Moving to Las Vegas

[cd34]

Lets assume that the current recession is going to continue a little. Lets also consider that the fed probably won't raise interest rates much in the next 6 months. You're making a rather life-changing move -- having picked up and moved 1020 miles myself without knowing the area or people in the past, there's a lot to it.

You could get lucky and buy a house, settle in and get in the right neighborhood, but, here's the thing. You're shopping for foreclosure homes, and, you're going to end up in a neighborhood that probably was built too quickly, people or flippers bought the homes, interest rates reset, and bam, multiple foreclosures in the neighborhood. While this has a preliminary impact on the home price, it will have a real long-term effect as well. Your house probably won't appreciate at the same rate that older construction will in the same area.

That being said, the fact you have a child makes it a tad difficult, but, as Tpat wisely said, consider renting in the area where you might want to live. Try out the area, make sure it fits your lifestyle. Make sure the weather appeals to you, make sure the airplanes that fly overhead don't drop parts in your pool, make sure the schoolsystem hasn't been gutted by all of the recent foreclosures and become mostly vacant or worse, underserved. Great school yesterday doesn't always mean great school today.

I know when we moved to a neighborhood in Maryland, we drove by the houses we were originally looking at several times in the week prior to making the offer.... in the morning when the kids were going off to school, in the afternoon when they came home, on the weekends to see who was in and around the area. At night when things were calm and quiet to hear what we heard. Had we not done that, we would have moved into the wrong area -- who knew that the highway was that close and during rush hour you could hear the cars driving by.

Also, when you do make an offer, write down the serial numbers of the fridge, dishwasher, washer/dryer, etc during the home inspection. You don't want to get to the final walkthrough and find out that the dishwasher, fridge and washer/dryer that were 'inspected' aren't the same ones present 3 hours before you're due to close.

Good luck with it -- not a process I envy for sure.