It’s no secret that a home is an expensive purchase. That’s why as much as possible, you want to take things slow and think through your decisions well. This usually means following one of the many clichéd advice of real estate agents: See your target home several times before making an offer. It will take a stall on the home-buying process, yes, but it will ensure that you’re putting your money on a real valuable asset you won’t regret purchasing later on.
Why Multiple Viewings
It seems like an unnecessary step to view the home that you want to buy multiple times when clearly it has already ticked everything on your must-have list. It may just be the reason someone in the market can beat you to purchasing this very nice property. Here’s the thing, though: You want to do this crucial step to really know if the home you have fallen in love with at first visit is indeed the home you would want to live in under different circumstances. What does this mean?
Let’s say, you visited your “dream home” at noon and found nothing but a quiet, peaceful neighbourhood. That could change in the early morning or late at night. In the morning, there could be swarms of school buses and cars in front of your house, dropping off children at a nearby school. This would keep you from achieving that peace and quiet of pancake breakfasts and the hassle-free traffic on the way to work. In the evening, you could have neighbours who love to party up until the wee hours of the morning, their disco music blasting and strobe lights darting through the walls of your bedroom. On the weekends, there could be a park that’s being reconstructed nearby, which would never be good for your weekly meditations in the backyard. You may never be able to see all of these and make good decisions when you just settle on that one-time visit. Thus, if you’re looking for house and land packages in Melbourne’s West, real estate agents highly recommend going to your target property different times of the day and days of the week. That way, you can have a good sense of what it’s like living there.
What to Watch Out For
As much as possible, you want to cover mornings, afternoons, and evenings when visiting a property. In the morning, you want to assess the traffic situation in the area. Is the commute stressful? Are the roads too congested because of students and office workers rushing to schools and offices? Try to take a test drive. Time your departure time from the home to your workplace and see if it’s bearable. Take public transportation, too, just in case. You should also look out for any road work or construction during this time. In the afternoons, take note of the atmosphere of the community, as this is when the time the children and parents go back home. What do families do? Allowing children to play in the backyard? Hosting barbecue parties for other neighbours? In the evenings, you should be able to evaluate the level of security and peace. Do you feel safe walking around the streets? Are there roaming guards? Are the neighbours respectful of people’s rest? These are the questions to ask yourself when visiting your dream home at different times of the day.
Again, in the home-buying process, it’s wiser to take things slow. Haste is waste, remember. Make sure to drop by the property you’re eyeing multiple times before making that offer.
