neighborhood intel
Issue 95 - August 5th, 2022
Buying a new home is an exciting time, and one of the most important decisions you make that only happens a few times in your life. You should take the time to learn about your new neighborhood (or potential neighborhood) outside of the time you spend at a “showing” or an open house. So many people just focus on the HOME, but in reality you need to think about so many other things pertaining to the neighborhood to make sure you love the area and it fits your day to day lifestyle.
5 Simple Things To Investigate In The Neighborhood For Your Lifestyle Happiness:
Go drive the area early in the morning, middle of the day, late at night, and on the weekends. Neighborhoods live and breathe and have different personalities throughout the day, so make sure you understand the vibe at all times during the week.
Go walk the streets and talk to neighbors. You can learn a lot about an area in friendly conversations.
If you commute to work or school, go drive your commute route from the new home/neighborhood to your frequent destinations.
Check out the restaurants and other attractions close by if you have never lived in this particular part of town.
Have you checked the crime score, walk-score, and other relevant information that is easy to find online?
This list could easily go much longer, but these ideas are just an example of some important things that pertain to most homebuyers. Don’t be the homebuyer that buys a home, but comes to realize you hate the neighborhood once you move-in and have already made the purchase.
You can start learning neighborhoods way before you even start home searching, so start taking some time on weekends or weeknights to drive streets or walks areas of interest and I think you will really enjoy the process of learning about a new area way before you even start the home shopping process.
Newsworthy Links To Share
Elon Musk wants to build his own private Texas airport
The FTC hit real estate platform Opendoor with a $62m fine. The company misled homeowners into selling to it, when selling to traditional buyers would've been more lucrative. (Business Insider)
Opendoor unveils “Exclusives,” an Amazon-like marketplace for home sales (Real Trends)
Reps. Dean and Armstrong Lead House in Passing Bill to Allow Remote Online Notarization Nationwide
The U.S. needs 4.3 million new apartments by 2035 to tackle “demand, deficit and affordability,” a new study by NMHC and NAA suggests. (FinLedger)
How Can Big Cities Get Us to Live There (Again)?: When the pandemic first struck in early 2020, big American cities emptied, and the closer you got to a city’s center, whether you called it Midtown or Downtown or the Financial District, the emptier it looked. People with the option to work from home decamped for the suburbs and beyond, and even as Covid fears eased, many are coming into the city only intermittently, with Census Bureau figures showing nearly 70 million people working from home at least once a week, and big-city offices more empty than full. (WSJ)
Latchel, a platform that facilitates maintenance requests from rental property tenants, raised $16.7 million. (GeekWire)
Roofstock announced acquiring tenant screening company RentPrep, whic h it says is currently used by over 100,000 landlords.
Interesting Data Below From This Past Week: