Come on, you know you're curious. You know you want to know more. Just take a little peek. Hide out in your car. Drive by in the morning...afternoon...midnight.
I'm talking about when STALKING is a GOOD thing. When you're buying a house!
As a local New Braunfels real estate agent and expert, I know the areas around my town. I know what has sold, what the values are, and many times the most desirable area to live in within the neighborhood. However, I don't know the nuances of a neighborhood unless I live there or have stalked it myself.
In my neighborhood, I can tell you all about my neighbors. For instance, there's the neighborhood kid who spends his evenings going door-to-door asking if the other kids can play...whether he knows them or not. He's been known to peek inside windows, too. That would be MY child. (Who can really BLAME him...he's an only child!) Then, there's the granny who walks her dog a couple of times a day and yells at solicitors (thank goodness!). She's the one who makes sure the kids don't talk to strangers, either. There's the teenage kid down the street who likes to play his drums, the longsuffering basset hound a few doors down, the Generation Xers who have parties in their garage every Friday night, and the weekend warrior with the meticulous lawn who tries to one-up my husband in the holiday lights department. If you live in my neighborhood, you'd know that my house is where anyone can stop by for hot dogs and nachos on Halloween. You'd know that you're welcome to come over anytime you smell the grill. You'd notice it seems we have a revolving door just for the kids that constantly come and go. (Many parents just drop them by because they think that surely we wouldn't notice one more.) Unless you live on my street, however, you probably wouldn't know these things.
As a real estate agent, I can provide you with market information, sold values, school ratings and even crime statistics...but, I can't tell you if you're living next door to a guy who likes to have raves every Thursday at midnight. I can't tell you if there's a garage band that practices death metal til 3 a.m. on the weekends. The house you love might be picture perfect on Sunday at the open house at 2 p.m., which, by the way, is when the frat boys living next door are sleeping off their bender from Friday and Saturday.
So, my point is, if you think you've found the perfect house for you don't fail to take a good look at the neighborhood. Take a walk in the evening and on the weekend. Maybe talk to a neighbor on your walk. Drive through the neighborhood in the evening. In Texas, buyers have the right, for a nominal feel, to buy a short period of time to terminate a contract for any reason. This is a perfect time to get a "closer look" and if you find out the house is located next to a choir of basset hounds, you just might be glad you did a little house stalking.
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