Buying a home to climb the property ladder is one thing; buying a “forever home” is a totally different thing. A “forever home” is the very place where you will raise children, live the rest of your life with loved ones, and make sweet memories. Making the perfect decision is important while being concerned about location, choice, future needs, your partner’s decision, and so on.
Above all, location plays a vital role in choosing the right place for the rest of your life. This important term needs to be evaluated considering several other factors, like future goals, affordability and taxes, employment opportunities, the education system, the overall neighborhood condition, climate, real estate value, etc.
Finding the perfect location to buy a forever home is challenging, exhausting, and time-consuming, but it is also very exciting. Here, you are not only selecting a city or town but also making a foundational roadmap for your future life with your family. To help you in the selection process, we’ve come up with some fascinating tips for finding an absolute forever home.
Think about your future self
It is always difficult to plan the future. Preparing a step-by-step plan with target dates is highly unrealistic. It is better if you just focus on your lifestyle needs and key decisions for raising a family, like how many children you are going to have, whether you need a work-from-home space in your house or not, etc.
Identifying life goals is beneficial as it shouts for transpositions in your lifestyle needs while impacting decisions related to raising a family.
Pro Tips
- Plan by being concerned about your future needs.
- Broden your search as there will be many locations accommodating your future needs but contradicting other factors such as affordability, real estate value, climate, and many more.
Affordability and real estate value
In your search, affordability and real estate value, both are needed to plot in a parallel way. You may find a fascinating location within your budget, but decreasing or constant property prices are incapable of adding value to your property in the long run.
It is important to find the right combination by selecting a baseline—a city or town that can offer a house within your affordability range and whose future value is promising. As part of your baseline selection, you should find an ideal place with standard property amenities and values to compare other locations offerings in this criteria.
More specifically, look for communities with 3-bed, 2-bath, and approximately 2000-sqft houses priced between $240,000 and $1,100,100. You may consider the award-winning community of Naperville in Illinois as your ideal place—a very expensive place— but don’t go for it if your affordability is mid-range. For mid-range properties with better future projections, you may check Virginia’s Idylhood in Arlington, Idaho’s Finis Terra in Boise, or Michigan’s Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County. These communities can also act as ideal locations even if your budget is below $200,000.
Pro Tips
- Source a mortgage advisor for your ideal city to understand the financial requirements and compare them with those of other shortlisted cities and towns.
- Understand the ideal city or town real estate value trend and compare other places’ property price trends against it.
- It is better to live in the selected place by renting a house for six months to a year before making the final decision to purchase your forever home.
Rural, semi-rural, or urban
As a working professional or businessman, a dream home in a rural location is the most desirable one. When it comes to a family with children, many people find the rural location not that suitable for raising the family. This is how semi-rural locations are placed at the top of would-be buyers’ wishlists. With easy access to a rural area plus a good education system and modern amenities, semi-rural locations are always the best fit for living with family.
In contrast, rural areas may offer more green space than houses in semi-rural and urban locations. Living in a green belt is good for your health and well-being, but it is not logical, as traveling to schools, workplaces, supermarkets, etc. will cost a significant amount of time, effort, and money. You can apply the strategy of comparing by selecting one or two ideal places.
Pro Tips
- Check in detail about the places’ future development plans, which may remove the nearby open and green spaces within the upcoming years.
- Be focused on the non-compromising contexts of your future needs, such as schools within walking distance or 45 minutes driving to the workplace, and adjust the negotiable features of your future needs.
Home feel
The selected location needs to be capable enough to generate a homey feeling. The neighborhood should be friendly for adults and kids while having safe streets and a low crime rate. Imagine yourself living in the selected property. Allow your mind to wander around in the nearby streets, walk in the parks, shop in the malls, and pass time in pubs.
Do you feel comfortable? If not, refer back to the comparing context and the identified future needs. Do the same for every shortlisted location.
Pro Tips
- Don’t only rely on your own gut feelings; listen to your partner as well.
- Take a physical tour before purchasing your forever home.
Consider the above literature to prepare a step-wise process to follow. To find your forever home, you must identify future goals and needs at the very beginning. Then, find an ideal city or town that can meet most of the criteria, like affordability, a promising property price trend, a homey feeling, a good education system, a convenient communication network, a safe neighborhood, and so on.
Hence, compare other locations against the ideal selection and take the final decision.
