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It’s just a few days before Thanksgiving, and I’m sitting here thinking about the spring real estate market. It’s what happens when you spent a decade doing just that every year as a Realtor, and when you still write about the real estate market as a journalist. Spring is a time for rebirth, and it’s a time for buying a house because that’s when the majority of homes go up for sale all at once.

But unless you’ve been preparing yourself for buying a home, you’re not going to be ready for what’s waiting for you. It’s a jungle out there, my friends. If I were buying in 2025, here’s what I’d do to get ready now.

1. Get your financing in order

I know it’s pretty standard advice to talk to a lender, but it’s something you need to do now. Give yourself six months before you’re ready to buy, if you can. Your lender is going to see what’s wrong with your credit file or your strength as a borrower, and they can help you fix it, if you have the time.

This means you could get a better rate on your mortgage, possibly a better rate on any mortgage insurance, and as a knock-on effect, better rates for your homeowners insurance and other credit-based necessities for your new home. If your lender won’t help you become the best applicant possible with what you have to work with, find someone who will.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to a lender, check out this curated list of the best mortgage lenders. These are all financial institutions that we’d trust with our own mortgages.

2. Start downsizing

Whether you have a home to sell before you buy or not, things start to move very quickly once you have a house under contract. While you’re getting ready to look for a house, take the time to start downsizing your belongings. Got an old box in the closet you haven’t looked at in decades? Chuck it. Those pants that you know in your heart will never fit again? Donate them to a new home.

If you start to get extra belongings cleared out of the way before you start looking, you give yourself the mental space to really think through the whole purchase experience. Buying a home is very overwhelming, and trying to pack and move in the middle of it is a lot of added stress.

3. Figure out your list of nice-to-haves and must-haves

While you’re getting ready to look for homes, it’s really good to start figuring out what you want in a house. With as competitive as the market has been the last several years, knowing the house you want the moment you step foot into it is valuable. It can prevent you from losing a home that you realized was perfect a day or two later but someone else made an offer on overnight.

Don’t go to open houses unless you’ve already discussed with a lender what your budget will be. Shopping in the wrong price range can really set you up for failure by skewing your expectations.

But you can look at homes online to see how they’re put together, go to your friends’ homes and ask them about features they love and hate, and check the distance between your work and various neighborhoods that might make buying more affordable as you figure out what really matters to you in a purchase.

4. Start interviewing real estate agents

It’s never too early to start interviewing agents once you’re truly ready to consider buying a house. It’s important to find a real estate agent or Realtor (who are members of the National Association of Realtors) you really click with and that you feel you can trust with your biggest purchase. Have a list of questions and goals for your purchase prepared, too. A few good things to ask potential agents include:

• Do you have any extra certifications (such as that NAR membership)?
• How much experience do you have with this type of housing?
• How often do you work with buyers with the same needs as I have?
• How difficult do you think it will be to find the house I’m looking for?
• How do you handle challenges when they appear in transactions?
• What do you think is the most important thing for a home buyer to consider for their home purchase?
• Are you willing to educate me about the home-buying process as we go?
• What would your former clients say about you to their friends?

Obviously, you should have a conversation with your potential Realtor rather than just shouting questions at them, but these are a few to start with.

Spring is just around the corner — is this the year you’ll buy a home?

Whether you’ve been thinking about buying a home for years or you just woke up today and decided it was time, there’s a lot involved, and you’ll need to prepare. Spring is just around the corner, but it’s not too early to get ready. Beyond these things, you can also keep an eye on changing mortgage interest rates.

Knowing that you’re fully prepared for the spring buying season will help you move through the process with a lot less stress.

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