Location, Location, Location. The oldest cliche in real estate. How does one determine the real costs associated with the location of a home purchase? It is one of the most common, and challenging, aspects of satisfying home buying needs.
She wants new. He wants close in. To get new means living farther from work. To get close to work means buying a house which may need repairs, or is smaller. But there is more to this decision process than how many minutes a day are spent on the road commuting and whether the house has a 2 or 3 car garage. With the increased cost of fuel, it is now imperative to consider what the commute costs in real dollars.
We have found a pretty handy commuter’s calculator that we have integrated into the PenguinHomes.com website. [Remember, if the music bothers you, click the “Off” button above our photo on the right.] The link was sent to me, unsolicited, by a very creative real estate agent located in Boulder CO. He and some talented programmers cooked up this elegant bit of software to help home buyers answer one of the most difficult decisions in real estate: what is the true cost of location?
This calculator is a little tricky to use at first. After entering the loan amounts for “House A” and “House B”, the current fuel price and your interest rate, click the “add” button. The next screen allows you to input your commuter details. Then click “add/edit” and you will return to the first screen where you will see that “Commuter 1” has been added. You may add additional commuters in the same way. After entering the required information, click “calculate” to see the results.
Please let me know what you think of this utility by adding your comment(s) to this post.
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