TIPS Look Who Is Shopping For a New House


 

 

If you have been following this blog for more than a hot minute, you’ve seen this living room before.

I grew up in this living room.

Oh, the stories these walls could tell.

Years and years and years of holidays and laughter and conversations and generations of family celebrations. 

About seven years ago, we bought back the house from the family that my mother had sold it to. After we moved in, we started renovating the rooms and spaces to make it our own.

This is our dream home.

This home is the keeper of the stories.

And now?

The next generation is starting their own chapter.

Can you believe it?

Look who is shopping for a new house.

A man and woman greet a couple at their front door. The man, wearing a light blue polo shirt and dark shorts, stands in the doorway holding hands with the woman in a navy dress who is smiling. The guests are dressed in casual clothing and stand outside.

 

A family of four stands together in a living room with dark blue walls and a chandelier. The father is wearing a light blue polo, the mother a dark blue dress, and the two children are casually dressed in light blue and white. They are all smiling at the camera.

 

These cuties.

Yep.

Zach and Courtney have been looking for a new house and guess who has volunteered to help them?

Us.

We’ve learned so much about finding your dream home and we want to come alongside them for the journey and help them find their own home in the DFW Metroplex. 

Oh, the discussions we’ve had. We’ve talked about the importance of location,things to look for that increase resale value, and that sometimes layout is more important than square footage. Are there HOA fees? What type of maintenance will the house need? And on and on and “new house question” on.

It’s been so much fun. They’ve been researching homes and they’ve shared so many homes with us over the past couple of months. This is a big decision, and as parents we want to be there for them emotionally, and well as help guide them through a process that can be a little overwhelming at times.

A hand holds a pen, poised over a spiral notebook with lined paper. The visible checklist, titled "Checklist for Our New Home," includes items like "Open Kitchen," "Large Kitchen," and "4-6 bathrooms." The background shows part of a blue and white patterned surface.

 

We have learned so much over the years with the homes we’ve purchased and we gave them our favorite pieces of advice:

  1. Location is so important.
  2. Don’t let things like paint colors, finishes, etc. detract from finding the home that you love. All those things can be changed (especially if you have parents who can help).
  3. Focus on the big things that you can’t change (or would be super expensive to change).
  4. Set a budget and stick to it. The perfect home will come along if you are patient and thorough.
  5. Have fun with the process. This is probably the biggest purchase you will make in your life—and you get to make it together. Enjoy the journey.
  6. Make a list of everything you want in a house together.

Then?

We started with a checklist of everything they were shopping for.

I think it’s so important to figure out exactly what Zach and Courtney want. We talked through everything and made a list.

The challenge has been to find a home with everything on their wish list in their budget.

Sigh.

DFW is growing so quickly and house prices are growing right along with it.

A group of four people are sitting and smiling in a bright living room. One person, standing, is placing a hand on the shoulder of a seated man. Two others are seated on a couch, engaging with the man in the armchair. Decor includes blue and white accents.

 

We had been searching for a couple of months when Opendoor reached out to me to partner with them.

I couldn’t believe it.

Talk about PERFECT timing.

Opendoor is PERFECT for a young couple like Zach and Courtney looking for their first home. Have you heard of Opendoor? It’s an amazing real estate company that makes the buying and selling process so easy.

(total aside: this post is sponsored by Opendoor, but the absolute joy I had working on this project with Zach and Courtney and all my opinions are completely my own.)

Let me show you how.

A group of four people, two men and two women, sit at a table in a well-decorated room with dark blue walls and patterned curtains. They appear to be happily engaged in a conversation while looking at a laptop. One man takes notes on a notepad. A chandelier hangs above.

 

1. You can browse homes online

We started our search online together.

You can click on your city and then add filters to find the type of home you are looking for.

Remember that list?

Here’s where it comes in handy.

A group of three people sit around a white table, looking at a laptop that displays a real estate website. The room has white furniture and walls decorated with blue patterned art. A vase with pink tulips is on the table, and a glass door is slightly open in the background.

 

Real estate listing for a brick house at 3806 Hickory Bend Dr, McKinney, TX, priced at $442,000. The collage shows the exterior view and interior living spaces, highlighting large windows and a fireplace. Property details: 3 beds, 2 baths, 2,547 sq ft.

 

2. Tour homes online

Here’s one of the homes we found online.

You can look at the rooms and see the layout of the house and what the interior and exterior look like.

One of the features that helped was side-by-side photos of the rooms furnished and unfurnished.

Four people are seated at a dining table, looking at a laptop displaying a real estate website. The room has dark blue walls, a crystal chandelier, and a vase with pink tulips on the table. White cabinetry with plates is visible in the background.

