Research, Investigate, Canvass
Recently I’ve been binge watching a show on Tubi called “Fear Thy Neighbor.” If you haven’t watched it, you should if you’re house hunting. It’ll scare you out of any tunnel vision you may have. It’s a series of true stories about seemingly great new neighbors gone very wrong. Often ending in murder! And the tormenting and hell these folks lived through at the hands of their neighbors, the new ones or the old ones, made some of the murders understandable.
Each story begins with people falling in love with a house or the scenery; finding their dream home. The thought that keeps coming to mind for me is why they bought a home, such a momentous transaction, without investigating outside of the property they purchased if they had planned to make a life there. You can’t know everything but if you’re not at least somewhat aware of what you’re buying into, there’s risk.
There can even be risk with local public schools. And keep in mind that even if you don’t have children, the quality of nearby schools can impact your property value. I recently wrote an article for a local newspaper at the urging of a few ladies who brought to my attention some pretty ugly things that were going on in local public schools. The story was about bullying but quickly took a darker turn when they gave me the scoop on some pretty shocking goings-on behind the scenes in these public schools. Bullying was only the tip of the iceberg in that ugly story. Parents found themselves in pretty tough situations to say the least.
What if you move to a rural area? Maybe there’s only one grocery store with expired food and inflated prices. Do they have healthy selections and a variety of choices? Or are you limited to whatever crap they put on the shelves, inconsistent availability, and forced to do half your shopping at one of 4 Dollar General stores within a 10 mile radius. They call that a “food desert.” You can say goodbye to a healthy diet or get used to driving several miles to the closest larger city each week to do your grocery shopping. I learned this one by experience. It started out like that Chevy Chase movie, “Funny Farm” where him and his wife buy a lovely farm and quickly find that the locals are not as charming as they imagined. They end up wanting to sell their property so they have to pay everyone in town to feign a Norman Rockwell type environment to get a buyer so they can get out from under their purchase.
When it comes to homebuying, nobody should be comfortable going in with just their fingers crossed, including investors. You do your inspections and appraisals where the house is concerned, what about the integrity and value of the area? These are things that matter and fortunately, with a little leg work, there are ways to get a deeper insight into an area before you buy into it. Think beyond location, location, location…to research, research, research! Or investigate, canvass, research.
If you have a trustworthy Realtor who’s familiar with the area, you can get a lot of good information from them. If they’re not familiar with the area, they can help you with your research. It’s worth the effort, however, to also do your own investigating. If you have children, visit schools in person if possible and talk to the parents. Visit the neighborhood at different times of the day to get a good sense of the community. Pay attention to how well-maintained the homes are and the general atmosphere. Canvass the area a bit; talk to people who live there. Check the proximity and quality of grocery stores, restaurants, and other important services. Pay a visit. Pay many.
And here are some excellent tools you can utilize to get you started:
AreaVibes: www.areavibes.com This platform provides a livability index for a specific location, assigning a letter grade (F to A+) based on factors like crime rate, amenities, cost of living, education, employment, housing, and user ratings.
NeighborhoodScout: www.neighborhoodscout.com This platform offers detailed neighborhood reports, allowing users to compare communities and build an ideal location based on hundreds of criteria.
AARP Livability Index: livabilityindex.aarp.org/ This index scores neighborhoods and communities across the US, focusing on services and amenities that impact residents.
City-Data.com: www.city-data.com This website provides a wide array of information about cities and neighborhoods, including demographic data, crime statistics, and cost of living information.
Walk Score: www.walkscore.com This tool assesses the walkability, bikeability, and transit access of a location.
The Opportunity Atlas: www.opportunityatlas.org This tool provides insights into economic opportunities and trends in different areas.
Local school zone locator: www.greatschools.org/school-district-boundaries-map/ This tool helps you find information about the schools that serve a particular area.
Niche: www.niche.com Offers a comprehensive school comparison tool, allowing you to research over 100,000 schools and examine key factors like academic quality, diversity, teacher quality, and student-teacher ratio.
GreatSchools.org: www.greatschools.org Provides school ratings and data, including test scores, student-teacher ratio, and enrollment trends.
Zillow: www.zillow.com Integrates school ratings from GreatSchools.org into its property listings, allowing you to search for homes based on school quality.
Public School Review: www.publicschoolreview.com Another resource for researching school performance and finding information on test scores, academic improvement, and other metrics.
SchoolDigger.com: www.schooldigger.com Provides data on school performance, including test scores, graduation rates, and other key indicators.
Nextdoor: nextdoor.com/ This social networking platform for neighborhoods (similar to Facebook) can provide insights into local issues and events.
CrimeGrade.org: crimegrade.org/ This website reports crime metrics for different neighborhoods.
CrimeMapping.com: www.crimemapping.com This website allows users to view crime data and maps for a specific area.
