How to Choose Your Next Home

It's the most expensive thing you will ever purchase, so it stands to reason that a bit of due diligence is needed when buying your next home.

This week's link round-up will focus exactly on this topic and direct you to some really good resources we found that can help you make your decision.

Understanding the red flags for your neighborhood

You've found the dream house which ticks all of the boxes. There's just one problem, you're not quite sure about the neighborhood.

This is something that blights a lot of buyers, particularly those who are moving to a new area. Unless you have a lot of friends and family in your destination of choice, it's almost impossible to know if a neighborhood really is up to scratch.

This Investopedia piece should help you out somewhat. It doesn't cover everything, but if you notice a few of these six red flags it could be a sign that your neighborhood isn't quite what you thought it was going to be.

Are you heading towards a seniors village?

Nowadays, more and more sources are putting together studies by taking the Census data from a particular area, and finding out who is the most suitable type of person to move there.

This one put together by ADC Florida was one of our favorites and concentrates on the senior population. It takes a whole host of factors, such as the percentage of over 65s who live there, the average social security received by seniors as well as the median age, and tells you which are the best and worst places in the country to move to if you fall into this age category.

For us, it can be used for both young and old. For the latter, for obvious reasons, but for the young it's something that you can use if you want to make sure you are also ending up in the right (or wrong) place for your lifestyle.

Is your house right for you?

You've done all of the legwork, but there's a few questions sitting on your mind. This is where this piece from The Balance comes into play; it will just give you that little bit of peace of mind that you are following the right path with your chosen home.

It's got some really interesting points in there, such as "wanting to brag" about the house immediately after you've seen it. The Investopedia article we mentioned previously was great for red flags - but this provides a really good overall indication for whether a home is good enough for you and your family.

What if the home of your choice is in a bad school's area?

As we all know, schools have a huge impact on the desirability of homes across the country. You could live in a completely derelict home, but it might be worth far more than a huge detached one if it's based in a great school area. That's the way the real estate market goes.

This piece just provides a bit of reality about the situation though. In other words, even if your next home doesn't seem to be in a "great" school area, it might still be good enough for your family's needs.

It's a really refreshing read, and talks about how you should sometimes venture away from the official school ratings to base your decision.

Do you have the means to pay for your next home?

We've skirted around every topic so far apart from arguably the most important one; paying for it.

Like it or not, it all comes down to this, and for this link we won't present a mortgage calculator. These are great as a starting point, but they ignore a few crucial factors. Let's not forget that we all have 'x' amount of money, but this perhaps isn't ALL designated to be spent on your house. This article just makes you think about this, and shows you some of the signs that you are making the right decision with your money.