- Memo Recorder
When we are looking at houses, you will spend hours looking at homes over a short period of time. To keep them all from blending into one giant blur, we continually evaluate your top three. At the end of the day, you don’t want to ask yourself, “which house had that beautifully designed great room? Was it the same one with the small master bedroom?” You can remember what is important about each of the many properties that you saw by using the little tricks developed by real estate agents to help them identify the countless properties we see.
Carry a notebook with you when you are house-hunting and give each house its own page. At the top of the page, note the address and price. Write down the exterior construction, style and color, as well as the color of the living room carpet, walls and other major features that will jog your memory later. You can give the houses nicknames like “the ski chalet house” or “babbling brook hideaway.” Use anything to help you retain a mental picture of the property.
The iPhone 3GS (and other smartphones) have built-in voice memo recorders, and that’s another way to take “notes.” You can even send the memos to another decision maker who’s not on the hunt that day.
I also recommend that you use your smartphone or other digital camera to take pics. I always carry a laser/digital measuring device, so we can measure rooms and square footages as we go too.
Doing these things will enable you to recap the day and give me important feedback that can speed up your search for the perfect home.
