Go house hunting online
We all know that home delivery can change lives. But did you know that builders use the word “delivery” when indicating a new home’s readiness for its first owners to take possession?
This kind of home delivery changes lives even more than boxes dropped on the front doorstep. For starters, there’s no assembly required; the builder takes care of all of that for you. Plus, buyers can finish a good portion of the exploration and decisionmaking fun long before committing to a community or a house.
Got time to fill? Browse online. From thousands of highquality photos to videos and virtual tours, all builders showcase their communities, their home elevations and their floor plans online.
Tour online with friends and family
Use technology to your advantage and bring friends and family along on your virtual tours. By connecting one computer to your TV display, you can create a bigscreen TV effect and a new-home museum experience.
Invite others to join you on a video call initiated in your home using two or more computers or other devices. After choosing the order of builders, cities and communities to tour, choose a fun playlist for the background and start the conference; it’ll be a virtual, new-home field trip.
A few tips for planning your interactive, online adventure:
First up: Location, loan and lifestyle
Before scheduling your tours, make a list of the cities you’d consider for a new-home purchase. Research those cities and counties online to make sure they have the amenities you expect, and think in general terms about your budget.
If you’ll be applying for a mortgage loan, it’s wise to have an idea of your prequalification amount before touring homes in person. To keep your expectations realistic while browsing online, most financial institutions that offer home financing have an online tool for estimating your mortgage amount.
Enter terms such as “affordability calculator” or “how much house can I afford” in the search window to find the mortgage calculator, where you’ll anonymously enter information such as
current income, debt and the city where you want to buy. The resulting figure, in combination with your estimated down payment, will provide you a general idea of your price range, not including costs such as insurance or homeowners association fees.
Now that you have a general idea of your price range, search your desired cities for newhome communities that meet your lifestyle needs. When on a builder’s website, consider everything from built-in community amenities to floor plans, home style and home size. Enter each community on a map app and search for other local amenities relative to the location, including schools, shopping, recreation or other factors important to you.
Get down to browsing
Builders know that today’s buyers are too savvy to set foot in a newhome community without doing their homework. That’s why their websites are filled with colorful galleries featuring several images of most floor plans in each community.
Buyers considering communities where the model homes are complete can view photos of actual home elevations in their finished form.
Some builders offer “virtual” tours or interactive floor plans. Using those Web features, buyers can design the layout of specific rooms, create simultaneous scenarios in different home elevations and even see how furniture can be arranged in each space of a home. Other features include the ability to view rooms or outdoor areas with added options, such as California Rooms; lofts converted into bedrooms; first-floor dens converted into en suites; or even upgrades to counters, cabinets and flooring.
“We want a new house and we want it now!” If that’s the case, quickmove-in homes are a good starting point for your web searches. Also known as quick-delivery homes or move-in-ready homes, these properties usually come with convenient move-in dates and special financial incentives. Even more amazing, most quickmove-in homes feature upgraded designs or options that may cost you less than if you chose them for a home that hasn’t broken ground.
Remember social media: For even more up-to-date videos and photos, visit the Facebook and Instagram pages of the builders and communities that interest you. Some builders will even host live streaming tours of model homes or showcase fresh photo albums of new features in the community.
While browsing online, make note of questions for each builder about each community or property. You’ll be grateful you prepared yourself rather than walking aimlessly through model homes.
Email the builders
It may be too soon to get a date on the calendar for your first on-site model home tour or new-community site tour. But builders will welcome your emails; they will probably even email you additional materials such as digital brochures and videos you wouldn’t find on their websites.
Finally, make a list of which sites you want to visit first. The online experience is pretty impressive. There’s nothing quite like falling in love with your brand-new dream home. Happy hunting!