7 Top Factors to Consider When Choosing a Place to live

Hey there, whether you are a student in college, a newlywed couple or new in town, I guess at one point in life you have been among the people looking for a conducive place to live. After all, when all is said and done, every single one of us usually wants to retreat to a cozy place called home.

Finding a conducive place to live can be an uphill task, more so, when you do not know what factors to consider in choosing the right place to call your home. Allow me to help you break down the factors bit by bit that will put you in a better position to make informed decisions.

To many people that I have talked to, top on the list of their concerns, when choosing a home to live is usually security. Everyone wants to feel safe on the inside and outside and therefore, how safe one feels must be taken care of.

Avoid rentals and flats with no fence (live or wall) and a gate. These are tale-tell signs of a not so safe place where everyone comes and goes. Look for a place that is well fenced with a strong gate that controls the movement of people in and out of the compound. Gates and fences serve to scare away potential burglars and petty thieves who may be up to something fishy.

Depending on your main economic activity during the day, the choice of town you choose to make a home is also important. This is because statistics on crime rate vary in different towns. While some towns may have zero to a small percentage of crime, a few of them could be crime hubs. The company I work for recently shifted its operations to Kakamega town. With such changes in location, it was expected that the company would alert its employees of any new developments.

It is needless to say that security topped the list of their alerts. Kakamega has a higher crime rate as compared to its neighboring town Bungoma.  Therefore, as one looking for the right place to make a home, choose on a town or urban area that your security is guaranteed or something close to that. You do not want to be woken up in the middle of the night with some noises in the kitchen only to find a human hand trying to pick dinner leftovers. Worse still, arriving in an empty home that was once packed with furniture and high-end electronic gadgets.

Secondly, as one looking for a place to live, social amenities such as hospitals, schools, churches and clean drinking water are important to consider. Some flats and rentals go for a long period without water let alone clean drinking water. Such dry spells greatly inconvenience tenants who have to fetch water from far areas. Apartments with tapped water are good but better if supplemented with borehole water in the event of a shortage.

On the other hand, couples with school going children must check on the availability of schools in the place they would want to live. This is important as some areas may not have schools nearby which will force you to either consider taking your children to a boarding school or your kids walking or riding to school over long distances.

A nearby health facility will serve you best than walking or traveling long distances for health services. Death may rob you of a loved one in the event that he or she is suffering from a chronic disease that may require immediate medical attention by a doctor.

How about shopping?  Does your ideal place of residence allow you to shop with ease due to its proximity or you have to wipe a sweat to get to the nearest shopping center? It is sometimes baffling; especially in the rural areas to find out that for one to mill maize, he has to walk more than 5 kilometers to get to a posho mill.

Choosing a place to live should be based on how easier shopping for household items will be to you. A five to twenty-minute ride is better than an hour ride to the market. This will save you a lot of trouble with kitchen stuff.

We usually encounter awkward occurrences sometimes when during cooking you realize a particularly important ingredient is missing. This will definitely force you to rush back to the market. Woe unto you if the market or place to shop is miles away from you. A bad day for you if you have visitors waiting to be served.

In the past, tenants have complained of stinking sewers in their apartments that erode them the joy of eating their deliciously cooked meals. Such incidences usually arise from faulty or blocked sewers that fail to discharge waste matter. A properly built drainage system is a factor to consider when choosing a place to live.

You could do some basic research from tenants already living in the apartments you want to move in to, just to find out whether the drainage system is properly functioning or are you going to wake up in the wee hours of the night to go for a long call simply because there is a blockage with the toilet flushing system and your taps have run dry.

Save yourself the trouble by ensuring that you pick on an apartment that has a good drainage system on the inside and outside. It will not be super to pay good money for a flat that rainwater seeps through the front door during heavy rains.

Recently, I passed by a storied rental apartment and there were an array of clothes spread on the lines for sun drying. When choosing a place to live, have the idea of an outdoor space in mind. Some flats are built facing each other with narrow spacing about 30 meters in between.

This outrightly denies you your privacy and more so, could be a recipe for chaos over petty cases with your idle and prying neighbors. Outdoor spacing is not only important for sun drying your pieces of wet clothing but also gives you space to sunbathe and relax in the environment outside your house.

Outdoor spacing can also be important for family playtime and hosting other functions that may require many people. Besides, tenants with vehicles will also have ample parking space for their fuel guzzling machines.

We have two ears to hear, listen and understand the message being communicated unto us. However, it comes to a point where what you hear and what you need to listen to becomes mixed up, therefore, resulting in noise.

You will realize it is a bad idea renting an apartment near a marketplace with blaring music and noises from traders. Adding insult to injury, a pub nearby plays loud music often, until 5 am in the morning. If you are not a Muslim, there is again no point of living near a mosque if you do not want to be woken up at 5 am every morning because of loud prayers coming from a mosque nearby.

When choosing a place to live, ensure that you go for a quiet neighborhood. A quiet neighborhood will save you sleepless nights resulting from your 5 months old kid waking up often at night because of disturbing noise. Moreover, a quiet neighborhood will allow you to enjoy the comforts in your own home, for example, listening to music from your home theatre, study time or any other indoor activity that may require a quiet environment.

Today, the internet has been branded the next town square.Apparently, this is true given the social media hype we experience today. Kenyans and the world over have never been connected to the internet like now before.

It is true that friendships, jobs, businesses have now shifted to online platforms. It is against this background that you would want to consider choosing a place to live that is well connected to the internet.

It will be worse for you to settle in your new home only to realize that your internet connection is not even 2G phew!!, you will only have yourself to blame.

There are many other factors that one could still consider in choosing a place to live. I have mentioned but just a few basic factors that can serve as a guide to a new home seeker.

A safe and secure environment coupled with rich social amenities, less noise, an outdoor spacing, proper drainage system and a nearby shopping center could be the ideal home for you at the very least. Do not forget about a good internet connection that will save you the time, money and energy of visiting a cyber.

Until later guys!