Now that you know the price you can afford and the approximate payments per month, it's time to determine where you want to live, what type of property you are looking for, or what size home you get for your money.  Schedule appointments with your Buyer Agent, attend Open Houses with your Buyer Agent and receive daily updates on available properties.  Your Buyer Agent will work with you, and focus the search to your needs and wants.

You may already know where you want to live and will make concessions on size, condition or style home.  You may know what kind of home you want to buy such as a single family rather than a condominium or a multi family house and may be willing to live in one of several communities to make sure you can find it.  The most important action you can take once you know how much you can afford is to schedule a FREE one hour consultation with a Buyer Agent. 

Your agent should be well-versed in identifying your true needs, capabilities and desires and helping you prioritize them and understand your options better.  This will help you design the rest of your plan to find your dream home. 

Following your meeting with your Buyer Agent, and equipped with your pre-approval letter, you should start to get a feel for value and the available inventory in the markets you are interested in. 

The best ways to become familiar with what is available is:

1. Attend open houses - If available, you should attend open houses with your Buyer Agent.  If your agent is not available, you want to make sure you notify the Listing Agent as to who your Buyer Agent is.  This will help ensure you have no problems with representation if or when you want to make an offer.
2. Schedule private appointments - Not all homes have open houses, especially every week.  It is usually necessary to have your Buyer Agent schedule private appointments for both of you to go and view homes.

3. Daily Market Updates - In the old days, pre-internet, buyers would do a "drive by" to decide if they liked a house's location and exterior appeal enough to warrant a look at the inside.  In more modern times, with the advent of the internet and digital photos and virtual tours, it's now not necessary to leave your home or your office.  Your Buyer Agent should register you to receive FREE Daily Market Updates so you can be among the first to learn about new properties coming on the market, any new price changes, and any other properties that had been taken off the market and put back on the market.