As we all know, one of the biggest purchases you will ever make in life is of your house. Bearing this in mind, if you do happen to make a mistake in this regard, it’s probably going to haunt you for quite some time.
This is the reason we have penned today’s topic, which is all about how to know a good neighbourhood from a bad one. We will now look at some of the ways you can do this, to ensure that everything is going to be in order as you make your big purchase.
Preliminary research on your potential neighbours
In truth, the thing that makes a neighbourhood bad is the people that live there. If there aren’t any problems in this regard, you are good to go.
This is where we are going to recommend a free person lookup service. As the name suggests, this is a tool which allows you to research about particular people that you enter into the system.
From this point on, you can quickly find information about those people living on the street. Do they have a criminal record? Are they a registered sex offender? These are all questions that can be answered and at least give you some peace of mind ahead of parting with your money.
Are there many houses for sale?
One sign that can suggest that people are looking to get out of the neighbourhood is if there are a lot of houses for sale. Of course, this might be mere coincidence, but if you’re finding that the number of “for sale” signs is surprisingly high you are right to ask questions and ponder whether or not it is the neighbourhood itself which is driving them away.
There are some areas of the country which do have quite high turnaround rates of residents. It’s worth mentioning that this is completely fine, but if an area is really struggling to attract “replacements” (in other words, for sale signs have existed for a long time) alarm bells should start ringing.
Making your decision based on gardens and cars
This final point might involve you making a few assumptions, but a lot of real estate agents believe that gardens and cars can tell a big story about the state of a neighbourhood. Are there a lot of old, and inexpensive cars in the vicinity? If there are, this can signal that there isn’t much wealth, which can often mean that crime can be an issue. It’s a generalisation, but food for thought at times regardless.
The gardens can also paint a vivid story of the people who reside in the area. If they are well-kept, it’s clear that people take pride of their neighbourhood. If they are not, you have to question just why this is the case. While the gardens are obviously only a small part, it can signal that they might also not take care of other elements of the neighbourhood and ultimately make it an undesirable place to live.
Again, this can be based on a lot of assumptions, but hopefully you appreciate the train of thought.
