Choosing the Right Neighborhood for Your Next Move

Location, location, location is the old real estate cliche.  You can have a great house, but if it’s stuck beside a busy highway, an airport or even just the neighbors from hell you are going to be unhappy, and most likely, have a hard time reselling the home.  And even if your dream home is in a great neighborhood, a long commute to and from work or a time consuming bus ride to school for the kids, will soon become irritating and inconvenient.  To prevent a location disaster, check out our tips on choosing the right neighborhood for your next move.

Do a Drive By

Seeing a home in a listing is a whole lot different than doing a drive by.  Before you even make an appointment to see the inside of the home, be sure to take a cruise around the neighborhood.  Is there litter everywhere?  Are the neighborhors’ homes run down with questionable characters hanging around?  Just because the house you are eyeing up may be beautiful, your neighbors can be a deal breaker.  If all looks well during the day, don’t stop there.  Come back on a Friday or Saturday night – this is the time that parties will most often take place – you will want to know if your future weekends include constant loud music and boisterous-celebrators.

Get Your Realtor Involved

Even though your realtor may want to collect the commission from a property, they should still be willing to do some research for you.  Have them run the “comps” of the neighborhood to check out how is it doing in general.  The number of houses bought and sold in a short period of time can be a red flag that the neighborhood isn’t all it’s appears to be.  Your realtor also is privy to the statistics of whether the houses are increasing or decreasing in value with each sale.  Tap into their resources before you end up regretting your decision.

If you have school-aged children ask the realtor to look up the information on the local public school system.  Is the school around the corner already bursting at the seams with students so your child would have to be bused to a different one?  If so, this could be a deal breaker.  However, on the flip-side, if the city has plans to expand or build a bigger school near your new location, then this could be a big selling feature in the future of the neighborhood.

Future Plans?

While your realtor is doing some important research of your prospective area, have he/she check to see if the your intended neighborhood has any projects in the works.  This could include the addition of a cafe, businesses or a park.  Also be sure to find out about the public transit system – expansion is a positive sign and will increase the value of your home.

Once you have taken in all the above tips, you will be better informed to make a wise choice in your new location; however, even if all these check out to be positive listen to your gut instinct.  If you have a gnawing feeling that something isn’t right with the house or outlying area, then take time to evaluate why you feel this way….it may be telling you this isn’t the right move for you.