Blog Post: Home Buyer Bundle
Our Home Buyer Bundle: From Your First Showing to Move-In Day
Buying a house is a strange process when you think about it. You might spend 30 minutes to an hour walking through a home, then decide whether to spend several hundred thousand dollars on it, going off memory, a few photos on your phone, and the listing. Once your offer's accepted, the clock starts and the decisions come quickly.
That's a lot to keep straight on a short timeline, so we pulled our best buyer tools into one download.
It's called the Home Buyer Bundle, and you can find it on our Etsy Shop Here.
The Home Buyer Bundle is a set of three PDFs from Tech Inspect Home. Know Before You Close is a guide to the home inspection side of buying a house. The House-to-House Comparison Kit is a set of printable sheets for scoring and comparing homes while you tour. The Home Buyer's Toolkit is a printable set of worksheets for setting your limits, sorting your inspection report, and tracking everything through closing and move-in. It's written for buyers anywhere in the US.
What's in the Know Before You Close guide?
The guide walks you through what to expect during a home inspection, from start to finish. It covers how to set your limits before you tour, what you can notice during a showing, how to choose a home inspector, what a home inspection covers, how to read the report, and which findings deserve a closer look.
There's also a full chapter on older homes, from knob and tube wiring and older electrical panels to sewer laterals, lead, asbestos, and radon. The examples and photos come from real inspections around St. Louis, and there's a list of sources in the back so you can check the details for yourself. It's laid out for reading on your phone, tablet, or computer.
What does the House-to-House Comparison Kit do?
After a few showings, houses start to blur together. The comparison kit gives every house the same quick checkup, so you're comparing homes on the same things instead of gut feel alone.
You print a scorecard for each showing, check off what you notice in 10 areas like the roof, heating and cooling, electrical, and foundation, and give each one a score. Then you line up to three homes on a side-by-side sheet, with prices, the ages of the big-ticket systems, and every score in one place. The last page lists common red flags and who to ask about each one, whether that's an electrician, a plumber, a structural engineer, or your inspector.
What's in the Home Buyer's Toolkit?
The toolkit is the hands-on part of the bundle, and it's built around two workbooks. The Non-Negotiables Workbook helps you decide what would make you walk away before you fall in love with a house, using four simple questions: How much? Who pays? Who does it? How long?
The Inspection Report Triage Workbook takes a long report and turns it into a plan, with an 8-question decision tree that gives each finding a priority number. Around those two, you'll find a home buying roadmap, a negotiation log, a final walk-through worksheet, a countdown-to-closing checklist, and a maintenance register for after you move in.
How do the three pieces work together?
Read the guide first so you know what's coming. Fill out the Non-Negotiables Workbook before you start touring, then bring a scorecard to every showing and compare your favorites side by side. Once you're under contract, the rest of the toolkit helps you prepare for the home inspection, sort through the report, and keep track of everything through closing.
Who is it for?
It's made with buyers in mind. It also works well if you haven't bought a house in years, or if you're looking at an older home where there's a little more to keep track of.
Does this replace a home inspection?
No. The bundle helps you choose a house and stay organized. A professional home inspection helps you understand the house you're buying. Nothing in the bundle is a home inspection, and it doesn't review or interpret your report.
No matter how good a house looks during a showing, never skip the inspection.
Where can you get it?
The First-Time Home Buyer Bundle is an instant download on our Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4602263860/home-buyer-bundle-printable-toolkit.
And if you're buying in St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Warren, or Lincoln County, we'd be glad to handle your inspection too: https://www.techinspecthome.com/schedule-your-inspection-complete-home-inspections
The bundle is for general education and organization. It isn't legal, financial, or real estate advice, and your purchase contract sets your actual deadlines.
