EXPLORING A NEW AREA
EXPLORING A NEW AREA – A HORROR MOVIE, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OR REMINISCENT OF NEIGHBOURS ?
Exploring a new area, your hopes, optimism, and life goals are at the forefront of your mind.
It’s all good, all positive, until you actually buy. You are confident in your choice. You have sold your home, packed it up, and moving day is here. Excitement becomes trepidation.
Your New Area, Your New Home
It’s scary, it’s like going to a new school, or a new workplace.
What if you don’t meet anyone you like?
What if you don’t make new friends?
What if the people are horrible and you want to move back to your old area?
Exploring an area as a local not a tourist
Locals all have an origin story, how they found the Dandenong Ranges, how often they visited here before moving here became a possibility. Staying in a new area, even if it’s just for weekends, gives you some idea of what being a local will feel like. If possible, stay mid week and really experience the reality of how quiet it is and how far it is to commute. An hour on the weekend might become an hour and a half during peak hour. Do the work run a few times.
Will your children need to move schools? Do they play sport at a high level, or music, or anything else that will require you to travel. It’s not just the travel, it’s time and energy too. How will your friendship groups change? Letting go is hard particularly if you work from home.
Buying a new home is exhausting, exhilarating, and sometimes you wonder why you are doing it.
It’s more than a new home, it’s a new location, a new area to get to know, new neighbours too.
How will you know that you have made the right decision?
We fixate on finding the right home, and paying the right price, however do we spend/invest enough time on all the extra stuff – neighbours, local housing turnover, the access to and from where we need to go, distance from friends, coffee, a new gym, football club, RSL etc? Do our suppliers go to our new area or will we need to source new ones – maybe you get a fruit and veg weekly delivery currently, your book club, all the little things that bring you joy or ease your life.
Exploring, Walking, Driving
It’s worth the time to check out what you can before you buy. Do a walk around, does anyone come out and chat? Does one neighbour have a number of cameras and no one else has any? Are there trucks parked? Go to the local milk bar (if there are any left) or shop, buy something, engage in conversation, people love to gossip about other people, they also love to talk their area up or tell you that it’s not like it used to be.
Do a slow drive around the neighbourhood (without being a traffic pain). Particularly check out the neighbours that back on to your potential new home. I remember investigating a neighbourhood for a client and it didn’t show on google maps however in the street behind the house was a decrepit old building covered in graffiti, with other homes definitely to a different standard than the one in the street my client was pursuing.
The McDonalds that was an attraction when you were looking, will smell all day of cooking, it will have traffic, delivery vans, and people hanging out in the carpark.
Is the road a short cut for anything? Are there speed humps in local streets but not in this one?
Are there multiple apartment buildings or developments that will impact your home, your amenity, parking spaces, perhaps local sport that restricts how long you can park?
Ask your selling agent to do a street check on whichever research tool they have access to. How often do home go on the market, and sell. Is there one particular home that sells more than twice in 7 years, perhaps there are 2 homes that sell frequently and weirdly, they sit either side of some long term residents.
How about in the local area? How long do people stay, what is the average age, income, etc. What are the crime stats? Did you know that you can check out Crime Stats in your area?
https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/crime-statistics/latest-crime-data-by-area
Exploring Zones and Overlays
Know what changes you want to make and check that they are allowed, check out other houses and see if anyone has done what you want to do – higher fences, extra sheds, extra livestock (chickens can be a problem in some areas).
Find out the zones and overlays and what they mean. https://www.land.vic.gov.au/
Look out for inundation (flooding), bushfire, Heritage and zones and overlays that will restrict you from doing things to your house or land.
Jump onto the local Council’s website and look up activities, local news, recycling, local businesses, and the economic overview. Some will have a section for new residents.
You are the only one who knows what will irk you or inspire you and even then, sometimes you need to see something to know how it makes you feel.
Research, research, research, because it was hard work selling your old home, finding, and buying your new, plus it is all expensive, so make good, research based decisions.
