Looking to Buy a Home? Don't Just Check Out Properties on the Weekend

You may not get the full picture if you only check out properties on Saturday and Sunday.

There's a reason prospective home buyers tend to do a lot of their searching on weekends. Not only can schedules get busy during the week, but if you hold down a full-time job, you may only have so many hours to get out and see houses.

But limiting your home search to the weekends could lead you to a poor buying decision. And so if you're in the process of house hunting, it's really a good idea to scope out homes during the week before making an offer on any.

Why weekends don't give you the full picture

Let's be clear -- the home you're looking to buy won't look or function any differently on a Saturday than on a Tuesday. Rather, it's the street or neighborhood that might feel a lot different on a weekday compared to a weekend.

Let's imagine you're looking for a home in a quiet neighborhood -- one that's light on traffic. If you scope out the area on a Sunday, it may not seem all that congested. But if you check out the same neighborhood on a weekday -- especially during rush hour, or when schools are starting and letting out -- you might have a different experience.

Furthermore, the more traffic a given neighborhood has, the higher its noise level is likely to be. At 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday, the streets may not be filled with cars, and the noise level may be reasonable. But at 9:00 a.m. on a Monday, things might sound a lot different.

That's why it's important to scope out neighborhoods during the week. Of course, if you're already familiar with the neighborhood you're buying in, then this is a step you can skip. But if you're looking to escape a city and move to a quiet part of suburbia, it pays to spend some time there during the week to get a full sense of what the area is really like.

Get the full picture

Scoping out neighborhoods during the week is a smart bet when you're looking to buy a home in an area you're not intimately familiar with. But another good move is to see if the town you're looking at has its own social media page. From there, you can ask to join and solicit feedback from the people who already live there.

If you have kids, for example, you may be interested in what local parents think of the schools, how well the parks are maintained, and whether there are options for town-sponsored sports. Those are all things that current residents can probably clue you in on.

Do your research

Buying a home is a big undertaking, and the down payment you give your mortgage lender might constitute the largest check you write in your lifetime. As such, it's important to go in armed with good information.

Scoping out homes during the week as well as the weekend is a great way to grasp the big picture. But it also pays to get the scoop from locals who can help you determine whether the area you're looking to buy in is truly the right fit or not.