Shopping for a new home can be really time-consuming. Between browsing house listings, going to open houses, and making offers, you can spend many hours per week on this endeavor. What if you don't have that much time to spare? Does that mean you can't or shouldn't look for a home to buy? Not at all! Here are some ways you can save time when looking for a home to buy.

Make sure your real estate agent knows you're short on time.

When you are first meeting with your real estate agent, let them know that you are really busy and short on time. If they know this going on, then they can operate in a way that saves you time. They can plan to have a call or email exchange with you once a week at the same time, rather than communicating haphazardly throughout the day. They can also make sure that they only send you homes that fully meet your criteria so you don't waste time looking at homes that were never going to be "it."

Set your criteria clearly from the get-go.

Someone with more time might look at a few homes, get a vague idea of what they want, and then refine that idea as they look at more homes. But when you're short on time, you don't want to spend time looking at homes you were never going to buy in the first place. A more time-efficient approach is to set your criteria early on. Decide how many bedrooms you need, what square footage you require, whether you need a fence, what neighborhoods you're open to, and so forth. Then, only look at homes that meet all of those criteria. You'll end up looking at fewer homes overall.

Plan one big day to look at many different houses.

Set up a day or two with your real estate agent on which you look at as many different homes as you can. This will save you some driving time as presumably many of the homes will be in the same neighborhoods. It will also make it easier for you to compare and contrast various homes since you will have seen them back-to-back while the others are still fresh in your head.

Looking at homes for sale can be time-consuming, but there are ways to save time. Keep the tips above in mind as you navigate this process with your real estate agent. 

To look at homes for sale, contact a local agent.