When you buy your first home (usually) the awe and excitement of owning a home can surpass the responsibilities of finding a home that matches your needs and lifestyles. I'm guilty of it too. My first home didn't match my lifestyle the way I wanted it to and I had to trade-up faster than I intended to. When I work with first time buyers, I like to ask some simple questions:

1. What will my life look like in five years? Children, Pets, a spouse or dependant relative?
2. What's important to me right now? How will those needs change as you settle into the home.
3. How open are you to maintenance?

The list can go on for miles. Bottom line: Set some criteria and start looking strictly in that criteria. If you find that something in the criteria just isn't right, adjust. It's the classic Try, Fail Adjust model. This keeps you on track and focussed on the goal, simply looking in a price range say "all homes between 100 and $200,000" can overwhelm you giving you no reasonable way to compare one home to another. Setting specific criteria:All homes between $100,000 and $200,000, 3-5 bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, 1+ car garage, Rancher, 1 and 1/2 story or 2 story homes for sale in the Spokane Valley will allow you to intelligently compare price, condition and maintenance.Don't be afraid to modify your criteria after you've started looking, it's part of the process. Be afraid of not having specific criteria to look for, wandering aimlessly through houses makes it REALLY hard to select.More questions? Don't be afraid to contact me!