Prepare for the Saturday Sprint

Saturday… traditionally a day of the week that most people to really look forward to. It is the first day of the weekend and a sacred day for a leisurely breakfast before heading off to watch kids sport or, if you are lucky, a spot of Saturday morning shopping. Maybe catching up with friends over a coffee or heading off to the beach for a bit of sun and surf.

But, if you are one of the thousands of people looking for a new home, then Saturday has a completely different meaning. During the week, you have probably spent most of your lunch times and evenings on real estate portals trawling through listings. You have checked all of the newspapers and local magazines, maybe you have spent a few hours calling or emailing agents to find out more about various properties.

Now it is Friday night and instead of watching a movie with the kids or going out for dinner with friends, you are feverishly checking to make sure that you haven’t missed any new listings and starting to plan your Saturday inspections.

You make a list of the properties that you like and order them according to the Open House times. Now comes the interesting part. Maybe you have 9 properties that you want to visit. You look at your list and find that three are at 10am, four are at 11 am, one is at 12pm and the last one is at 2pm.

What is this? Four properties to see in 30 minutes? How in the world are you going to make sure that you don’t miss out on seeing ‘the perfect home’?

Welcome to the Saturday Sprint. The one day each week where you have to break land speed records to get to inspections, then rush through the property glancing briefly in each room so that you can jump back in the car and race off to the next one before the agent closes the door.

Those of us with children know that it is almost physically impossible to drag them through more than 2 properties before their patience is all but gone. Not to mention if you have a little baby asleep in the car and you try the ‘tag’ system of property inspections.

Here are 10 tips to make the most of your Saturday Sprint.

Be clear about your wish list. What is absolutely non-negotiable, what is nice to have and what is a pipe dream?
Use Google Maps to set out the most time effective course. If there are two of you and you cannot fit in every inspection, try to divide and conquer.
Have a coffee, water and snacks in the car. Otherwise you will find yourself pulling into McDonalds between inspections or running out of energy and going out for lunch instead of sticking to your plan!
Have a check list for every property you need to look at and make lots of notes during the inspections.
Have a system to remember each property. To do this, we take a lot of very detailed photos. When you arrive, take a photo of the front of the house and a few of the surrounding houses. Make a few notes to remind you about the area. When you go inside, check with the agent to make sure you can take photos as some owners and tenants will not allow photos. Make sure you take enough photos to remember everything – how big the rooms are, are there ceiling fans, how much storage etc.
When you leave, take a photo of the brochure. That way you will know where one property ends and the next one starts.
Repeat for each property, remembering to stay hydrated.
When you get home upload your photos and sort them by property. Systematically work through each property comparing your requirements to your inspection checklist and photos.
Eliminate the properties that don’t suit you and make a note of them so that you don’t revisit them by mistake.
If you are interested in one of the properties make sure you do all of your research and also talk to the agent. If the property is sought after, then you may have to move through this process very quickly.

There is also an easier way to take back your Saturdays. Rather than subjecting yourself and your family to the Saturday Sprint, we will do all of the leg work for you. Our team can inspect multiple properties in multiple locations, eliminate the unsuitable ones so that all you have to look at are the very best ones.

Want to know more? Click Here to find out more about how we can help you.

Call us or send an email to receive more information and a quote.

	Enquiries@propertypursuit.com.au
	1300 726604 or +61 7 3177 3399

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To talk about your own plans for 2017, contact one of our passionate Property Pursuit Buyers’ Agents today.