Computing your commuting time to work

100 real estate tips in 100 days

Once upon a time getting around the city was very easy to time. In fact twenty minutes was usually the right amount of time to get just about anywhere. Well, not

really but it certainly seemed so.

Many times I've listened to agents telling their clients the distance from one place to another was "twenty minutes." Of course that estimation was coming directly off the cuff, not taking into consideration traffic, weather and the actual location of the house.

Today neighborhoods are so big, it can take 20 minutes just to weave one's way out of them and onto the freeway. Now add that travel time to the freeway time and twenty minutes is usually for the first leg of the trip!

I really try hard to give real information when working with relocation clients. Nothing is more distasteful than to discover a commute is 2 or 3 times that of the original estimate.

One tool I use frequently is my trusty GPS. It is an amazing device that calculates distance and drive time. When considering a property, I find it most useful to record the actual mileage to work and the estimated drive time.

Sometimes we even decide the information is so important, it becomes part of the statistics we record for every property we look at!

No guessing involved, actual real data is the best way to help in the decision making process.

Of course many clients come to me with all this homeword already compiled. They use Google maps or Map Quest to get the same information. Of course that takes prior planning and much of the time the homes we end up using are not ones from the initial selection.

So my trusty GPS does the work for us. It just another tool in my toolbox that I am thankful to have, and so are my clients.

How did I ever find my way around before?