Imagine you have the home of your dreams. Now imagine that it’s hours away from your work and any good schools, the neighborhood is unwelcoming, and the closest restaurants are all chains. Not really a dream house anymore, is it?

We know that the perfect house isn’t perfect for you unless the location also supports your lifestyle. Unfortunately, accessing these dream locations isn’t always easy. Here are our top tips for finding—and getting—a homesite in a location that’s right for you.

First, consider your ideal lifestyle

When thinking about where you want to live, the first step is to consider the lifestyle you want for your family—not necessarily the lifestyle you have now. Building or buying a new home is a great opportunity to level up your lifestyle to achieve your overall goals, whether that means greater health, a stronger community, more calm, or all of the above.

For example, if you want to exercise more and spend more time in nature but don’t currently live on a walkable street or near outdoor recreation, don’t look for a neighborhood just like your current one. Instead, look for neighborhoods that offer walking or hiking paths and trails nearby. If the stress of living in the inner city surrounded by concrete is affecting your family’s well-being, seek a neighborhood with tree-lined streets to promote a greater sense of peace. You can start your home search by making a list of the top lifestyle goals for your family.

Many homeseekers, like TJH homeowners Robin and Mike, imagine living within close proximity to great restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, and outdoor activities. An important part of the home search process is checking out the places that could become your regular haunts to see if you would love going there day in and day out. Also consider spending time in parks and other public areas in the neighborhood and visiting with residents to assess if your family would fit in well with the community.

Fortunately for those living in the regions where we build—Northern California, Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, and Arizona—there are many great neighborhoods to explore. We’ve described our perfect day in Phoenix’s Arcadia neighborhood, LA’s Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood in Westside LA, but our list of favorite neighborhoods doesn’t stop there. We build new homes in dozens of the coolest neighborhoods in these regions.

Then, consider practical matters

Of course, living your dream lifestyle may not bring you as much joy as you hope if you have to commute two hours each way to work. Therefore, the next step in finding the right fit neighborhood is taking practical matters into consideration.

If you work outside the home, you’ll want to check out your daily commute by driving the route at the normal time you would go to work and return home. If you have children or plan to have children, you’ll also want to research the school district and nearby private schools. Once you find a school you like, ask if you and your child can take a tour.

Do you like the available homes?

“A dream home needs a dream location” is also true in the reverse. It can be extremely frustrating to identify the neighborhood where you want to live, only to find that all the available homes are outdated or unattractive.

At TJH, we build modern, livable homes with elevated amenities in the neighborhoods where homeseekers want to be, but where new construction is rare. Buying one of our available homes underway allows you to secure a spot in your favorite neighborhood while also enjoying early-stage pricing and the opportunity to personalize many elements of your home. TJH homeowners Mona and Pooya were thrilled when we built a home in their preferred Bay Area neighborhood after they’d been house-hunting for five years.

“[Our TJH home] was definitely different from most of the houses that you find in the Bay Area. It was fresh, it was new, it had a modern floorplan. There was nothing that we would like to change. It was just the perfect house for us.”

Renata C., TJH homeowner, San Jose, CA​

Will a home in this neighborhood likely hold its value?

Another consideration when selecting your location is how the value of your home may hold up over time. It could seem like a smart decision to buy a home in an up-and-coming neighborhood. However, if development doesn’t take off as expected, you could be left with a home that you overpaid for and can’t sell.

On the other hand, neighborhoods that have been popular for many years can be harder to access, and homes may be more expensive. That said, a history of high demand may indicate that the home will increase in value over the years and be more marketable if you decide to sell at some point.

Can you get into the neighborhood you want?

Too often, families find their dream location only to discover that there are no houses for sale. If that happens, you have three options, depending on your timeframe for moving.

If you need to move sooner rather than later, you may have to look at your list of things you liked about that neighborhood and find an available home located in another neighborhood with many of those same qualities. If you have a more flexible timeline, you can try to find a home, or homesite on which to build, in your dream neighborhood before it goes on the market. And if you don’t have a pressing need to move, you can monitor the neighborhood for months or years until a home you like becomes available.

Working with a realtor or builder like TJH can be helpful when looking for homes in a particular neighborhood. Our BUILD+ program helps you find an off-market homesite on which to build a new home in a location that’s right for you. For prospective clients who don’t have a homesite to readily build on, our Private Client Group will work with our acquisitions team to find an off-market property on which they can build a TJH home. Once we find the right homesite, clients purchase it and enter into a separate construction agreement for the future home. Per division, we may offer exclusive home plans, exterior styles, and/or design considerations to clients who both purchase their homesite through us and enter into a BUILD contract. If you need to move sooner, our sales team can help you find an available home that’s close to completion in one of the top neighborhoods where we build.

Do you really just want to stay where you already are?

Often, homeseekers need a larger, modern home because their family and their needs have outgrown their old home, but they still love where they live. Saying “goodbye” to your neighbors, the local restaurants and shops you love, and your child’s favorite climbing tree make moving into a new home bittersweet.

If, after considering your ideal lifestyle and other neighborhood factors, you decide you want to stay in your existing homesite, we have a new home solution designed to meet that need. With BUILD by TJH, you can tear down and rebuild a larger home with elevated amenities without changing your address. You’ll choose a plan, select a style, and relax into our end-to-end construction process. You can learn more about the process of building a new home on your existing homesite during your free BUILD Analysis.