A friend of mine recently confided in me about some very unexpected things that happened to her after buying a home out-of-state. I asked her to write a guest post for my blog so that I could reinforce the importance of having the full story on any home – going beyond the obvious pitfalls most know to avoid. Read on to hear her story…
Do you really know what you’re buying?
Moving to a new area can be many things: exciting, scary, and just about every emotion in between. Whether you’re nervous or looking forward to the change, there are a number of things that you really need to consider before making the decision on the location of your new home. Take it from me, you don’t want to be surprised by an extraordinarily large water bill or find out that the postal service will not deliver mail to your home – after it’s too late. I know because it happened to me.
As I mentioned, one thing you really need to investigate is your collection of expected monthly bills. What are the average utility bills for homes in the area? Are there HOA dues that you may be responsible for? You may focus heavily on the mortgage payment fitting into your budget, but you need to make sure that your bills fit into your budget as well! My monthly water bill is five times the amount it was at any other area I’ve ever lived in. This is something I really wish I would have known ahead of time. When I received my first water bill, I called the office and asked why it was so much. The representative explained to me the issues with the extended service to our neighborhood, something that I wouldn’t have been surprised by had I called beforehand.
How about mail delivery? Does USPS deliver to your home or will you be expected to pay for a P.O. Box in order to get your mail? This is something you really wouldn’t think to check, but you realize how much you take these services for granted whenever it becomes unavailable. In my neighborhood, the contractor was required (by the USPS) to put in a cluster mail box unit, but (unfortunately) that never happened. I had a mail box at the end of my driveway, just as every other person in my neighborhood had, but the post office refused to deliver our mail. We were all caught in the middle of this oversight by the contractor, and no one wanted to accept blame. After months of having to drive to the post office (across town) and wait in line to retrieve my mail I can finally say that I now receive mail at my home. What a nightmare that was!
Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, and boy do I wish I had done my homework ahead of time! How can you avoid these mistakes?
Get in touch with the utility companies. They will be happy to help, I promise! Think of everything from cable, internet, mail delivery, to water, sewer, and garbage collection. Call around and ask, “what are the average monthly bills for that area?” In asking these questions, you might also discover that these services aren’t even available to you.
Another thing most people don’t consider: TRAFFIC
If you’re sure about this home, you need to be sure that you can live with the amount of traffic that you may have to deal with on a daily basis. This may not be a problem for you, but if you’re like most of us, you need to be able to get to work or school at a certain time every day. No one wants to be faced with a twenty minute wait just to leave their neighborhood. You may think this would never happen, but it happened to me. My neighborhood has only one road going in and one going out. It is also, coincidentally, a popular cut-off to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate around 5:00 p.m. A year later, and I now know that if I need to leave my house at 5:30 p.m. it is going to take me 20 minutes to get out of my neighborhood. How can you avoid this mistake? You need to spend time around the area during those crucial time periods for you. The most obvious time to worry about would be between 5:00 and 6:00, but this depends entirely on your schedule. When we were viewing the home during the home buying process, it was only on the weekend whenever we could make the trip from where we lived at the time. So, this is something else you really want to keep in mind if you’re unfamiliar with the area.
This may sound like a LOT of work, and yes… it is. However, doing your due diligence will certainly pay off in the end.
There is one thing that you can do to avoid all of these unwanted surprises without having to put in so much WORK…
Hiring an experienced Realtor means that they know the area, they even know the neighborhood so well that they can educate you on these potential pitfalls beforehand. I have to say that was my first big mistake. I worked with the Realtor who represented the seller and, on top of that, she was not from the area. When you choose an experienced, local, Realtor, you are given the peace of mind of knowing that all the knowledge that the locals have, you will have. I cannot stress that enough!
If Hot Springs is the area you’re looking to buy or sell in, then you’re in luck. The Kennedy Team knows Hot Springs in-and-out. They have done research on the neighborhoods in the area (they even have an amazing collection of “area information” on their website). They have been connecting buyers and sellers alike for over 17 years. If you want real peace of mind before buying a home in the Hot Springs area, I highly recommend The Kennedy Team!
