Location, location, location! What does that mean to an Albuquerque homebuyer?
(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:
So Tracy, um, buyer tip of the week, uh, there’s a saying out there it goes location, location, location, right. We hear it in the real estate world all the time. It’s the broker model they say. And it’s, it’s an, and, and I think that the question is, what does that really mean? And as a buyer, what should you be thinking about when your, your, uh, you know, w what does that mean to a buyer and what should they be thinking about?
Tracy:
So a poor location, Tego can severely limit the upside, right? The upside potential of a home’s value, as well as if you do updating on it, you can still not really affect the value as much. If the location is a problem, you know, picking a location, we’ll talk about what makes a great location. But if you pick a great house, but the location is wrong, it’s hard to fix that. Whereas if you fix it, you can fix a bad house in a good location. You can paint, you can landscape, you can update it, you can make it look better. And then you’re in a great location.
Tego:
Yeah. You, you can’t, you can’t fix the location. Right. It is what it is. Right. And so, yeah, you can use,
Tracy:
Yeah. You think about it. It used to be everything along our railroad track was considered a poor location. Well, luckily they put in those silent crossings, so yes, you can hear and feel that a train is going by, but the whistle doesn’t keep you awake all night.
Tego:
I remember a property that was for sale once, and it was a kind of down off Edith there in the north valley, along the railroad tracks. And the first line in the property description was trained. Lover’s dream. I thought that was a, a, a good way to spin that, you know, it’s next to the railroad track. So I thought that was kind of cute, but, so what are some other,
Tracy:
So we talked about the railroad, obviously it’s gotten better here. Yeah. I kind of like, you know, I’ve never lived next to a rail rail line, but when I sit there at a stopped rail crossing and I always open my window and I’m always sad, I don’t hear the whistle, but I love to feel the energy of the train going by, but I’m sure I wouldn’t want to live there and feel it all the time. Even though I know what trains don’t go by all night here, but some other things, right. So we have garbage dumps around landfills. Um, being upwind of that would be especially unpleasant because we know that the winds prevalently come from a certain direction here, right. Um, places that have a lot of nightlight activity nightlife,
Tego:
You know, that’s a tip that you tell people is, is when you’re looking at homes. Um, be sure to maybe look at it in the evening or after dark can do that this time of year, really easy. Uh, you can see if there is a lot of, um, light in the area,
Tracy:
Right. And you know, when we were buying our land 20 years ago to build our house, my father, um, wisely told us to go and check out the land at different times of day in different days of the week, because he said, sometimes you’ve got high traffic times, or you’ve got light pollution, sound, pollution, whatever. And it made a huge difference. Because at that time we had to pick a 14 lots and we thought the end lot was going to be the best. Well, it turned out the one in the middle had the least impact of everything. Um, deteriorating neighborhoods, ones that are on their way down versus regenerating can be a problem. And now this one, a lot of people might not agree with Tigo. Yeah. Next to a school.
Tego:
Yeah. And I think that’s, uh, that’s going to be a choice. I think I would say it this way is some people would love it. And some people would, they would absolutely rule it.
Tracy:
Right. For sure. And some of it is because of the traffic. Right, right. As a buyer.
Tracy:
Right. And some of it just has to do with drop-off and pickup traffic. You know, we think about when we’re showing homes around town and it’s pickup or drop off time in schools, and there’s just cars lined up for a quarter mile. It seems like waiting. And if your house is right there, it can be a problem. But I’ve had a buyer before who said, I don’t want to be anywhere where I can hear a kid’s playground, which you wouldn’t think of that. Right. Okay.
Tego:
You know, the other thing, it’s not just a specific part of town or a specific neighborhood or a specific zip code. It could be where the home is situated on the street or on the block. Right.
Tracy:
So the first thing that comes to mind when you say that, and we haven’t talked about this would be where you’re at a T in a road where a road comes in and you’re the house in front of that stop sign. And the lights come all evening long and shine right into your house and all the cars stop and start there. I remember showing new homes at Paseo and Coors up on the bluff there on the west side. Of course there was this new neighborhood 15 years ago. And I was like, wow, what a great place to buy? You’ve got amazing views of the river and back to the mountain. And w when I was in the house showing it, it was up above cores. So not only did you have the noise, of course, but there was stoplights a block apart right there. And so it was vehicles stopping and starting. And, you know, there’s something about being on a busier road where the traffic noise is sort of constant, but when it’s by a stoplight and people are stopping and starting, it’s just exasp exasperated. So
Tego:
Yes, I think the other one on that again, you know, where the home is located on a block, it could be the side of the street, obviously Albuquerque Southern New Mexico, you know, our central, New Mexico, you know, all the Southwest, you know, it’s not that it’s well, there’s too it’s. I was, I was going to go to the views. Right. You know, one side of the street is going to be very different than the other side of the street. Right. And so it’s going to be more desirable. So it, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of things to consider. Now we think about the, the housing market we’re in right now in 2021. And that there’s very limited number of homes coming on the market. So the choices are limited and people are going to have to make compromises or possibly make compromises based on their budget too. And maybe accept some of these things that aren’t ideal location-wise. Um, but you know,
Tracy:
Or when the gym comes on the market, it’s in the right neighborhood that has the backyard unobstructed view to the mountain or to the valley or the river, or whatever, or backs to open space, be ready because you’re going to need to pay a premium for it. You’re going to need a great lender in line, if you’re not paying cash and you got to be ready to be the one that wants that
Tego:
Location, location, location. That was our, our talk about that. And it, there’s so many things to consider when you are a home buyer and just, there’s another list to put on your list.
Tracy:
Okay.