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Starting your house hunt online is a great way to narrow down your options and cut down the time you spend driving to showings.

#8: Master the art and science of the house hunt.

Some buyers are easy -- beds, baths, square feet, location -- check, and done. Others are, uh, let's say a smidge more particular. I've had buyers bring compasses, crime scene-style outlines of every piece of furniture they own, and even their dogs along for input on every property in their effort to find the right one. Some folks buy the first home they see and never look back, while others don't feel comfortable picking a property until they've seen dozens of homes over months or (heaven forbid!) even years.

House hunting is as much an art as it is a science; there's no one way to find the right place that will work for every buyer. Though house hunting experiences are about as diverse as house hunters are, there are a few strategies every homebuyer should harness to achieve whatever they define as house hunting success.

Cultivate clarity up front. If you aren't clear on what you want, you will never be able to clearly communicate your vision to your Realtor, mortgage broker, inspectors and the other professionals whose job it is to help you manifest that vision. In addition to getting real with yourself about your priorities for the process (i.e. how you will define a successful house hunt), before you start seeing homes is the time for you to create a clear, written vision of what you want your life to look like after you buy your home.

Don't start with things like bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet; instead, sketch out what you want your life to look like in the new home, addressing things like:

• who lives with you;
• what you do for work, how much you work and where;
• what you do in your leisure time (e.g., stroll downtown to shop, have dinner parties or work on the house); and
• how you get to the places you need to go.

From there, it's an easy path to describe the sort of property that will get you as close as possible to your personal edition of the life fantastic.

Get pre-approved well in advance. Once you see a $500,000 home, you're going to hate the $300,000 ones you can actually afford. And vice versa -- why despair that you can't find a home you like in your price range before you even know precisely what your price range is?!

Be a smart e-buyer. The California Association of Realtors found that e-buyers -- buyers who relied on the web as a primary homebuying resource -- spent about a third of the amount of time driving around looking at homes as traditional buyers.

Smart e-buyers use sites like FrontDoor.com to prepare for and narrow down their house hunt. Before you ever get in the car to view properties:

• educate yourself about real estate transactions and mortgage options;
• research cities, neighborhoods, property taxes and school districts;
• narrow down the architectural styles that appeal to your personal tastes; and
• learn what sort of home you can buy at various price points in your area.

Keep the deal-breakers to a minimum. Minimize the number of home features you absolutely exclude. Talk with your Realtor about your vision of home and your absolute must-haves, then give her as much flexibility as possible in showing you homes that may align with your vision, at least until you've seen enough homes together that you know she understands what does and does not work for you. Remaining as open as possible allows you to benefit from your Realtor's experience with unconventional, counterintuitive or non-obvious home/lifestyle matches.

Check your manners at the door. Remember what your Mom used to say about not saying anything at all, if you can't say anything nice? Forget that rule of thumb, at least for the duration of your house hunt. Don't hold back in fear you might offend your Realtor -- it's not her home! If you see things you really dislike and don't say a word, chances are you'll end up seeing those features again. If you let her rip, your Realtor will grow increasingly more effective at screening properties for you, and your house hunting tours will become increasingly filled with homes that might actually fit the bill!

Provide clear, detailed feedback. Like the cheerleaders say, "Be aggressive -- B. E. Aggressive!" Tell your Realtor what you dislike about the homes you view, but don't just turn up your nose and sigh. Be detailed and constructive when you tell her just how you feel about each place you see, both pro and con.

NEXT: #7: Avoid buying a lemon >>

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