If you are in the market for a new home and have already started our family or plan on starting your family soon, you may notice the priorities you look for in a new home have shifted. Even if you haven’t started your family or have very small children, they will soon get bigger and you will want your home to accommodate what you will need as a family in the future. Parry Custom Homes, a premier Pittsburgh on your lot builder, shares what to look for about your prospective new home.
The first thing to look for that most parents or soon-to-become parents already know to look for, is the school district information and what districts you want to purchase a new home in. Greatschools.org is a great place to start and look up the schools where you are looking to purchase a new home.
Not only can you research information on the best school districts in the areas you are looking to move, but you can also look at the ratings of each school within the district. If you have any learning requirements you want to make sure are addressed, this heads-up research will be very beneficial to you in the long run.
If you find a home you love and you can, it also isn’t a bad idea to visit the schools in that area in-person to get a life feel for what each school is like. While some schools might be rated very well, they can also be very over-crowded at the same time. This is something you probably would not know without a visit to the school itself.
The second factor you will want to consider for your new home and family will be the community network around you. Are there other young kids in the neighborhood? Are there any barking dogs that you need to worry about next door? How friendly are the neighbors?
You would be surprised how much you can learn about a home by just driving through the neighborhood at different times of day, talking to any neighbors who might be outside, and observing who and what is around the home. You can often get a good feel of who is in the neighborhood by just taking the time to walk around, drive by and spend time in and around the neighborhood to get a feel for what it would be like to live there yourself.
Lastly to round out your top three checklist of things to look for in a family-friendly neighborhood will be the crime rates. You can protect your child as much as you can in your home with baby proofing, doctor visits and keeping anything of danger out of their reach. However, it is also important the neighborhood and area you move into is safe on the outside of the home as well.
Typically, you can find the local crime rate of an area online in various locations. From a local police station website, to Zillow or Trulia that show neighborhood crime activity information. Taking note of what is going on around in and around your neighborhood from a safety perspective will leave you with a much calmer mind when it comes to the safety of your family playing outside and going for walks.
If you find a home that checks off all the criteria above, you have most likely found a great future home for you and your family to live in for many years to come.
Parry Custom Homes is an established homebuilder in the Pittsburgh area. Call or contact us today for more information.