If you can, visit the neighborhood(s) you're considering at different times (weekend afternoon, a Tuesday night). You can get a feel for the type of neighborhood it will be - are there parties going on at night on the weekends? Are a bunch of kids playing the street on a weeknight?

Yeah, you can cruise open houses if you just want to get an idea of areas, but to look seriously, you need an agent.

Here's why:

Open houses are done for two reasons: to appease a seller, and to meet buyers. Only a very small percentage of homes sell from the open house. It does happen, but not as often as half-hour tv shows would like you to believe.

But buyers definitely visit open houses, usually before they have an agent. So agents sit open houses (their own listings, or another agent's listings) as a way to meet these folks and get them as clients. Unless you're the listing agent, you don't give a rat's patootie if the client wants to buy the house you're sitting in, or another house. Even if you are the listing agent... it'd be nice if they want to buy your listing, but you're more than willing to show them any other house they might like to buy too. A sale is a sale, whichever side of the deal you're on.

The good news in this situation is this: the agent sitting the open house is going to be more open than you expect, to hearing that the house you're in is not quite what you're looking for. And the smart agents will either have a stack of listings similar to that house with them, or will be ready to hop on the MLS to find some. They will often be able to show you those homes that very day.

Some homes might be great deals but bad open houses. For example, if it's too far inside a neighborhood, it probably won't be a desirable open house (for an agent) because people coming in off the street might easily get lost on their way there, so you end up with less traffic through the house. Or myriad other reasons along those lines. So not every house on the market gets held open, or if it does (to appease a seller), it might not be often. You don't want to miss those deals by only looking at open houses, ergo, you need to talk to an agent to get access to those houses.

Really good listings get into contract quickly. This can lead to some headaches with REO's (bank owned properties). Some REOs are listed waaay below the price they'll end up going for as a way to attract buyers, then they get multiple offers and get into a competitive bidding situation.

Now, areas like Perris and Hemet are probably moving at a different pace than Orange County, so this might not be as big of a problem, BUT, the advice remains the same:

If you like the property and you are comfortable with your offer price, do not waste time, write the offer. Be prepared between yourselves, know what it is you want so that you recognize it when you see it and are prepared to act quickly. Bad deals languish on the market, but great deals go quickly.

You can get an idea how hot a property is by looking on the kitchen counter (or whatever central drop spot might be most prominent in the house.) Agents who visit a property drop their card off for the listing agent to see they've been there. If there's a pile of cards, then a lot of people are looking at that house. All the more reason for a sense of urgency.

Talk to your lender about being prepared to write you a pre-approval that matches your offer. After all, you don't want to submit an offer for $250000 with a pre-approval that says you can go up to $300000 - that's just asking for a high counter-offer.

Sound advice!

More RE advice: Buy low, sell high

We just went through this. Definately get a good agent. Also you can sign up for services, either through your agent or another random agent, that will send you daily upates of new homes listed in your target area. You can specify area, price range, number of bedrooms etc. I found this superhelpful. Helps you see what's out there. Service was free. I also did a lot of my own internet searches. Helped to see what was out there, what the price ranges were things like that.

We had lots of issues as mostly Condos were in our price range. And lenders aren't currently condo friendly. They have a lot of specifications, depending on the lender, as to what they want to finance a condo. A larger owner occupied as opposed to renter ratio was one of the biggies.

We had one offer fall through because the condo association was going through a major assessment because of grading/drainage issues. It didn't affect the unit we were looking at - but no one would fund it anyway.

Also if you can find a good mortage broker it really really helps. The lenders are changing what they want from a buyer daily almost. Our closing had one small hicup but because I had a really good mortage broker I had no issues at all with the actual loan.

And if you can at all afford it - don't give notice on your current home until you have closed and have keys on the new one. I know a lot of people who have had things fall apart at the last second and if you've given notice you can end up in a huge mess.

Also make sure you know what the HOA fee or assessments are- if any. In the area we were looking at they run $350-400ish per month. That's for a condo but the homes can be $100-150. Just somthing else to keep in mind when you're thinking of what it's actually going to cost you.

Sometimes it is. It shouldn't be the highest priority reason, for sure, but if you're looking at two otherwise comparable houses, if house A is $5K cheaper than house B but would require spending $10K to change out floors/paint/cabinets that you hate, then if you buy house A you're either going to end up spending more, or end up living in a house you hate because you can't bring yourself to spend the $.

oh something else I saw on one of those firstime homebuyers tv shows. If you are approved for say $250K and the house you buy is $200K - you don't get the $50K difference to make improvements. Those have to come out of your pocket. (it was really funny when the broker explained to the guy how it worked, he was floored).

I'll take a few names - sure! They need to be FHA approved though. And thanks for explaining. This is all very confusing for someone with no experience buying houses.

When you're looking at homes that aren't empty and staged, remember that looks can be deceiving. Sometimes rooms look smaller without anything in them than they do with - which seems odd. And if the house is still occupied, it can be hard to see past all their stuff and imagine your stuff fitting in.

Oh, and look for non-forecloseures/not bank owned in areas where there are lots of foreclosures in such. Maybe the owners are like me and are willing to cut huge deals because the foreclosure competition is just too great.

Not to mention seller concessions like closing costs and repairs!