When house hunting, home buyers may have the practice of assessing the locality around their potential new homes to get an idea of what it would be like living there. There are many things about the local town that can influence the buying decision. For this reason, it pays to know what to look for in a potential town so that a home buyer can make the correct decision. Here then are some tips on how to scout a potential town.
Walk Don’t Drive
Very often, you will drive to your potential new home and probably around the immediate neighborhood to get a feel of the amenities that are available in the locality. While this is ok, what most home buyers don’t do is to take a walk around. Walking helps you notice things that you otherwise would not see while driving. This includes getting a feel of how friendly the neighborhood which will be very important when you start living there.
Check Out the After-School Vibe
Most potential homeowners often visit their target properties during working hours which often coincide with school hours. For this reason, home buyers never get a feel of what the after-school vibe in the neighborhood feels like. It is immensely useful to hang around after school (or purposely visit the town after-school hours) to get an idea the kind of environment that your child will have to live in. Are there friendly kids heading home from school or hanging out in the mall? Visiting a town after school will answer this question for you.
Sign-up For An Activity
Walking and driving around a town may be good ideas but they don’t really allow you to interact with your potential neighbors as closely as you will when you move in. For this reason, it is helpful to take your interaction with your potential neighbors a notch higher by attending a local event or signing up for an activity. Events that you could attend include religious activities (church, mosque etc.) or signing up for a yoga class. This will allow you to interact closely with your potential neighbors and you may even learn stuff about your new neighborhood that your realtor might not have mentioned. Best of all, it is a great way to gauge how friendly the neighborhood is.
Go Shopping
Shopping is an integral part of modern living and the ease of doing this is play a major role in the quality of life that you can expect from the neighborhood. If the shopping center is close enough, you can try walking from your potential new home to the supermarket (or drive if it is not close enough). Get a feel of what is available, what is not, and then decide if you can live with it. For example, you enjoy dining out frequently and there are no such restaurants in the town, it can be a factor in deciding if you want to move in or not.
Scouting your potential town can give you valuable information about how comfortable you will be in your new home. To find great properties in New Jersey, talk to us at NJLux.com, a leading realtor in New Jersey.
