When you’re shopping for your next home, Think Neighbourhood First

When we do a buyer consult, we often ask our clients to make a list of needs and wants. It’s helps narrow down the search and really hone in to what is most important. The typical response we get is:  3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 Parking Spot, walkable community and somewhere for Little Johnny to run around (Johnny can be a toddler or a dog 🙂 )

—Wait, I’ve seen this house!  It’s almost every house in East Toronto, West Toronto, Midtown and Uptown! That’s a lot of ground to cover.

This is where our expertise comes in!  We are solid neighbourhood people. We can’t stress enough about how important the neighbourhood you live in can be.  We suggest “Neighbourhood First” when speaking with buyers who are overwhelmed with options or the general size of the search area.

When shopping for your next home, make yourself a detailed needs list about your desired community. This exercise will help you narrow in on what is important to you in a community, so that you don’t get side-tracked by the brightly lit and staged photos!

Here is a suggested Neighbourhood Needs List:

• A park to go to within walking distance where little Johnny can run around (Johnny is still a toddler or a dog :))
• 2-4 restaurants where we can pick up take out food on the way home during the week
• 1 splash pad or city pool within walking distance
• 1 junior [public, catholic and/or French immersion] school within 15 minute walking distance
• Street car stop within 3 minutes walk
• Bike trail access
• Something East End but close to downtown

We surveyed a group of people earlier this year and asked them what they wish they had known before they bought their last house and what they wished their real estate agent had helped them with, and the consensus was neighbourhood information!

And from that, our new I’d Live Here series was created, to introduce you to the places in the city where we would definitely live. Below are a few of our favourites and we invite you to follow us on social media as we share more of the best places in the city to call home.

https://www.facebook.com/ParkerGroup

And if you love where you currently live, tell us why! We would love to feature it!