This is our 2 cents regarding the importance of checking out a neighborhood before you buy. The Seattle Times has an article July 18, 2007 about the importance of getting to know a neighborhood before making a purchase.
Isn’t it great just tooling around looking at neighborhoods on a sunny weekend day. Somtimes those days lead to a compulsive disaster: buying a house in an area with which you are not familiar. This doesn’t happen to many of us. Empty nesters often fall into the “Sunday Open House Trap”. Families spend time checking the schools, churches, daycare, shopping, etc. Empty nesters, for the first time in their lives unbound by such domestic requirements, somtimes mistake the freedom of their decision process as a green light to make a questionable purchase.
The problem isn’t the neighbor’s barking dog, or the restrictive neighborhood rules. The problem is the fact that the house was found on a Sunday, but the buyer never tested the commute on a weekday. Every buyer has the opportunity to use a 3 day neighborhood review contingency. This is the perfect time to get up early, drive to the prospective new home, then drive to work. You’ll be glad you did.
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