Real Estate

What To Look For When Buying a House (Hint: It’s Not the Color Scheme)

What To Look For When Buying a House

Let’s say you’re looking to buy a new home. Now, let’s say you’re transported into a home that you fall instantly in love with. It has the perfect colors; it’s the right size, it’s the right, well, everything. Should you buy it? No, absolutely not. This home might be the one that’s right for you, but it’s much too early to tell that yet. When it comes to buying a home, you have to look at much more than just the surface factors. Below, we outline five things you need to think about before buying a property.

Knowing the Neighbors

A house isn’t independent at all: it’s actually completely dependent on its location. A 12 room mansion would be completely worthless if it were located in the middle of a desert, for example. As such, you need to know the neighborhood in which you’ll be buying nearly as much as you know the property. If you’ve never spent time in that part of the world, then you shouldn’t buy the property: it’s as simple as that. If you have a good sense of the place and what life there is like, then you’re good to proceed.

Behind the Scenes

The color scheme, style, decor…all these things can be changed in a matter of days, with little expense involved. The real worth of a home is in how it’s doing behind the scenes; whether it has any big problems that will be costly to resolve, either now or in five years from now. Before buying anywhere, it’s crucial that you have a real estate inspection conducted. It might flag up some big problems that could have been easily avoided if only you’d known about them in advance.

For the Children, For You

Now, we don’t want to get too personal, but…what’s your long term plan? If you’re thinking of having children in a few years, then suddenly your home isn’t just about what’s right for you. It’s about whether it’s suitable for children. It’s about your family plans, but also generally about your long-term life plans. It might be that buying a house doesn’t really make sense in the grand scheme of your plans fo life.

What’s Important To You?

Don’t just fall in love with a property, think about the matters that are important to you. If you value gardening (or at least see the value in being able to sit outside during the summer months), then holding out for a property with a garden would be the right choice. You need to make a list of priorities, deciding the factors that you hold dear, and doing your best to accommodate them.

Look: Inside Your Head

And finally, the last place to look: your head! And for sure, not your heart. Buying a house is a big, expensive ordeal, and it’s just not a suitable activity to let your heart rule the decision making. Proceed with your head (and OK, just a hint of the heart), and you’ll end up in the right place.

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