Dream Home - 2

Dear Friends

How does one select the ideal location for a home or is there a method to this madness at all :)

Four of a family go out in different directions for work or study. Usually the location is decided with the kids in mind. So it invariably is within a comfortable radius to the school with the elder commuting further for work, if need be.

Or is it the proximity to a bus stop, shops, hospitals, workplace and/or schools, if there are school going kids in the family.

The parents are wise if they chose a good neighborhood where the crime rate is less or not at all, where good schools, hospitals are near by. Our investments are based mostly on such parameters when we want to buy a house.

Infrastructure like good roads, proximity to airport and railway stations are welcome too. It pays to be well-connected and have maximum facilities before deciding on a major issue such as selecting a home.

Once these are in place, the plan for the home sweet home starts with how many rooms and how much can we really afford to invest.
Should we be going in for a loan from the bank? In most cases we have to. Then what is the repaying capacity or are we going to overstretch ourselves and grab any money that is dangled before us in the form of loans? We never sit down to calculate the real price of our home if we were to borrow money at interest. It could well be double the cost of the property in say 10 years from hence. When we sell, we look at what we paid at the time of purchase and forget to add the interest we have paid all these years to this base price. So when we are able to find a buyer for a price which is 2 times our purchase price, we seem so happy to have made a handsome profit but have we really :(

All said and done its so nice to live in our own place, get used to our neighborhood, make good friends and sort of settle down, bank loan, repayments notwithstanding!

Enjoy life and living.

Cheers.

Mahalakshmi