After you have defined some basic criteria for the apartment you are looking for, such as how many rooms, which city it will be in, and more, you will need to examine some essential questions in each apartment that meets the basic criteria you have defined:
- Is the size and location of the apartment right for you?
- What is its real value?
- Does the living environment meet your needs?
- Are there any municipal plans in the area that could affect the value of the apartment?
There is no doubt that this is a lot of information that you must gather, but there is no reason to worry as all the information is available online and can be easily accessed – here are some excellent tools that will help you get all the answers:
Computers all the way to the bank
You've received a great offer for your first apartment, your dream apartment. Now you need to check how much it will really cost you. Many websites offer calculators that will help you calculate the price of the apartment after all the associated payments such as purchase tax, attorney fees, transportation, buying furniture or renovating the apartment if necessary.
Other calculators will help you see how much your mortgage will cost you each month and how long it will take you to complete the payments. If you are thinking about an apartment for investment, you can also look at what its future yield will be. All you have to do is search for "real estate calculator" in the search engine and figure out how much all this will actually cost you.
Hot real estate sites
There are several websites online today that provide organized access to information that can help you choose your first apartment. Chief among them is the 'Madelan' website, which provides answers to frequently asked questions such as how many transactions have recently taken place in the designated neighborhood, what the price range is in the area by number of rooms, how many residents are apartment owners versus renters, what the installation score of the nearby high school was, and even what the average age of the neighbors is.
On the government real estate website, you can find all the transactions made across the country, and on the 'gov.map' maps, you can see the transactions made divided into blocks and plots. On the 'Real Estate Index' of the Yad 2 website, you can receive information about price trends in the area from the ads posted on the site, opinions of surfers about the living environment, and information about the infrastructure in each area, such as schools, entertainment venues, or synagogues.
Municipality website
Every city in Israel today has a website with information that can help you make a better decision. On these sites, you can get information about the city's educational institutions, what services the municipality offers to the public, what is being done for the well-being of residents, whether the city holds cultural events, whether there is an emphasis on cleanliness, what the plans are for the coming years, and so on.
Everyone on Facebook
While on the official website you can get information from city representatives, on Facebook you can find Facebook groups set up by residents themselves, where you can get 'on the ground' information about the state of the area, the burning issues, and the problems that are troubling your future neighbors. This way you can better understand whether residents really like their neighborhood and what you should be careful of.
Buying your first apartment is a stressful process full of questions, and you are allowed to be a little apprehensive at the beginning, but after you gather all the relevant information through the tools available to you, you can make an informed decision and buy your first apartment like a pro.
