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The Importance Of Location When It
Comes To Reselling
We hear it
all the time: “Location, location, location.” If there’s one thing
everyone knows about buying a home, it’s that location is extremely
important.
Yet, not
everyone knows the true value of location—especially when it comes to
reselling. Even though you want to find an area that’s best for you,
you’ll need to look into the future. Will you be selling your home in
ten years? Twenty years? If so, you’ll need to take a very close look at
several different aspects of location—not only in your potential
neighborhood, but also in the larger general region—if you want to
maximize your resale value.
In your
potential community, the four major aspects of location that you should
consider are what could be called the Four S’s: schools, shopping,
services, and safety. Even if you don’t have children, the quality
of schools near your new home will affect your home’s value going
forward. Likewise, convenient shopping and quality services (such as
police and fire, parks and recreation, or neighborhood watch programs)
are important to your resale value. The crime rate in your new community
is also important and you should pay particular attention to that area.
More than anything else, the Four S’s will determine just how much your
home will increase in value.
On a more
regional scale, you’ll need to broaden the scope of your research and
look at the area’s economy and real estate market. Whether the area
is urban, suburban, or rural, the future health of the economy and real
estate market will impact housing values greatly. Although it’s
difficult to predict the future, you can look to the past to see
fluctuations in the last ten or twenty years. When doing your research,
ask yourself these questions: Has the unemployment rate gone up or down
recently? Has the cost of living increased? Is the rise in home values
in line with other parts of the country? The answers to these questions
will give you a good idea of what the future holds for your area.
Finally,
on both a local and regional scale, you’ll need to consider the
prospect of future development, namely residential and commercial
growth, transit improvements, and other long-range developments. Not
only will local development (such as a shopping mall) directly affect
home values, but regional development (such as a new baseball or
football stadium) will have an impact as well. Pay special attention to
transportation expansion and new residential tracts as these two areas
will have a huge impact on resale value.
As always,
make sure to enlist the help of your real estate agent when you research
your potential community area. Their expertise is invaluable and they
can help you determine which home—in which neighborhood and in which
area—is best for you now and in the future. ∆ |