 

A real estate listing for a brick house at 9808 Southgate Dr, McKinney, TX 75072, priced at $445,000. It features 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1,873 square feet. Interior photos show a cozy living room with a fireplace. There is a "Take a tour" button.

 

We narrowed our search down to the first house I showed you and this house. The website was super easy to use and actually made additional recommendations for you based on your search.

Now?

We decided we wanted to tour the homes in-person.

A hand wearing a bracelet holds a smartphone displaying a real estate listing in front of a door with an electronic keypad lock. The listing shows a house for $420,000 on Hickory Bend Trail in McKinney, Texas, and includes details like 3 beds, 2 baths, and 2,371 sq ft.

 

3. Tour the house in-person with the app

I wish you could have seen our faces when we toured these houses.

The app was the EASIEST thing to use ever.

We didn’t need to meet someone there to be let in.

All we had to do was download the app and click the buttons on the houses we wanted to tour. The app allowed us to schedule a tour online by choosing our time.

(total aside: we had to change our times because we decided we needed pizza in the middle of our tours and it was the easiest thing to change our time, too.).

A young man and woman stand outside a brick house with a white door. The man, wearing a light blue shirt and shorts, looks down while the woman, in a blouse and white pants, faces away, seemingly about to unlock the door. A small light fixture is visible on the left.

 

Then, when we arrived at the house, we just clicked the button to open the door on the app and THE DOOR UNLOCKED.

It was SO EASY—-seriously.

Hello, 2024.

Shopping for houses just got so much easier. Want a little behind-the-scenes of our tours?

LET’S GO.

A single-story red brick house with a well-kept front yard, neatly trimmed bushes, a small tree on the left, and a concrete driveway leading to a double garage. A "self-tour" sign is posted on the front lawn. The sky is blue with scattered white clouds.

 

A woman with long blonde hair, dressed in a blue blouse and white pants, stands in an empty living room. She is gesturing with her hand toward a corner that has a fireplace and a TV mounted above it. The space has wooden floors and a ceiling fan.

 

A couple stands in an empty room with beige carpet, looking out of two large windows. The man is pointing outside, and the woman stands beside him with her hand on his shoulder. Sunlight streams in through the windows, illuminating the room.

 

This is the house we toured first.

It was a great starter home with three bedrooms, two baths. The backyard was a really good size and opened up to a small greenbelt area.

There was tons of natural light (on the list) with an open kitchen and living room (on the list), along with good-sized bedrooms and TONS of cabinet space. There was carpeting in the bedrooms and the closets were really good-sized, too.

The exterior was brick with a two-car garage.

Definitely a contender (and can I mention again how EASY it was to tour the house? We just closed the door when we left and it locked behind us).

A single-story house with a brick facade, gray shingled roof, and a two-car garage with a gray door. The front yard features a driveway, green lawn, and neatly trimmed bushes near the arched entryway. The sky above is partly cloudy.

 

A spacious room with wooden flooring, beige walls, and three large windows with blinds partially covering them. Two people stand looking out the windows. A part of a kitchen counter and a light switch are visible in the foreground.

 

Two women are looking into an open, empty closet. One woman with long blonde hair and wearing a blue and white striped top and white pants stands in front of the closet. The other woman, also blonde, is wearing a black dress and is opening the closet door.

 

A person with long hair, wearing a light blue top and white pants, stands inside facing large windows that look out onto green trees and bushes. They have a small beige bag draped over their shoulder.

 


 

A person with long blonde hair, dressed in a light blue blouse, white pants, and sandals, stands in an empty pantry or storage room with white shelves. The room has tiled flooring and a white door with wire racks attached.

 

Here’s the second house that we toured.

THEY LOVED IT.

It had almost every single thing on their list.

There was a large front room that could convert into an office along with a formal dining room. There were two bedrooms with a central playroom and another bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. The ceilings were high and there was tons of natural light.

Again, the kitchen and living room were open-concept with tons of cabinet storage and a large island in the kitchen.

But the thing that we all loved so much—the backyard with a porch off the living room overlooking the yard. There was even a peach tree in the backyard.

 

I remember looking for our first home together and having our parents help us.

We are the luckiest ducks in the entire world to get to share in Zach and Courtney’s journey and I am truly grateful to Opendoor for helping us along the way. Opendoor provides so much value to anyone looking to buy their dream home.

As soon as they buy their new home, I can’t wait to celebrate with them.

It’s been a truly incredible experience and along the way, I discovered something amazing.

The only thing better than finding your dream home…

…is helping your children discover theirs.

disclosure: this post was sponsored by Opendoor.

All opinions are my own.

Please see my disclosure page for more information.

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Posted On: August 1, 2024

Written By: KariAnne Wood

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