Location Location Location?

When it comes to buying a house, we've always heard the advice that the best thing to look for in a house/any other commercial or other property, the key is! location! location! location!



Do you think this rings true in all circumstances?

I recently read an article that suggested that it would be a wiser investment for one to buy a small house on the best street, than to buy a large(r) house on a "not-so-great" street.

However, I have also entertained the perspective that one might want to purchase a house with specific, ideal features, such as a huge lawn, a certain number of bedrooms/bathrooms, as well as a house that's more aesthetically pleasing; and when it comes to money for improving the smaller house on "the best street", that money may not be as readily available as one might hope, at least not enough being readily available for that house to be remodeled/improved to one's ideal specifications.

So, what's your take? Is it worth the trade-off?

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Are you buying a home or an investment? Therein is your answer. In any case, I would buy outside the floodplain.

 

I agree with the first part of what you say, better a small place in a better location that the opposite. A small place in a great location can many times worth far more than a superior place in a poor location.

 

I think a lot depends on if your buying a house as a home or as an investment. Obviously if it's going to be your family home then location is going to be o be of the major factors in your decision. Not for any financial reasons but for personal ones.

If the house your buying though is just a way to rent out and earn yourself some money, then your not going to be too concerned about where it is. As long as the rent in that area is high enough, then that's all your going to be concerned about when it comes to the location of the property.

 

I always think in terms of the worst house on a good street. From an investment perspective you've got to consider what is still attractive to a potential future buyer. And from their perspective it's still going to be location, location, location. It's easier for an individual to add value to a bad house on a good street rather than a good house on a bad street.

 

Here in Metro Manila, the location is also the most important point of real estate. And the main concern of location is the floods. The first question of a potential buyer of a property is if the place is getting flooded during the rainy season. When we bought our house, that's what we did. Not content with the answers we got from 3 people in the neighborhood, we inquired some more, with the village guard and with the newspaper vendors. When we felt it was true that the street is not inhabited by floods, we decided to buy.

 

When we bought this house in 2001 and lived here, it's kind of surprising one day when some 3 men knocked on our gate. They wanted to clean the coconut tree. Of course, we have to pay them for that. And when asked why, they said our neighbor called them. Huh, what? Our neighbor sent men to clean our coconut tree. And what we did? We had the tree chopped so there would be no more problem with the grumpy neighbor. And to think that we have just been here for a month and they had shown their idiosyncrasy as if they own us.

 

That is one of the bad parts about purchasing a home. You can't pick your neighbors. If you have difficult neighbors you are stuck with them. I was lucky when I purchased my home years ago. All the neighbors were great. We really lucked out. Now that I am renting I have the option of moving if I get pesty neighbors or maybe in time they will leave.

 

Well, that nasty neighbor died after 5 years due to a stroke, may God bless his soul. But there's another bad neighbor whose house is fronting that of the nasty one. This neighbor has a big family whose children are all living with them including their families - about 20 people in all. They have no garage and they park their van in the street. That's fine. But what irks us is that they use half of the street as their veranda. And when there is an occasion, they place a table right in the street where they drink beer or whiskey. We had reported them to the community but to no avail.