Musings Of a Real Estate Agent

A recent survey indicates that on average, a homeowner will live 13 years in a house.

Such a length of time (4745 days and nights) warrants on the part of the purchaser a minimum of inquiry to ascertain that the house that looks picture perfect  is also picture perfect in the reality of every day living.

It is worth your while, before making such a momentous decision, to be at peace with yourself and follow simple steps that will strengthen your resolve to go and live in this house.

First, get a feel of the neighborhood by walking during the week and at night in and around the immediate location of the house and be alert to any signs that could trigger for you an anxiety attack. Density of traffic, suspicious characters, many nonworking young adults, noise level, pets and cleanliness, schools and parks for quality living, proximity of shopping, immediate neighbors, planes paths, train noise.

A good way to go about it is to take a day during the week and go and sit near the porch.

A lot of the open houses organized by real estate agents occur on Sunday afternoon. Not exactly the best time to have a real feel of the surroundings.

Invest your time now, or you may forever regret your decision to buy such a nice house in such a bad environment.

A few conversations with people living near your prospective home should also give you a sense of the type of neighbors you will have. If you are suspicious, and if your instinct tells you something, do not hesitate and go to the nearest police precinct and plainly ask what the problems that are most often brought up, even more so if you have or plan to have children.

You can also, if need be, check with your insurance agent. Insurance companies “red zone” certain sections of the city for different reasons. Some might find it offensive, but insurance statistics do not lie. If it’s a ‘at risk’ section where obtaining insurance is not available or it’s cost prohibitive, you might as well know now.

In the 1964 Oscar-winning film THE GRADUATE, the friend of Benjamin’s father told the newly graduated Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) to go and make a career in plastics. That was the wave of the future.

And so it is, with a vengeance.

Most industries, and the plastic industry is no exception, are coming up with tens of thousands of new products EVERY YEAR. The research that is made caters mostly to the end result, such as developing a complex molecule that will withstand 1500 degree. Unfortunately, and until very recently, very little effort was committed to study possible secondary and potentially harmful effects on human beings and on the environment. And we are engulfed in plastics and composite materials at work and at home.

The modern day house is therefore full of different products made from complex matters that can become harmful to one’s health.

For example, even though the paint industry has removed the lead content in its products, who can say whether the house that you are looking to buy and has a nice historical cachet does not contain elements that could prove harmful to you and your family.

The ecological movement, personified by the people that think green, should be conscious of the pitfalls of buying a house that will be safe for them to live in.

What to do? Well, before buying a house there is usually a period for inspection. The ecologically minded buyer, or any buyer, come to think of it, will want to insure that the air in the house is healthy and not conducive to developing allergies, or worst. So have your inspector test the air quality in the house and ask if there are other sources of pollution from products that are slowly degrading, sometimes accelerated by trapped moisture and airtight construction.

By Gilles Martin

It’s trite to say, but it’s true that a person’s most important financial asset is usually his or her house.

Over time it has proven a formidable weapon to increase the asset of the owner since it’s both used as a shelter to live-in, and as a nearly recession proof security that, like fine wine, gets better with age.

But, and there is always a but, to succeed in amassing a net worth, one needs a minimum of discipline.

Because real estate has a tendency to follow and surpass the inflation rate it is easy to fall for the siren songs of financial institutions who offer ready and sometimes needed cash in exchange for a mortgage on the property.

Why pay exorbitant credit card interest rates when one can borrow on the equity on one’s house, and pay sometimes a third of the interest that the shylocks in the credit card business charge? True, but one will not increase his or hers’ net worth by piling on mortgages on the property. There will always be people who will try to entice you to live better now, to live it up and tap your equity so you can pay for the doctor, for a trip or a car, and keep your credit card credit for unscheduled expenses. It’s true, it can be done and it’s easy but one has to realize that a mortgage should be used for long term asset building projects, not to pay the groceries.

So be careful with your lifestyle and if you decided some time ago to invest into real estate make sure that you end up building a nice nest egg that will increase your security and not an anchor that will sink you rapidly if you lose any margin of financial maneuvers.

These are trying times in the real estate world for those who have overextended themselves. Sometimes the net worth is just not there and the financial institutions have thousand of units that are so heavily mortgaged that the owners don’t see any point in continuing to pay for the cost of the loan. Those poor souls simply end up giving the lenders the keys to their homes. Sad, Sad.

But it happens all the time, and years of efforts sometime go whiff into the air and there is little precious to show for the struggle to purchase and upkeep and devote oneself to making the house a home.

So be vigilant and keep your powder dry!