Just Around the Bend

When buying a home, you want to make sure you’re searching in ideal areas. An average family, for example, will look for areas that have short commutes, parks, and schools that are in the area of the home that they are touring. An average older person, however, would be looking for places that are nearby places of worship or recreational centers for their quieter lives. Things like these make all the difference in your home buying choice that can also add on to the price of the homes. Making small sacrifices will most likely be a part of your overall decision but will be completely worth your while, assuming that they would only be small sacrifices.

There are also certain things that you should avoid when buying. Areas that surround water treatment plants aren’t too great, the smell can be too overwhelming some days. Being too close to train stations and yards including subway underpasses can be noisy and dangerous for anyone. You’ll probably want to avoid Fire Houses, Hospitals, and Police Stations as well. Even though they are keeping us all safe, it’s not very appealing to live where sirens will be sounding. Busy highways and streets are a huge factor when you’re making a home buying decision. If it makes you’re commute a little less dreadful then that’s ok, but you really shouldn’t live near them when you have smaller children. The streets are not regulated with “Watch For Children” signs and they’re bad news for many accidents. Searching in slummier areas should be something else for everyone to avoid, too. You never know what types of people are lurking in alleyways and on quiet streets so avoid being near clinics and bars.

Another factor is weather. Does it rain a lot? Are there worse storms that blow through this area? Do Tornados come through here? Depending on the lifestyle and home that you are looking for, weather can be very important to avoid or strive for in an area. You could be looking at a very nice home with a really ideal price but did you ever stop and think that weather might hit this area very hard? Lots of rain can affect your basement and sewage. If the home floods too much due to weather conditions, it’s not really worth the buy.

You will also want to avoid looking in places that make you go over budget, staying at least $10,000 under your budget should allow a little wiggle room for any possible changes that might need to be made. Looking in newly renovated homes will not please you in price so look at home that could have the carpet torn up to reveal a rustic hardwood or kitchen cabinets that could be painted over easily.

I found a checklist the other day that will be useful when looking at homes. You can print it off or you can hire me as your agent to get as many as you need and as you tour homes, you can write down what applies to the homes.

You’ll want to make several copies of this checklist and fill one out for each home you tour. Then, comparing your ratings later will be easy: http://www.sarahlunn.com/account/3fb6b08b597d28e4/pdfs/checklist.pdf