Your home is not just a property, it reflects what you cherish and hold dear and it is the place where you should feel most comfortable. Usually it is also part of a larger neighbourhood and community. In this post we tackle the factors that go into choosing a good neighbourhood.

When you buy a property you aren’t just getting a house but is buying into a particular locale with features you consider valuable or even vital. Whether it is a good location that is near to work or your children’s school and possessing activities you enjoy, like shopping, sports, fine dining, nightlife; or for its aesthetic qualities; good beaches, nature and scenery, panoramic views, tranquillity or green spaces.

Create Lists

What you will need is a checklist of everything that is important to you and your family. This list should have on all the things you value about where you currently live as well as those things important to you about potential neighbourhoods you are considering.

Look around at what makes your current community special or a place you called home. Decide if these are factors you want or that will be available in target neighbourhoods

After creating the list compare how closely each factor or neighbourhood is to your targets and to characteristics you found desirable.

Neighbourhood characteristics you should consider

Each person is different and has different likes and dislikes, needs and preferences. We each have our own perspectives on beauty, convenience and comfort. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ in home buying nor of what makes a ‘good neighbourhood’. A good neighbourhood for you would be one that suits your needs and unique lifestyle.  Some factors to consider are:

• Location, Location, Location!!!
  • Commute time to work and schools, and of course the traffic situation
  • Proximity and travel times to the school your child will be attending
  • Depending on your preferences proximity to amenities, recreational activities, shopping, retail areas, hospitals, entertainment spots, restaurants

• Type of community
  • Urban versus rural, would you prefer to live in a town house for example as compared to country? They both have their advantages and disadvantages.
  • What do you prefer a gated community, a large estate, condo or none of the above
  • Neighbourhood versus no neighbourhood

• People and culture – A community is above all the people who live there and the following are important.
  • Are your neighbours noisy or tend to throw large parties most weekends?
  • Are your neighbours sociable or hardly noticeable?
  • Does the community have many children among the same age as your own to play with?
  • Does the community have similar values to yours or at similar levels of income or social status?

• Other considerations
  • Is the neighbourhood safe and what is the potential for crime
  • Look at income and property values of the neighbourhood
  • Are they many vacant homes

Learning about the neighbourhood

Many of the characteristics above are important and help give you a good understanding of the neighbourhood. However, you shouldn’t rely on only a few sources to get information. To have a more adequate picture, here are a few additional suggestions:

• You might want to visit a neighbourhood in person as nothing gives you a better sense of what it’s like to move to new location than checking it out for yourself
• While visiting neighbourhoods you may have the opportunity to talk to residents
• If you have friends or co-workers that live in or near the area ask a question, you’ll be surprised to find who lives in that area or knows someone who does, with stories to share, they can provide good tips as well
• Neighbourhood reviews in newspapers and magazines
• Google it sometimes depending on the neighbourhood or area you may find some info on the internet

Final Words

Our final parting words on choosing a good neighbourhood and community. Above all do not just choose what friends, family or anybody else thinks is a good neighbourhood, you have to make that decision for yourself based on your own perspective.  However to ignore good advice and especially that from your agent would be to your detriment, always seek counsel from your agent as they have more experience in understanding what to look for in the neighbourhood.

Property is the largest and most important asset that many of us will possess in our lives, and represents the greatest portion of all our personal wealth or business capital. Deals involving real estate are some of the biggest transactions most of us will ever undertake and the value of such transactions cannot be understated.

Buying and selling property, and executing real estate dealings should be as straightforward as possible and can be if you find a good real estate agent. However, with so many agents out there specializing in so many different aspects of the industry, the process may sometimes seem daunting. So here is an easy way you can go about finding the agent that is right for you.

Where to Find Good Agents

In recent times, finding an agent is as easy as looking in the Yellow Pages or searching Google for agents operating in the area you want. However, when looking for a good agent that meets your specific needs, it requires a little more effort.

Word of Mouth Referrals
Ask around, there is a high probability that a family member, friend, neighbour or co-worker has engaged a real estate firm, was happy with the service provided and would offer a good recommendation.

