can be invaluable in assessing the livability of a given area for you.

Once you've found a home you're interested in possibly purchasing, it's time to talk paperwork. The next section will help you learn the basics and answer your questions about the process of making an offer on a home.

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