Choosing the Right Neighborhood

If you’re a home buyer, how long does it take to finally decide on choosing the perfect home for you to live in? THAT is actually uncertain, but more often than not, it takes about a month or more to settle on which home you’d choose to purchase, isn’t that right? Why does it take this long? One factor to this is that you actually don’t have the luxury of time to check up on the type of neighborhood where the said property is located. Otherwise you don’t make time, and wouldn’t bother checking anyway. It’s because most buyers would pay more attention on the dwelling that fits their budget, and their dreams of having a better lifestyle. You may have a magnificent mansion, expensive appliances, glorious house detail, and rich taste in themes of each room in your house, but what if one day you wake up and realize that you’re actually feeling distressed due to the fact that you inhabit a place where the neighborhood doesn’t fit you at all? The people, the amenities, the establishments, the whole environment surrounding you and your home, and all the other factors that determine whether or not you're living the American dream. These are the things you have mislooked as a buyer.

People often move-in to another house due to divorce, downsizing or getting ready to start a family, these are life changing events for any individual. Without bothering to verify for themselves, they would usually move-in in areas of low crime rates, good school and low taxes, even if these are just hearsay from friends or close relatives and other people they know. Assuming without assurance is overrated, your agent should be well aware of your needs and concerns, although if you remain unconvinced, the best thing for you to do is to scope out your supposedly soon-to-be neighborhood. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong if you try to find out the crime rate records of the area, it’s for your own safety anyway, besides, it’s ideal to do a background check and double checking on everything before you settle in. A neighborhood behaves differently at night than during daytime and afternoon, try to observe and compare if this neighborhood has wilder things going on when all the lights go out. If that’s the case, then you should be alarmed. Investigating your neighborhood is not as hard as mission impossible, a simple drive or walk around the community will do. Schools, medical services, police departments, fire departments etc. these are particularly important when choosing a rural or suburban neighborhood, especially for those who have children. As much as possible visit your soon-to-be neighborhoods not just once, but do it at different times of the day and in different days of the week. It may seem like a lot of work for you, but trust me, it’s worth it. After all, this is vital in fulfilling your American Dream.

“When you're happy you find pure joy in your life. There are no regrets in this state of happiness - and that's a goal worth striving for in all areas of your life.” -Suze Orman

Sometimes we tend to set our focus on things that need to be done immediately, in our haste we become unorganized and begin to disregard some other minor, if not major factors that we also need to put consideration on. In buying your house, do take time to explore your environment, ask yourself, is this a nice place to live in? Is this healthy and suitable for my family? Is it safe for us to stay here? If you’re satisfied with your answer, then go ahead and make your decision, that document has been waiting for you to affix your signature. Welcome to your new home!

"Misconceptions and Illusions”

We all have our own opinion with Real Estate Agents and the Industry as well. Let’s characterize facts from opinions in buying or selling a property. There are a lot of critics but we shouldn’t generalize all of the agents when some acts just don't rise to the occasion to serve their clients as expected. In choosing an agent, you need to consider the facts before making a decision. Misconception leads to confusion.

Punctuality is very necessary in being a Real Estate Agent. We should practice this approach in every business especially during appointments for we don’t want our clients to wait for us. Gain your client’s trust by living in their world which means, being always on time. We shouldn’t annoy them by excuses on delays if we want to keep them. Receiving other benefits from affiliates is a BIG NO for a real estate agent because it’s illegal and reputations could be ruined by that putting your license on the line. Real Estate Agents are required to obey instructions, must be loyal and keep their client's best interests ahead of those of any other party including themselves, to disclose material facts to their client, not to disclose anything about your client, their business, financial or personal affairs or motivations, to accurately report all monies pertaining to the transaction and the ultimate disposition, are expected to have a certain level of knowledge and be able to advise and guide your client through the process without harm. A good relationship with a client is very beneficial to increase sales, if we have made a client happy, surely there would be referrals.

Being a Real Estate Agent is not an easy profession, we needed to be knowledgeable and hardworking at all times to survive. We studied to pass the examination in getting our licenses like an ordinary student and that’s though as we have families and needs. We need to earn every month to make ends meet and we are unemployed until someone hires us to sell their properties. DON’T BE CONFUSED BY YOUR MISCONCEPTIONS.

The biggest misconception people have is that quality is all that matters. The truth is that quality helps, but there's a ton of high-quality things that don't go anywhere.

-Jonah Peretti