How To Choose A Neighborhood For Your First Home
Choosing a first home is a huge investment of both time and money. You need to make sure that you do not waste your money by choosing the wrong house or the wrong neighborhood in which to live, so it's best to take a great deal of time scouting out neighborhoods and choosing one that is right for your situation. Here are some tips for choosing a neighborhood for your first home in order to make the most of your financial investment.
1. Write Down Everything That Your Perfect Neighborhood Would Have
First, make a list of everything that your perfect neighborhood needs to have. If you want quaint coffee shops and artisan cheese stores, write that down. If you want good public schools in the neighborhood and lots of children for your child to interact with, write that down. If you want to be close enough to work that your commute is less than 15 minutes, write that down as well. Having all of these different factors on paper will help figure out what you truly want in a neighborhood, and help you decide what you can compromise on.
Once you have everything written down, start breaking down your entries into categories of deal breakers and not deal breakers. A deal breaker is if a neighborhood does not have something that you can't live without. Once you've divided everything into those two categories, put the list of everything you want in a list in order of priority, with the non deal breakers forming the bottom of the list.
2. Visit At Different Times of the Day
Next, narrow down the number of neighborhoods that are within a close enough proximity to your work that have the qualifications that you need. This should leave you with two or three different neighborhoods. Commit to visiting these neighborhoods four times each. Once during the day and once during the night on a weekday and once during the day and once during the night on a weekend. This will give you a sense of what the neighborhood is really like.
3. Listen
Finally, while you are spending time in the neighborhood, pay attention to the sounds that you hear. Make sure that you are going to be able to live with the noise level of the children outside, the cars on the street, or the nearby helicopter pad or train. Taking these factors into account allows you to make sure that you are going to enjoy living in the neighborhood.
For more information, talk to your real estate agent for suggestions of homes for sale in your area.
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