Choosing the Perfect Home: Part Two

This week we are looking at different things you may want to consider when purchasing or renting your next place. Of course, you will want to think about whether or not your new home will fit all of your belongings or if your house has enough bedrooms or bathrooms for everyone to be comfortable, but there are so many other things you should think about as well.

Last week we looked at the importance of considering if you can afford your new home, or if it puts your children into the catchment area of a school you want them to go to, or if your new home is close enough to your workplace that you don’t have a long drive or that you could perhaps even walk to it, if those things are important to you. This week we will be looking at how close your new place is too different amenities and what the atmosphere of your new neighbourhood is like.

Proximity to Amenities

When you are considering where you are going to live, don’t forget to take into consideration its proximity to different amenities. An amenity is a feature of a building or place that makes it useful or desirable. For instance, grocery stores, parks, and recreation centers are considered amenities because they all provide a useful service to people.

Just like you want to consider how close you live to your workplace so you aren’t stuck in traffic forever—if that is something that bothers you or because you don’t have a car—you will have to look at your transportation system and how you intend to get to and from the grocery store. If you are biking, you’ll need to consider how far you are comfortable cycling with groceries in your bag. Because, if you don’t want to be riding your bicycle for an hour with milk in your backpack, then you are going to want to live closer to the store.

If you have children—or perhaps a fur-baby—and don’t have a yard, you’ll want to consider how close your new home is to parks. Otherwise, every time your kids want to play outside you’ll have to drive somewhere so they can play.

And, if you do have dogs, you should also find out if your pet is allowed in the park off-leash or if they must be on their leash. If you like to let your dog run free, then one amenity you’ll want to look for is dog parks. (Check out our post for moving with dogs for more advice on that topic.)

Neighbourhood Ambiance

You might also want to consider the ambiance or atmosphere of your potential new neighbourhood. For instance, one aspect of the ambiance is how safe your new neighbourhood is going to be. One way for you to determine how safe your new neighbourhood will be is by looking at the crime maps that the different police stations put out. The maps show were different crimes happened and what type of criminal activity took place.

If you are just moving across town and not across the country, you can also visit your potential new neighbourhood a few times and not just to check out the place you are considering moving to. You could come at different times in the day to see what it’s like. For example, are most of the individuals who live there retirement age? If you are nearing retirement that might be a really great place to live and meet new friends.

But, if you are expecting a newborn or have young children or teens, they might feel out of place and struggle to find friends in the neighbourhood. That means you might spend a lot of time driving them out of your neighbourhood to visit their friends. You might also learn if the neighbour down the road blasts their music every night at your children’s bedtime.

That concludes our little two-part series on what to look for in your new home. Not one of those items had to do with whether or not the kitchen will fit your stove or if there are enough bedrooms for everyone to be comfortable. Once, once you’ve chosen your dream home, contact us to help move you there.