Choosing where to live

How do you choose a neighborhood when you don’t live there yet? As a licensed real estate broker, I can’t tell you where to live. Because if I told Italians to live in the Italian neighborhood and people in wheelchairs to only look at condos, I would be discriminating based on who you are. Therefore, I give the same advice to everyone:

If you do not know the area, spend some time there. Do what you normally do: Go grocery shopping, go to a playground, go to a movie, walk through town, and/or go out to dinner. If parks are important to you, then go to the parks, same for libraries, community centers, senior centers, schools, and little league games. If you do not like being there, you are in the wrong place.

If you want a “good” school, do your homework. Check the local school department web site, look at the Department of Education site for info about the local schools, go to a PTO meeting, make an appointment to visit the school where your child may go, talk to parents who have children in that school. Watch the behavior of the children and their parents in town; that is the culture you children could grow up in.

If you don’t like a place, it may be because you are in a protected class and you don’t feel comfortable. It could be that the people in the town are in a protected class and you don’t feel comfortable. It could be that the people in the town are snobs, and you are not; or visa versa (snobs are not a protected class!)

As a buyer or renter, the choice is up to you. A seller cannot legally stop you from buying based on your status as a member of a protected class. In Massachusetts, sellers/owners cannot deny someone housing based on race, color, religion, creed, gender, handicap, children, source of income, marital status, sexual preference, ancestry and/or national origin.