Austin Real Estate Team

Buying a home in Austin is one of the biggest purchases you'll ever make, and a decision that requires patience, determination and pre-planning. Keep in mind that when you buy a new home, location is everything. Where you choose to live is as important as what you choose to live in. A great home will not make up for a bad neighborhood, so choose carefully and with plenty of thought put into the decision.

Begin your decision-making by first comparing neighborhoods. Do you want to live in an older, more settled neighborhood or do you want the glitz of a new sub-division with freshly-built homes? How far from your job do you want to live? If you have children do you want good, close-by schools?

Or is it more important to have shopping centers or hospitals or churches nearby? What other factors make a difference for you: good public transit, high quality streets and highways, volume of traffic, noise or predominant architecture in the neighborhood?

There are so many things to consider when you start your home search. If you're buying a new home in your hometown, it's likely that you'll know the neighborhoods to look at and the ones to stay away from. If, however, you're from out of town, you'll need to devote considerable pre-planning and scrupulous evaluation of the new city before you even start looking. No sense wasting time examining the type of neighborhoods you wouldn't live in your old hometown.

One of the biggest points of contention in home buying, especially among married couples, is deciding what kind of home to buy and what features are most important. As with marriage, such a decision has to be made together.

Look at the home you're living in now, and discuss what you like and don't like about it. When you go hunting for a new one, keep a list of those likes and dislikes, as well as a list of the new things you want in your new home. Don't forget to include your children in this process...they have to live in the new home, too.

If you're on the verge of retirment, or already retired, and the new home is so you can downsize from the home where you raised a family, there are other considerations you may need to include in your decision-making. For example, is it important that healthcare facilities are nearby? Do you want to reduce the amount of home maintenance you have to do because you're no longer as able as you were? Will your retirement income be sufficient to keep you in the lifestyle you live now, or do you want to downsize that lifestyle? And will your equity from your old home help you afford the new one? What about your savings, your current debt and other factors such as climate, visits by children and grandchildren? All of these impact your decision.

On the other hand, if you're young and single, what's more important to you? Is it the glamour of the neighborhood, the glitz of the home itself and the value for re-sale that's on your mind, rather than more basic considerations? Are you getting married soon, and will your new spouse like the home?

Buying a new home is a decision that can leave you in tears or deliriously happy. It requires serious consideration and thought.

Consider these as you make up your mind:

• Size of the new home, especially the yard. Do you need more space? Want to do more or less gardening?
• How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you want? Number of children; their ages.
• Architecture. Are you going to have to buy all-new furniture if you change style of architecture?
• Do you entertain much? Do you want a Formal Living Room? Formal Dining Room?
• What kind of kitchen? Do you want a breakfast area? Den?
• Do you need a garage or carport?
• What kind of extras do you want? Fireplace? Pool? Media Room? Sprinklered Yard?