Are you in the market for a new home? Have you been shopping around for quite a while now, but still have not found something that lives up to all your expectations? Are you nervous about such a large purchase and get cold feet whenever you start to make a decision?

Searching for a new home is an extremely stressful thing to do, and it is perfectly natural to feel afraid, worried, nervous or some combination of the three. However, there are plenty of ways to make the process easier. If you answered yes to any of these questions, read on for some expert tips to help you make the most out of your display home viewings! Doing so will help you make a better home choice and have peace of mind about whatever you decide.

Essential tips

1. Be sure to tour plenty of homes you do not intend to purchase. This will help you get a good feel for what is on the market. It will help you learn what is included in various price ranges, therefore making you better able to spot overpriced and underpriced homes. It will also help you learn your own personal style, your likes, your dislikes, and your subconscious expectations about how a great home should look and feel.

2. Don’t just check out the areas included on the guided tours. Look around, in every room, in every closet, in the cabinets, in the crawl spaces. It is easy to make even a poorly-built home look nice on the exterior level, but it is impossible to hide shoddy planning and craftsmanship in the unfinished areas. Keep an eye out for things that look poorly made, hastily put together or just plain sloppily done.

3. Know the right questions to ask. It is not necessary to read up on on the display homes you tour but have no intention to buy; but if you are serious about a place, you should definitely do your research. The best way to know the right questions is simply to think back on previous home – or apartment – shopping experiences. What do you wish you had known? What mistakes did you make? Learn from past experiences!

4. Take along a knowledgeable friend. It can be hard to find just the right type of friend to bring; you will need someone intelligent, patient, and trustworthy who will be able to give their opinion without overpowering your own thoughts and feelings. You may see a certain display home as absolutely perfect, but you can rest assured that an honest friend will be able to point out plenty of flaws or potential problems which you will also need to take into consideration.

5. Use display homes to give you ideas for your own place. Even if you are interested in designing and building your own unique place, display homes are great sources of inspiration! It is one thing to look at design ideas in books or on the internet; it is a different thing entirely to experience them for yourself. You may find that you absolutely adore certain architectural features or design motif after seeing them for yourself, even if you would never have otherwise considered them! Visiting display homes can open your mind to a realm of possibilities.

6. Visit the best display homes more than once. Seeing a home on different days, in different weather conditions, and even with different friends and a different pair of shoes on your feet can help you begin to understand how you would feel about living in it for the long run. Allow yourself the luxury of return trips to your favorite places.

7. Patience is key, both on a day-to-day and long term basis. When you visit a display home, spend as much time as you need. Let yourself get a feel for its unique character. Imagine yourself spending the majority of your time in it. Sit in the chairs and imagine yourself watching TV. Open the fridge and imagine yourself having a cool beer after a long day at work. The best home shopping happens when you take your time, move slowly, and do not rush yourself.

8. Most importantly, enjoy the process of shopping display homes! Make home shopping an exciting time in your life. Even if you feel stressed about it, if it keeps you up at night and makes you toss and turn in your sleep, try to let yourself have at least a little fun with it. Continue to remind yourself that as long as you pay attention to details, ask all the right questions, visit a wide range of unique homes and get the advice of people you trust, you are sure to make a fantastic decision!

Sara is an independent writer who works for the Home Loan Experts, mortgage brokers that specialise in finding loans for people in difficult situations. If you are looking for your next investment opportunity, try a display home. They help investors get finance to fund their display home purchase.

Hints and ideas on how to present your home for sale don’t have are not costly, nor do they have to take up a lot of time, however, a little creativity goes a long way. Listed below are some tips and ideas you can take advantage of when selling your home:- External presentation is so important, you have to make them stop and look:-

• Garden is hedged, clipped or pruned, lawns cut and watered
• Trees (if any) are pruned and shaped
• Path swept and leaf free

All of the above considered well before placing your home on the market, not the day before

• The word de-clutter, is such a very strong word when it comes to selling your home, I can’t emphasise it enough, there is nothing worse than a home spilling over heaps of unwanted and unattractive clutter in every room. Get Rid of it!
• All carpets vacuumed,washed and dried
• All floor tiles cleaned and free of any build-up of scum or grease
• Bathroom tiles in shower cleaned of soap scum and grime
• Any mould in the tile grout in the bathroom/shower recess removed by painting out with a grout pen, it works miracles
• The kitchen is one of the most important rooms and as such is critically examined by any buyer, so make sure your oven is sparkling clean, have it professionally cleaned if you can’t do it yourself
• Make sure all the electrical and gas points are all in good working order
• All your kitchen cupboards and draws are clean
• The pantry is neat, tidy and have clean shelves
• If you have a workshop, clean and hang as much as possible to create more space, everyone likes a big workshop. Likewise with your garage, clean concrete floors and free them of grease, place racks around the perimeter of the garage to create more space for your cars, this a huge plus for any potential buyer.

Decorating Oh, what an important subject, this is where your creativity comes in. With decorating it is important you are kept up with the current trends, and this does not mean you have to dramatically change things, but for instance, painting is a great way to update your home, so whilst it is an effort to do this, it is an inexpensive way of bringing your home up to date, and most potential buyers will love it because they don’t have the time to do it themselves.

• Paint any rooms that are looking tired. I would suggest all white rooms, because white always works
• Art on walls creates a wow factor! Beg, borrow or steal from friends if possible,or buy some blank canvases and add bright paint to them abstract style and hang. It is very surprising what you can create out of a blank canvas and by doing so you are adding colour to your room. Large rooms usually command large canvases or paintings. Keep your smaller paintings to the smaller rooms
• Always group small paintings, try not to separate them
• Mirrors are great items to create a perception of more space, strategically placed they can do wonders to a home, generally, it is better to have a large size mirror than small. Place them in entrance hallways, over mantelpieces. Large mirrors in small bathrooms make a huge difference.
• Place bunches of flowers or greenery from your garden in large beautiful vases
• Group candle holders or candles in any of the rooms and light them for more atmosphere
• Stack brightly covered large cushions on the floor where suitable, just to add more colour, co-ordinate the colours with the canvases on the walls
• Throw magazines on coffee tables or sideboards
• Group photo frames on dressers or sideboards. Dont have them placed individually
• Use throws over couches, if the couches are old, use them to hide any imperfections
• Turn all lamps on, even though it is daylight, this creates more atmosphere
• Internally, the home should smell fresh and clean, this is achieved by scented candles throughout the home,and obviously cleaning the home just before the inspection always leaves the rooms smelling fresh, however, keep away from using bleaches and any smelling cleaning products,it could feel like you are covering up unnecessary odours that maybe in the home!

In conclusion, follow this advice and your home open inspections will have everyone talking, which is what you want as an outcome to that successful sale. A beautiful presentation of your home when you are selling is a must and works every time, and most importantly it can be fun!