Don’t get the question about “lived in the area before? “
I don’t either.
I also wonder about the phrase ‘be your own super.’ I think I know what the author means but i’m going to guess that it is a distinct regionalism.
“lived in the area before? “
trying to say: don’t buy a house in city/town you’ve never lived in. Rent for a while to decide if safety/schools/locals
meet your expectations.
“be your own super”
trying to say: can you fix the stuff that will break or will you have to pay someone.
If you are brand new to an area, you may not be aware of very specific geographical items that affect home value. Some school districts look great on paper...but they really aren’t great, for example. Or the police are doing Mickey Mouse things with the crime stats, to hide the crime rate. Also, locals are more aware of which areas are soon to be annexed...or maybe scheduled to be part of a special tax district to pay for an intersection, etc.
Unless you're familiar with an area, you could be buying into an area with a lot of problems or problems on the horizon.
Rules I used when purchasing out-of-area:
1. If houses for sale aren't very rare in the area, be sure to know why. Also research how long it takes to sell a house around there. More than a few nearby foreclosures, be very careful.
2. A rule from a few years ago from Forbes: Know what's on all four sides of you.
3. I asked some teens how they liked the police in town. They said they hated them, so I bought the house.
It's simple. Would you want to jump into a 30-year mortgage in an area full of meth-heads, pit bulls, boom-boom music 24/7/365, rapists, car-jackers, murderers, car vandals, and other assorted Democrats?
Real estate critters do not disclose such critical info to potential buyers. The buyer would need to rent in an area to know if it is suitable for humans. Appearances are deceiving.
“Don’t get the question about “lived in the area before? “”
For example: Where I live the crime is about 3 times highers just a mile or so away. You’d not know it by looking. Having lived here a year or so I was able to know why the houses to the North of where I live were cheaper
Also, and this is an extreme case. People move from the mainland to Guam for jobs rather frequently and only stay about 3 months then leave. It is a lot of trouble to buy a house and then find out you don’t want to live there.
If you don’t know the area well, you could get stuck with a home in a neighborhood that looks nice superficially, but is rapidly going downhill.
Know what's around you. I saw a very nice house in Danbury, CT that was reasonably priced and was on beautifully landscaped grounds with woods all around. It seemed perfect. Until I drove down there on a Saturday to check out the neighborhood. Once I got outside the immediate neighborhood, I got dumped into a busy street chock full of check cashing places, run-down fast food joints, and a bunch of rough-looking characters who looked like they just crossed the border from Mexico. It really didn't give me a comfortable feeling.
The surrounding towns like Bethel, Ridgefield, Wilton, etc., were more expensive but quiet suburban towns with main streets that your grandmother would feel safe walking down even if it was 9PM on a Saturday night.
As the real estate maxim goes, location, location, location.
Know your location. It trumps everything else.