Would you live on the 1st floor?
A potential buyer recently emailed me that she was having second thoughts about a condo she had at the top of her list. Apparently, after talking with her family she had doubts about living on the first floor. This got me thinking as to whether the potential dangers for 1st floor living are mostly myth or if there's any truth to them.
My thought is there may be slightly more accessibility if you're on the first floor. It's a lot easier to break in to a first floor window than a 2nd floor window. However, if someone really wanted to break into your condo, I don't think the fact that you're on the 5th floor would really be a deterent to a motivated offender. Security systems will most likely deter all but the craziest of crazies from even trying. Crime statistics from onboardnavigator.com show that the Zip code in question has 11% percent of the national average of overall crime. So we're not talking about daily breakins or shootings in this neighborhood. Advantage: Slight to upper floors.
My client has a dog. I pointed out that on the 2nd floor or up, you have to get dressed to go outside in the winter (this is in the Chicago area). 1st floor condo benefit is to slide the door open a crack and let the dog do her thing without stepping out yourself. Advantage: 1st floor.
In case of fire, would you rather be on the first floor where you can easily climb out of a window or walk through just 1 door to get outside or would you rather have to fall a story or more out of a window or run down a hallway to get out? Advantage: 1st floor.
Do you want to grill outside? Tiny balconies are not the way to go. Advantage: 1st floor.
If living on the first floor was so dangerous, I'd think that every single family home would be built 10 ft above ground level with a high barbed wire fence and a moat with sharks with lasers on their heads. But that would be ridiculous. Maybe I'm the crazy one?
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