Even though you are nearing your 54th birthday, you still find it hard to believe the perfect real estate opportunity you found nearly 20 years ago. Although you and your husband bought your first home when you were first married, it was not until a few years later that you caught the break that you needed. You were pretty happy in the small three bedroom, two and a half bath split level home. Your realtor, however, called one day and indicated that she had a house that she was certain you would want to look at.
The nearly 3,500 square foot two story home that included a walkout basement, four bedrooms, and four bathrooms backed to a park with walking trails, playground equipment, and a sledding hill. The house in a very new neighborhood was available at a great price, and the realtor already had a possible buyer for your first home.
And while all of these details sound great, the understanding of the real opportunity presented itself six months later. While the farmer with land behind your firs home sold his property to a storage unit developer. By the end of the year, the backyard at your first home that you no longer owned was transformed into rows and rows of lighted storage units. Your new property, however, benefited from a far better announcement. The school district where your new home was located announced that they would be building a new elementary school a mere eight blocks from your new home. And while the property value at the first home dropped when the storage units were built, the property value at your new home skyrocketed with the announcement of the new school.
Real Estate Decisions Often Depend on the Most Basic Buyer Choices
Location. Location. Location.
It is an old saying, but in the world of real estate few things matter more than the location of the house or property that you buy. You can, for instance, find a great home with all of the newest and most popular upgrades, but if that home sits on a busy intersection or next to a loud railroad track, the value of the home will be diminished. Even when people are looking at rental properties, the rental amenities may not be as important how close that apartment is to work and school.
An addition to considering the location of a property, many home buyers want to make sure that the house they buy has a comparable value to the other homes in the neighborhood. For while no one wants to pay too much for the real estate that they buy, they also want to make sure that they do not have the most expensive home on a street or in the subdivision. Someone who is looking for a country club lifestyle, for instance, wants to make sure that they buy the home that falls somewhere in the bottom of the property value scale. Again, making the comparison to renting, even short term leasing options are more attractive when you know that the monthly payments you are making are comparable to the other residents.
Another important factor in the decision to buy a home is the issue of privacy. The decision to live in a gated community, however, may feel like the safest decision for a retired couple who wants to do a lot of out of town traveling, while the safest decision for some families with young children is to live on a cul-de-sac with no busy drive through traffic.
The average Americans move 12 times in a lifetime. And while many of the moves early in life may be inexpensive rental locations, as people get older they tend to move toward larger investments in pricier homes. to get an idea about the size of an investment that is needed between renting and buying, it might be good to make some comparisons, For instance, financial advisers typically recommend that renters can spend up to 30% of their monthly income on rent, but homeowners need to make a more substantial investment. After saving for a 20% deposit on a down payment, homeowners often still invest 25% of their monthly income on a house payment.
