As the old saying goes, the three most important facts for selecting the right neighborhood are location, location, location. So, what about location? It is indeed a very important fact in the selection of your new home because a really nice, attractive, affordable home in the wrong neighborhood can be an expensive formula for disaster for you. The selection process is a critical key step for success. Use your real estate agent and their resources. They can provide you a lot of very useful information as you evaluate your needs and match those needs with the various sections of the city and the homes available within these neighborhoods.

So, how do you evaluate your needs? Begin by asking yourself some important questions about your current lifestyle and your future, desired living conditions. A summary of the answers to these questions will help you determine where you might want to live in this community and why. Remember, this is the time to decide what your criteria will be for evaluating and shopping for the right Neighborhood for you. Make a list, prioritize, and discuss this with your real estate agent.

The following are some questions you may want to consider as you look at the neighborhood in general: Are schools important? Do you need to be near shopping centers? How close do you need to be to your place of work? Is public transit necessary? How much are the school and property taxes? What about resale value? What is the history of home values for this section of town? What are some of the projections for growth or new developments in the area? What kind of neighbors do you want to live near? What are the things that are most important for you? Once you have defined the criteria for selecting a neighborhood take the next step and look at the homes within the pre-selected areas. How do they fit with the home you want?

To answer this question, you may first have to determine what style home will you enjoy? Is land important? Do you want a large lot or a very small yard? Is a pool important? What about landscaping? Do you want a single floor or multistory house? Are you only interested in a home or would you consider a condo? Once you determine the answer to this question set, then you must decide if the houses in the selected neighborhood match your preference for a home.

As you can see, the selection of the right neighborhood involves a lot of careful thought and consideration of a wide variety of questions. Since good realtors are familiar with the different areas in the community, your real estate agent can be very helpful. They can supply you with information about taxes, values, future developments, history of home sales, school systems, and many other important data sets and facts. As we have discussed, there are many factors to consider when finding the right neighborhood. Careful consideration and planning will reap satisfaction and success in the selection of your future neighborhood.

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When people call me, typically one of the first requests they make is for a house in a "nice" neighborhood. And this makes sense to want a neighborhood that is safe and enjoyable. But there are some benefits to buying real estate in the rough part of town or on the wrong side of the tracks. This article highlights some of them.

- There is less worry of your neighborhood going downhill because it is already downhill. Good neighborhoods can get bad and bad neighborhoods can get better. Since the price usually reflects the current condition, buying in a neighborhood that has room for improvement might be a good idea.

- If you are buying a rental, you usually get better cash flow in rough neighborhoods. If you are renting your property, there are more renters and they are more long term. It's difficult to rent in good neighborhoods because fewer people are looking to rent and those who do are generally there short term while they look for a house to buy.

- You can look better in comparison to other landlords. Landlords in rough areas frequently don't maintain their properties as well as people in nice areas. Therefore, if you maintain your properties, you can blow away your competition, and charge more for it.

- If you are in a rough neighborhood, you can propose that your property change will improve the neighborhood and you have a better chance of getting a different zoning. Conversely, if you are in a good neighborhood, it's hard to make the same argument.

- You can buy more property. If you want to spend 500k, you can either buy one house in an upscale neighborhood or six or seven houses in a rougher neighborhood.

- They're more recession proof. When the economy goes south, real estate in rough neighborhoods is less affected.

In summary, I am not saying you have to buy in a bad neighborhood. But simply that if you are looking for long term investments sometimes its a good idea to wander over the tracks and look around a bit.

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