I've not had a real experience of finding a new home to live in as I do have people who do that for me long before I'm even aware, my dad actually. The only time I got close to finding my own place to stay was when I got admission into a university in another state. My mum played the bigger role in finding a comfortable place to stay.
I remember how lucky we were to meet a house agent who just knew the perfect new place for me to stay for my studies and the amount was not so bad, at the time of payment lol. It was over a year later I found out I was living in quite an expensive apartment but I still think it was worth it for the peace of mind and no fear for robbery.
But from others experience and stories, I think I have better understanding of what to look out for when I have to find my own home and I can advice others on it too. It's quite a difficult one to find the right place to call home, even house builders take their time to decide how it should look to make it comfortable and safe for them.
I think I've once read a post of how someone complained about finding a home that turn out to be disaster after living in it for a short while. The possibility of a beautiful place turning out bad and an ugly place turning out good is always there but having the right guide on the essentials to look out for is good way out of wrong choices.
For me, I have quite a high standard on how I would want my new place to be like and feel like, including how my neighbours should be like. Although these things can't be fully controlled by humans but to an extent, it's possible to get close to what we want when the right choices are made after many factors considered from start.
One of the factors to consider is the location of the place, one can go about to ask people how it is like living in such an area. I know of people who had to change their choices after confirming from more than five persons that the selected area has a lot of problems. It is not an easy stage but this helps a lot in making the right choices.
Knowing my country, finding houses during the rainy season will do a lot more good than in the dry season because there is the case of people having their houses flooded with water when it rains often. A lot of people regret the houses they pay rent for when the rainy season comes, a guy I know lost all his expensive house items to flood.
Another factor to consider is the network that's good in the area, we are in a digital world now so I can't imagine living in a place with no network working well. Also check for good electricity except you have solar system to rely on. All these factors do make our options more expensive but it's always worth it to find a comfortable place.
To find a new home also means to have new neighbours and I think I would love to have neighbors who are not too close and not too far, I mean, the ones that will allow my privacy and I'll allow theirs. There is always a better atmosphere with neighbours who are understanding and keeps the neighbourhood at heart, I want that.
Images used are mine.