Better Home Tours Through X-Ray Vision
When you tour a home, you walk into a place for the first time knowing it might become your place. That’s a big deal, so it’s understandable that tours can also be a little overwhelming. How do you take it all in? David, a FlyHomes Tour Agent in Seattle, thinks of a tour as the first step to really understanding a home, inside and out.
“It’s more than opening the door and taking a look around,” he said. “We’re there to help you see things you might not necessarily see, and why they’re good — or not good. If we see a problem, we know what it’ll take to fix it.”
Superpowers & Other Ways FlyHomes Tour Agents Are Different
FlyHomes Tour Agents have a unique job. They’re different than other agents in three ways:
- They’re dedicated to tours. FlyHomes clients get a team with experts working on every step from touring to closing, so no one is distracted by other parts of the process.
- They’re ready on demand. Because their job is focused, Tour Agents are available to meet you within a couple of hours. Simply schedule from any listing on flyhomes.com.
- Many are licensed home inspectors. Everyone on the team is pursuing their license — not with a goal of performing inspections, but to help buyers go deeper when they tour homes.
David passed his home inspector test recently. He feels like he has x-ray vision. “You’re almost seeing through walls. You have an understanding of what’s probably inside because of where things like outlets and ducts are,” he said.
This superpower means a FlyHomes Tour Agent can tell you whether that electric range can be swapped out with a gas one (and how easily), if walls can likely be removed, and how tricky it would be to reconfigure a room’s layout.
Really getting to know a home early on is key to being happy with your purchase. Bank of the West’s 2018 Millennial Study found that 44% of millennial homebuyers report regrets about the home they chose: they feel stuck in one place, found damage, or realized the space didn’t work for them. A thorough home tour is helps avoid these issues — learning that a home isn’t right gets you a step closer to finding the one that is.
Marbles: Never Tour A Home Without Them
Our Tour Agents carry a backpack. We took a peek inside David’s to see what tools help him get to know a home. Along with things we expected — flashlight, tape measure — we found some gadgets we’d never seen before and a few other surprises.
One of the gadgets is an electronic measuring tool, a handy way to size up a space quickly. Another is an outlet tester that can be used not only to check if outlets are working and grounded correctly, but to verify that a switch controls an outlet. (Did you know an upside-down outlet is probably controlled by a switch?)
There’s also a compass for determining which way the home faces. The physical compass is often paired with an app that shows how sunlight will travel through the home.
The most surprising thing? Marbles! They’re a simple way to tell if your eyes are playing tricks on you or if a floor is sloping.
FlyHomes home buyers often tour multiple homes in a row, and are welcome to spend as much time as they need at each, so David also carries a few items meant to help keep everyone going:
- A battery charger for different types of phones
- Bottles of water and snacks
- A coffee card for when a caffeine break is called for
On-Demand Tours, On Your Schedule
FlyHomes Tour Agents work on demand, so you can go when it’s convenient for you. Same day requests are absolutely fine. Schedule from any listing on our site. Need a ride? We’ll send a Lyft (on us). All you need to bring is yourself — we’ve got everything else.
