Youve been living in that small apartment for a few years now. You have both worked hard and saved when possible. After talking it over, the two of you decide to buy your first house.

Now what do you do? Drive around your city. Decide which areas you would prefer. Are you going to be concerned about the school district? Is it important how convenient to shopping you are? It might be important to you to be near a tennis club, golf club or fitness facility. You have to decide what is important to you.

You have the areas narrowed down. Now it would be best to select an agent. Look thru the Yellow Pages and you will see hundreds listed. What are you going to do. My suggestion would be to talk to your friends. Ask about their experiences with realtors. If it is a lukewarm recommendation, forget it. You are looking for enthusiastic recommendations. Keep asking until you have a few possibilities. Then you can interview the candidates. Have questions prepared ahead of time. It may be the answers or it may just be a feeling, but after the interview you should be able to decide on your realtor.

You can now sit down with your personal agent and plan the attack. Let her know which areas you prefer. She might even have suggestions of other, similar areas. She will be able to present you with several choices. Now it is possible to narrow the search down by viewing possibilities on the internet. You can even see the inside of houses by using the Virtual Tour.

Once you find the house of your dreams, you will need to work with your agent on the deal. It will be presented to the seller and , if you are lucky, it may immediately be accepted. Congratulations! You are on your way to becoming a homeowner.