The place you decide to call home can have a significant impact on your overall quality of life. Neighborhoods, like their inhabitants, have unique personalities and charm. With a little investigative work, you can find your dream neighborhood – a neighborhood that is perfectly suited to your lifestyle and that makes you and your family members feel at home.
When you’re searching for a home, begin by turning to me for help. I am knowledgeable about the local real estate market and I will be able to compare the homes you may be interested in with others in the area.
Once I have answered your questions, you can continue to do further research on your own. Get a comprehensive feel fro the area by driving through at various times of the day. Take note of noise levels and the overall ambiance to see how you feel about the area in relation to what I told you. Don’t be afraid to get out and walk around and even visit with residents who might be out walking around. Consult public resources and search online for statistics and reports, like school ranking and crime reports.
For many home buyers, understanding what makes one home more valuable than another seems a bit arbitrary. But the reality is that various features can add thousands of dollars to the value of a home. Some of these include:
Square footage: How big is the house?
Design: Is it a colonial, contemporary, or ranch?
Floor plan: How well do the rooms “flow”?
Quality of the neighborhood: Is it a highly desirable area?
Quality of the public school system: Whether or not you have children who will attend the schools, and what are the school scores?
Lot size, view and quality of landscaping.
How busy the street is: Houses located on “double-yellow line” streets are less valuable than those on streets less traveled.
I can help you understand why these factors are important and how best to gauge your home’s true value.
For America’s youngest movers, moving to a new home can be an unsettling experience. The excitement of meeting new friends or meeting new friends or decorating a new room is often outweighed by fears of losing touch with old friends or fitting in at a new school.
Here are some tips to help ease the anxiety children may feel when changing addresses:
*Include your children in decorating decisions for the new room.
*Assign your children a box to pack, or glassware to wrap, so they feel involved.
*Familiarize them with your new neighborhood, and locate some of your family’s favorite restaurants and stores. This will help your children feel more at home.
*Introduce yourself to your new neighbors before moving, and invite them and their children over to get acquainted.
The surrounding neighborhood is just as important because it can have a big impact on your lifestyle — safety, available amenities, and convenience all play their part, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
NAR also says you can keep your home value stable if you find the right neighborhood.
And you can find the right neighborhood by getting information direct from the best sources — rather than from second hand and often incomplete data bases professing to offer you one stop shopping for all your neighborhood checking needs.
* Make a list of the activities — movies, health clubs, churches — you engage in regularly and stores you visit frequently. See how far you would have to travel from each neighborhood you’re considering to engage in your most common activities.
* Check out the school district. The education department in your town can provide information on test scores, class size, percentage of students who attend college, and special enrichment programs. Even if you don’t have children, a house in a good school district will be easier to sell in the future.
* Check crime. Ask the police department for neighborhood crime statistics — not only the level of crime, but also the type — burglaries, armed robberies — any trends of increasing or decreasing crime and the location of crime.
* Look for economic stability. Your local city or county economic development office can tell you if income and property values in a neighborhood are stable, rising or falling, the percentage of homes to apartments. Apartments don’t necessarily diminish value, but they can indicate transient populations. Check for vacant businesses or homes.
* Consider resale value. A local real estate agent or trade association can give you information about price trends, inventories, selling times and other information that can indicate how well your home’s value will hold up.
* Hit the streets. Narrow your focus to several neighborhoods and do a “walk-through” of each. Pick a warm day when people are out and available for chatting. Look for tidy, well maintained homes, quiet streets and other indicators of neighborhood stability.
Brian Ripp, CRS, GRI, Broker – your Bay Area Realtor
www.BrianRipp.com serving Fremont, Newark, Union City & surrounding communities. Real Estate & Property Management.
