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THREE - Talk to People in "Your" Neighborhood
DO...
• Spend a day in the neighborhood you're considering. Walk the streets. Meet the people. Find out what services are nearby. Take notes.
• Attend open houses. Better still, map out plans to attend a number of open houses in your neighborhood of choice. This is a good opportunity to get a sense of what a particular neighborhood offers. You can ask questions about the neighborhood, about the people in it, the quality of schools and the availability of resources. And, you can overhear other potential buyers' questions.
• Buy local newspapers and research the happenings in the neighborhood. Check in with Chambers of Commerce and town halls. Is a property tax cut override looming? Have SAT scores in the town just fallen to a 10-year low? Will they be cutting off sanitation services to pay for a new highway on-ramp?
• Go online and visit Web sites about the town/city/neighborhood. Look into message boards and chat rooms catering to a particular community. Local newspaper Web sites can be a good place to find these.
• Investigate home sales and property values. Do properties in the neighborhood or town turn over frequently? Are house prices going up or down? This may be hard to determine without the help of a real estate agent, but you can check your newspaper's Sunday real estate section to start.
DON'T...
• Assume that your dream neighborhood is the same at night as it is during the day. In an urban neighborhood, a quiet commercial street can take on a completely different personality at night. Or, you may learn that your prospective next door neighbor likes to listen to head-banging music from the time he comes home until the time he goes to sleep at 1:00 a.m.
• Think that sellers or residents will tell you every hidden secret about a neighborhood. They won't. Spend time there; listen and observe.
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