In difficult economic times, most people are looking to save a dollar or two, but is that the best strategy when buying a place to live? No one wants to pay more for a piece of property then they have to, but is the cheapest house really the best deal?
There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when buying a house, co-op or condo. How long do you plan to live there? What’s the neighborhood like? Is it improving or declining? How will that effect the value of your property when you’re ready to sell it? Does the property meet your needs now and in the future? And, in my opinion the most important question of all, do you love it?
A young woman I worked with recently found a beautiful condo that she really liked, but truthfully it was no bargain. It wasn’t particularly over priced, but there were other condos in the area that were less money. The problem was that the other properties didn’t have the light the condo she liked had, and she didn’t get that “wow” factor from the other properties like she did when she walked around the more expensive property.
After much deliberation, she went with the higher price condo because, as she put it, “This where I’m going to live and I want to like it. That’s worth more then money.”
So the cheapest house is not always the best deal. The best deal is when you buy a property you really love for a price that you can afford.
Happy house hunting,