Local Property Listing Publications
Local property listing publications such as The Barbados Property News tend to have the most extensive collection of ads. Check out firms advertising similar properties in the types of neighbourhoods you are interested in. Newspapers are definitely not an option to be overlooked.

Online
We are on the Internet, so too should any good real estate firm. A firm’s online presence sometimes speaks volumes about the level of professionalism, quality of services, specialty and expertise, and their experience level. With the emergence of social media, it is now possible to read comments and reviews from other customers about their different interactions and past experiences from the comfort of your own home.

Visit an Open House
After short-listing a few agents for consideration,you need a way to evaluate skills on the job. One of the best ways is to request a visit to one of the properties they currently have on display. It gives you a chance to see them in action by paying attention to the way they are presenting the home.

Characteristics of Good Agents you Should Look Out For

Your short-list of potential agents provides you with a starting basis, so feel free to engage them remembering that you don’t have to sign anything up front. Real estate deals should never be rushed and it’s sometimes better to shop around before making your final decision.

Courtesy and Professionalism
These skills are ‘gold standards’ in real estate and any professional service. As the client you should expect nothing less than a polite and patient representative demonstrating ‘professional conduct’.

What to look For: Your agent listens and is attentive to your needs; fulfils commitments to you (ahead of the sale); returns your phone calls and is on time.

Track Record
There’s no undervaluing a good track record. During the initial interview, the agent should provide documents indicating their record of performance. This allows you to get a feel of how they do business, their areas of success and their sales record or past accomplishments.

Guidance and Advice
The value derived from having a knowledgeable real estate agent to expertly guide you during the process cannot be understated. Every time you connect with an agent look at the way he engages with you. Are they taking the time to explain or go over terms and details with you? Pay attention to how willing they are to provide you with additional information at your request, to facilitate the easy flow of the deal.

Initial Assessment
A professional agent should meet with you initially to determine if your individual situation is in keeping with their service offerings and their particular niche and expertise in the real estate market. While the agent is reviewing your details, you should not only be assessing their performance, techniques and capabilities, but also soft skills like the ability to communicate, resourcefulness, listening ability and honesty.

Making the Choice
After separating the wheat from the chaff, you should now have your shortlist of superstars. All that is left to do is to choose the one that can meet your needs, happy hunting!

Coming Up in the Next Post

In this article we made you more aware of where you can find good agents and the characteristics to look for in good real estate professionals. Our next article will be taking an in-depth look at lending, where you will be guided through the borrowing process.
In the meanwhile, you can share any comments you may have with your fellow readers.

This month we give a few tips on staging your property for sale. We had first hand experience of the value of staging recently when one of our vendors staged their properties so professionally that we think they created a desire to own it or to live there by almost every potential buyer we showed the property to. The owners ended up selling the property for considerably more, in our opinion, than if they had not done such a great job in presenting the property so well.

The Market

We have found that the market has continued to soften somewhat from the activity we saw in January when it was as though many potential buyers who put off their purchase or moving plans during the latter part of 2009 decided that they could wait no longer and that now was a good time to buy.

We think that the signs from government that things are likely to get tougher (team Barbados), the softening of the pound £, the financial concerns over Greece, Iceland, Spain and Ireland affecting the EU and the varied and wavering good and bad news coming out of the US (a little more bad than good) lead us to believe that we are unlikely to see an improvement in the market for some time to come.

With this in mind, we believe that anyone who is serious about selling now must price their property competitively in order to attract potential purchasers. Having said this, we are still selling properties where the vendors are willing to negotiate and there remains a shortage of good quality private homes between $500,000 and $1.5M.

There are some great private deals for properties that are not officially on the market such as 4 acres in St. Thomas for Bds$450,000 (rough interior land) and a 14,100sqft lot in Welches Terrace with a sea view that is likely to sell for around $22.50per/sq/ft.

We hope you find the above information useful and wish you every success with your property adventures.

See you next month.