When Buying Your Home, Take Into Consideration Where You Work.

If you’re entering into the real estate market for the first time, you’ll hear the old adage: location, location, location. That’s three of the key factors. So, if the neighborhood is nice, with parks, good schools, retail stores nearby, and close to the highway, it’s a good location. But what also makes it a good location is how close it is to your work.

These days many people are telecommuting, which allows them to work from home and save gas. If that’s the case, a 45-minute or hour-plus drive, one-way to the office, might not be too intimidating because you’re not going to have to do it every day.

If you are buying far from your place of work, you should take your extended commute into consideration. With rising gas prices and increasing traffic, an extra long commute to work can hurt your pocketbook.

Sometimes the allure of rural areas with typically less expensive housing prices is so strong that buyers forget to consider how long they’ll be on the road before they’re home at night with their families. They also don’t factor in the gas costs that add up fast and can amount to hundreds of dollars in expenses each month.

If you do purchase a home with a long commute, talk to your company about possible commuting subsidies, arrange a carpool, or try to work remotely more frequently to reduce the back and forth commute.

You can also ask your work to adjust your hours so that you can come in and leave at times when you’ll miss rush hours. This way you’re not just burning gas while sitting in tight, slow-moving traffic.

So when you are shopping for a home and there is a long commute involved, spend a little time weighing the pros and cons. It’s very important to do a little research.

Planning to purchase a new home? Have any real estate related questions? Get in touch with us.  Call us on 604 913 1000, contact us or follow us on Facebook!