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For buyers that are planning to or purchased with the intent of owner-occupied housing, how familiar do you need to be with an area in order to buy there? Is living the same city a requirement before purchasing? How about the same neighborhood?
I know some people suggest renting in an area for a year before buying there, but I really think that depends on your definition of an area. If an area is considered a neighborhood, some medium sized cities have 50-100 neighborhoods in them.
Lately, I've been considering the idea of living in a bunch of different neighborhoods. Move to a different place each month until you really grasp the nature of an entire city and which pockets you like the best. A lot of your experience probably depends on where you work too. I don't think getting a new job every month would be easy.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Moving is too big an expense, time investment, and general stress generator to do a double (or more) move. There is plenty of data available now in addition to locals comments here on CD. After sufficient research a week on vacation there should provide ample time to talk to local residents, visit schools, police department, go to stores and restaurants, and drive through neighborhoods at several times of the day and night.
Our current search for moving when we retire is underway 3-4 years in advance. Fortunately we will be staying within two hours drive so it's easy to go visit the places that come up high on the list after the research. It's pretty amazing how many places seem good on paper (internet) but fall flat in person.
Because the Dallas metroplex is HUGE with many good school districts, lovely areas, good shopping areas, etc., it is very often suggested to new-to-Texas people to rent first while they explore the city. The wrong decision could have your one-way commute close to 90 min.
It depends on your personality and sense of adventure. Some people are okay uprooting themselves if they choose the wrong neighborhoods. Others find that all sorts of agony. I personally would rent for at least a couple of months while I learn a new city.
No way I would move every month trying out new neighborhoods. That sounds like torture to me, but your sense of adventure might make it a good experience for you.
I took a risk and looked for homes 150 miles/2 hours plus. from where I lived so I was looking at homes without knowing the areas. I could see if the areas were run down or not but the first home I almost bought was not an ideal location, luckily that fell thru early on because they would not turn the water on for inspection.
Then the second home fell thru becuase of a low appraisal but I would have been fine there. It wasn't a bad area. I am happy where I ended up buying, and it was the best area. I could not afford any home in the area where I lived before and I got in at the tail end of starter home prices and if I waited I would have been priced out of the market and would have had to move farther north.
Ideally you want to live in that area and get familiar with it. I did live in the area as a month to month thing but I was only living there about a month before I found the home so I wasn't really familiar with it. In the end i got very lucky. My hope had gone up in value anywhere from 35% on Realtor.com to 60% or Redfin in 2 years. I know that it has because older mobile homes on private land are selling for more than I paid for my house. Also I called my mortgage lender about getting my escrow refund for an over payment and they offered me a home equity line of credit.
For buyers that are planning to or purchased with the intent of owner-occupied housing, how familiar do you need to be with an area in order to buy there? Is living the same city a requirement before purchasing? How about the same neighborhood?
I know some people suggest renting in an area for a year before buying there, but I really think that depends on your definition of an area. If an area is considered a neighborhood, some medium sized cities have 50-100 neighborhoods in them.
Lately, I've been considering the idea of living in a bunch of different neighborhoods. Move to a different place each month until you really grasp the nature of an entire city and which pockets you like the best. A lot of your experience probably depends on where you work too. I don't think getting a new job every month would be easy.
Very important imho. I don’t think you need to live in the exact city, but definitely in the same county. You should know the area you’re moving to. The internet has made it easier with being able to research crime and test scores. My sister in law bought a home near Seattle and she took a trip there and picked a safe area with new development. She had research the crime rate and school test scores. She lucked out on that purchase, it paid off greatly.
There was a neighborhood that I researched and it’s heavily in demand. Turns out I like a more low key area instead. I would have been fine moving there, but my area is more relaxed. So even if you move to an area with all the amenities you want, you made find you prefer another area instead.
Your plan of moving round to several different neighborhoods sounds unreasonable... it's not that easy to find landlords willing to rent month to month, and if they are, it's not usually the best places... not the best test of what buying would be like. But is it good to move to and rent in an area first? Maybe!
There definitely are culture differences still in different areas of the country. I've had many clients move here from out of state and be absolutely thrilled with what they found here. But I have had at least one major exception who hates the area. She's a regular here, she may see this and chime in, I don't know.
It's hard to predict what people might not like about an area, which things they'll have a problem with, and if you're shopping in the middle of winter, it's hard to remember to warn them about July fireworks... or know that they'd be surprised by a bit of rural gunfire, if they're used to city living. If you're shopping in the summer, it's hard to convey what it's like to be here in winter. I wish I'd warned our unhappy client about all the things she hates about life here, but I just didn't know.
So I'd say it depends on how adaptable you are... Even if you research an area thoroughly, it's hard to predict everything that might bug you. Even if you come and listen on Friday night, you won't know that the garage band next door practices on Thursdays... until you're here on a Thursday night.
One tip might to try to learn the area a bit more intimately than just asking questions on a forum like this where you'll get only a few opinions.... join the local neighborhood groups on facebook where people talk about neighborhood issues and crime and bad neighbors and lost dogs and community events and what people are arguing about... and just listen.
I am a non-risk-taking person who usually suffers from analysis paralysis before making a major purchase. This was definitely the case when purchasing a home. My husband and I knew the general region we wanted to buy, but we spent 6 years renting in different towns (we rented for 1 year per town) in an effort to decide where we wanted to buy. When we decided to buy our home, we narrowed it down to our 2 favorite towns where we had rented. But we couldn't find a house we loved, so our realtor recommended a neighboring town and that's where we ended up buying. And then we started a family. And that changed a few things for me that I hadn't anticipated. All this to say that I don't think my 6 year exercise of living in different towns was all that helpful. Renting is different from buying. Sometimes buying comes down to available housing stock. Needs change over time. It's probably just as easy to narrow down your budget, priorities (schools, access to amenities you care about, maximum commute, etc.) to a couple of towns that you think would fit the bill and then wait for the right house to come along where you can really see yourself living. As somebody who rented 6 houses before buying, I can say the time/energy/cost of moving that much was not worth it!
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