Published December 28, 2020

Making It Work: Tips for Long-Distance House-Hunting

Staff Writer

Content Specialist at Effective Agents

Long-distance—just the phrase might make you feel apprehensive. It’s not just long-distance relationships that get a bad reputation. Long-distance house-hunting is challenging in so many ways. When you’re looking for a house long-distance, there are the obvious logistical challenges, as well as the fact that you may not be familiar with the area where you’re moving. Of course, people successfully find houses from across the country or even the world every day, and the following tips can help you navigate your own long-distance house hunt.

Research

From the moment you find out you need to do a long-distance house hunt, you should start researching. You want to learn as much as you can about the area where you’ll be moving, including any particular neighborhoods you might be looking at. Try and learn about schools, neighborhood amenities, safety, transportation and commutes, and anything else that might be relevant to your life. The more you can research before you actually visit any properties, the more streamlined your search will be when you’re on the ground. You won’t waste time learning the basics and you can get right to business.

Know What You Want

Along with researching the city or town where you’ll be moving, you also need to have a clear, concise, and very specific idea of what you want in a property as well as what you don’t want. The more information your agent has, the better they’re going to be able to match you with viable options. It may turn out that you need to make a fairly fast decision if you’re doing a long-distance house hunt, and cutting through the properties that won’t work can improve the efficiency of your search.

Choose Your Realtor® Carefully

A Realtor® brings many benefits regardless of the specifics of your house hunt, but sometimes even more so if you’re doing it lost distance. A Realtor® should be a specialist in the areas you’re looking at, and they should be your eyes and ears on the ground when you can’t be there. You will also want someone easy to reach via email, call, and text. This person may end up doing some home tours with you over video-chat and showing you a lot of information online, so they should be tech-savvy as well.

Try to Visit At Least Twice

It’s a good idea if at all possible to visit the city you’ll be moving to at least twice. This might mean you should first visit to get a general lay of the land. You might walk some neighborhoods, dine at a few restaurants, and start to settle on an area that appeals to you. Then, during the second visit, you can be more focused on house hunting itself. If it’s within your budget having at least one trip that lasts for four or five days can give you time to get to know the area and organize your preferences. Finally, keep an open mind. Your Realtor® might be able to show you possibilities you didn’t even previously think about, and when you have an open mind, you might find the home of your dreams that you wouldn’t have considered otherwise. If you’d like to connect with a top Realtor®, contact EffectiveAgents.com today. Photo credit: Photo by Ralph (Ravi) Kayden on Unsplash

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