Finding a Perfect Home on PEI

PEI has so many beautiful properties to offer. There are tree-lined city streets, rolling, grassy acreages, and spectacular seascapes and riverfront properties. How do you find the perfect home and property for you?

Well first of all you have to of course know your own mind. You have to decide which category of PEI real estate you are looking for. Once decided then you have to know the features both of the land and home that would meet your needs.

There are a number of ways then to help fate bring you and the PEI real estate of your dreams together.

Start by telling everyone you know or meet about the type of property you are looking for. Very often people will know of homes that may suit you. Just recently I was offered a home that would have suited my needs simply because I mentioned the fact I was looking to one of my commercial neighbors a few offices down the hall. Unbeknownst to me he was working on the family home renovating it for sale and while he hadn’t yet finished I got the chance to buy it at a 10% reduction over what it was ultimately listed at

One of the most common ways to search for PEI real estate today is on the internet. You can use the larger sites such as realtor.ca or the corporate sites such as royallepage.ca: however you will find a lot of properties with good pictures and descriptions on individual realtor sites. Many sites give you the opportunity to search by parameters.

Even with the internet available you should still check out the local newspapers. Most have PEI real estate sections and most agents still advertise some of the homes that they feel have the most chance of selling or in other words represent good value. Many communities have other real estate publications and you should look for these at restaurants, gas stations, and convenience stores. Most are free and increase your chances of finding "your" property.

You should always include real estate drives n your search. Drive around in the areas that you are looking in and you will often see signs to properties for sale. The advantage is that you really see the location as it is instead of as how it was photographed. Check out all the local subdivisions in this way as well.

The final method of finding your dream home here on PEI real estate is to engage the services of one of the many fine real estate agents working here. Agents have access to their own version of the MLS database that offers them a great deal more information than you will see on the public version of the site. They can take your "wish list" and through a search of the database for the whole island, short-list a number of properties that meet your criteria. The realtor will then arrange a visit to each of these homes at your convenience.

However you set about finding your dream home, remember no home or property is perfect and don’t settle for less than what you want (provided you are realistic about what you can afford.