|
 In our first article in this series - First Time Home Buyer Part I, we walked you through a process that should be able to help you estimate how much you can afford to pay for a new home. The next step in the home buying process is to figure out exactly where you might want to live.
Location of Your First Home
There is a saying in the real estate industry that refers to the three most important things to consider when buying a new home - "location, location, location." While it's certainly true that location is important, it's not the only consideration you need to keep in mind.
In this article we're going to help you think through the question of location. As we start to expand on this concept you should quickly start to see that a home's location can be a very personal decision.
Geographic Locations of Homes
One thing we'd like to note is that location can really be split two ways - big location and small location. The big location decision is really all about a township or community. What attributes of that particular geography make it appealing to your lifestyle?
On the other hand we've also got the small question of location - Where do you want to live in a township? What features are important to you on the "street" level?
Figuring Out Where to Live
In this first section, we're going to be tackling the question of where to live at the township level. These are the features of a community that might make them more attractive to you or may come into play when deciding which real estate agents to work with.
Home Location and Schools
There are a couple of important things that you should consider when deciding on the location of a home. For example, a good school system never hurts if you already have children or are planning on having children in the future.
In most areas of the United States, the homes in better school systems will demand a premium price. As a rule, you'll also find that property taxes are higher in these townships because its citizens understand the importance of their school system to housing prices and consequently they are more willing to approve school budgets.
Commuting from Home
Another factor to consider when determining a new home's location has to do with your commute to work. At one extreme, there are people that drive over 1,000 miles each week just to get back and forth to work. There are also people willing to commute for hours each day by car or train. If you are a first time home buyer and think that doing a long commute is easy, think again. Some people can adapt to the commute, others never get used to it.
Commuting Affects Your Lifestyle
At the extreme, people quit their jobs or sell their homes because commuting eats into their day. Long commutes make it hard to get home in an emergency and can really stretch your work day. You need to think about your work / life balance. It might be nice to have a larger home away from the city where your kids can stretch their legs, but if you never get home to watch their soccer game is it really worth it?
Even relatively short distances can take you by surprise. Before you decide on which townships you might want to buy your first home in, take a ride during rush hour and see what the commute is like for yourself. This is a very easy thing to do and will save you a lot of heartache later on.
Other Home Location Considerations
One final thing you might want to consider when narrowing the choices on where you want to buy your home is to think about the community that you will be living in. Some of these things might sound silly, but they also might be important in picking a location. Here are just a couple of questions to think about:
- What kind of community resources exist that your family can take advantage of?
- Is there a community swimming pool, a recreation center, soccer fields?
- Where is the nearest hospital or medical center? Even first time home buyers that are healthy young couples do need hospitals if they are thinking about having children.
- How far away are major shopping centers, supermarkets, malls?
- How far away is your mother-in-law? Enough said.
Once you've gone through this thought process, hopefully you will have narrowed your choice of home locations to just two or three townships.
Location of Homes in a Town
Once you've figured out what towns or cities you would consider moving to, the next level of decision making has to do with the home's location at the street level. The questions you also need to think about are also at a completely different level - although they can be equally important as those that helped you narrow down your choice of towns.
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself when trying to figure out where you'd like to live in a town:
- Where are the townships schools located? How do children get to the elementary, middle and high schools? Do they walk to school or are their buses that pick them up? Do they need to cross a busy street to reach the school?
- Are there mass transit bus stops or train stations in the community?
- Where are the closest parks, recreational areas or playgrounds?
- What are considered the major thoroughfares in the community? What is the traffic pattern like in the town itself?
- Is buying a home on a busy street okay or would you prefer living at the end of a cul-de-sac?
- How far is the nearest police or fire station?
These are the types of questions that you need to ask yourself before you start to work with a real estate agent. This is also a good place to stop because in the next addition in this series for the first time home buyer, we are going to begin discussing how to work effectively with a real estate agent.
About the Author - First Time Home Buyer Part II
Copyright © 2004 - 2007 Money-Zine.com
|
Home 
