Often many only consider a family friendly place when planning a vacation; but it is also imperative to pay quite as much attention to this very important factor when deciding to buy a home whether they are a first time buyers or not. Although it is essential your whole family enjoys themselves while vacationing together by opting for a family oriented environment; it is even more imperative when purchasing a house. You want to ensure your everyday life is experienced in a home that is family friendly; as well as help to you safeguard your financial investment when you choose to sell that home down the road.
Purchasing a home is a fantastic experience as it usually marks the beginning of a new chapter in your life full of opportunity and the chance to redesign your daily living environment. If you have been living in a small apartment, then you have the opportunity to purchase a home with a huge backyard for safe recreational activities and gardening as well as a garage or other areas with plenty of storage space.
If you have been living on a busy street in the middle of a big city, then you have the chance to move to a more rural area with peaceful and quiet surroundings. Whatever the case is, choosing the perfect home and location for a better quality of life offers plenty to look forward to.
There are certainly serious issues that need to be taken care of throughout your home buying process with the help of your broker; such as arranging financing, having inspections completed and doing your research about different areas that you consider possible locations. Of course, those are just a few of the items that will most likely be on your “to do” list while shopping for a new home.
In the midst of the excitement of searching for the perfect house and taking care of all the various tasks that need to be handled along the way, it can sometimes be easy to lose sight of one of the most important elements of a new home purchase. It’s fairly obvious you want to make sure that you pay a fair price for your new home and it’s important to ensure the house is in good condition as well.
However, did you make sure the home is family friendly? Is it important for your new home to be family friendly? If these are questions you haven’t thought about much throughout your home shopping experience, you may want to stop for a few minutes and think about them now. Ensuring your new home is family friendly is near the top of the list for most important aspects of buying a new house.
What is a Family Friendly Home?
A family friendly home is a house that can offer a family with children of all ages the qualities that are important to everyone in the household for both comfort and practicality. A majority of people who are in the market to purchase a new home have families or plan on having a family at some point in the future. Therefore, homes that offer family friendly elements are much more desirable which means they sell faster and many times for higher values.
In order to appeal to buyers with families, a home must have certain qualities that will fit their lifestyle from a comfort standpoint as well as being functional.
Elements Important to Families
Location
The location of a home is important to families for convenience, safety and educational reasons. While a particular school district may not be important to you if you do not have kids, for people with children that will be attending school it is a very important issue. Of course, they also want to be in an area that is safe for their kids to play outside and convenient to get to the grocery store or gas station without driving a long distance.
Safety
Safety can be a big issue for families with small children. If a home has a pool or steep stairways, then it might not be a good fit for many buyers. It’s important to look at the home you are considering purchasing and think about safety factors for young kids that would be playing around the house. If there are too many dangers then it is something you should make a note of for consideration.
Size and Function
If you are living day-to-day with five or six people in a home, it is much different then only two people trying to exist in the same space. Larger entertainment rooms, bigger kitchens, open floor plans and lots of storage space are all things that cater well to families.
Additionally, the number of separate bedrooms and bathrooms is important. Once the children start to get older, a family has to start making arrangements for the kids to begin having their own space in some form or fashion and you certainly want to avoid a waiting line or arguments about the use of bath facilities.
Why a Family Friendly Home?
The main reason you should ensure you purchase a family friendly home is because it gives you more options several years down the road. It is extremely difficult for anyone to predict exactly what their life situation will look like two years from now, not to even mention five or ten years into the future. With any real estate purchase, you have two conflicting forces, a long-term commitment and an unpredictable course of life.
Therefore, you want to purchase a home that gives you options for both the short-term and long-term outlook. Additionally, you have to take into consideration not only what you want in a home but also what most other people are looking for in a home, in the event you want to sell the home quickly. Regardless of what you think your timeline for keeping a home might be, the variables in both shorter and longer term ownership make purchasing a family friendly home the smart thing to do.
Many people who purchase real estate tend to have a very short-term perspective, at least short-term relative to the lengthy commitment that most real estate purchases represent. Keep in mind that most individuals who purchase a new home obtain a mortgage to do so. The mortgage will typically involve a repayment term of between 15 and 30 years, a relatively long period of time.
Additionally, a large majority of homeowners do not sell and buy houses every few months, once they buy a home they normally establish themselves in the community and stay for an extended amount of time. Therefore, with all the conflicts involved with long-term commitments and the sudden changes that can happen in life, it is imperative to own property that is in demand by a large segment of the marketplace and offers you flexibility as well.
Purchase a Home for What is and What Might Become!
The bottom line is your home purchase should take into account what is your situation today and what might become your situation in an undetermined amount of time. A family friendly home allows your lifestyle to grow and adjust without having to move in order to accommodate having a child or more children. If the home you purchase has the elements that are important to families then it will offer you flexibility as well for all types of changes in lifestyle.
In the event you need to sell the home, it will be much easier and faster to sell if it caters to buyers that are looking for the elements we have described above. When you work with an experienced realtor they will help steer you in the right direction in selecting a home that is a good decision for the long-term.
An experienced broker will work with you to find a home that serves your immediate needs, is family friendly and offers you the best options for a lifestyle changes down the road.
They are also brokers who can assist your with your home buying financial needs and requirements like procuring a free down payment assistance program that never has to be paid back or actual cash back at closing or can be applied to help with closing costs.
