I'm Looking for a New Home. Here's How I'm Trying to Find the Perfect Place

Could this move be worth considering if you're looking for a new home?

In the next year or so, I hope to buy a new house and move into a new neighborhood. This will be my fourth move in around a decade and I am hoping not to have to do it again any time soon since it is a hassle to buy and sell houses and to apply for new mortgage loans each time I relocate.

SInce I want to love the next property I buy and ideally be able to stay there for a long time, there are a few things I am doing to try to maximize the chances I end up happy with my new place.

These steps will hopefully help me find the perfect house

Ideally, by following these steps, I'll be able to find a house that I can stay in for a long time.

• I'm visiting my chosen neighborhood regularly and walking around the places where I think I might want to buy a house. Over the past few months, at different times of the day and night, my husband and I have visited areas in the neighborhood where we think we want to live and taken our dog for walks there. By visiting the neighborhood at different times and spending about 45 minutes to an hour walking around, we get a good idea of things like noise level and activity in the area so we can decide if we're comfortable with the conditions.
• We're testing out our commute. We really want to make sure the area we end up buying in has an easy commute to the places we plan to travel most. That's especially important to us now because the house that we currently live in has turned out to be a traffic nightmare. There is an exit on the freeway that backs up for long periods of time at what seems like all hours of the day and night. To make sure we don't get ensnared in this type of situation again, we've tested out driving from our new chosen neighborhood to several of the most important places we visit often.
• We're talking to current residents. When we run into people out walking their dogs as we're on our walk, we've been able to strike up conversations and ask about things like how the homeowners association (HOA) works and what amenities the neighborhood offers. This has helped us get a better picture of what living in the area would actually be like.

We're hopeful that by employing these strategies, we'll ensure we get a great house in the area of the neighborhood that works well for us.

Should you consider making these moves before you buy?

These techniques work well for us because we know what general area we want to be in and we're pretty close to it already. If you're moving from long distances or have tons of potential places you may want to live, it will be a little harder for you to implement them.

But when you do find a house you think you like, testing out your commute and visiting it a few times before you make a final offer could help you avoid a decision you seriously regret.