Location Location Location

Realtors will tell you the three most important factors in real estate are:

1. Location
2. Location
3. Location

I'd say everyone in the free world has heard this. And yet... Pick up one of those realty magazines that are at the grocery store, gas station, pretty much anywhere you'd stop your car. They're everywhere. They're free. They're online. They'll mail them to your address if you ask them. They'll send you one from some other state or city (or market as they call it) but they are all the same. They show houses that most people can't afford. Sometimes they tell you how many acres, and often tell you how many bedrooms and bathrooms the property has. The one single thing they almost never tell you? The location. Most times they don't even tell you what town the property is in, let alone where the property is at in that town. Location Location Location. BS. BS. BS.

Why does this matter to little ol' me? Well I have a little rule. I won't live west of work. I do not wish to spend the rest of my natural life driving into the sun. Maybe for others it has something to do with not living in a crack house neighborhood. My needs are easy. Home must be east of work. And yet, finding that information without having to engage in a conversation with a realtor is typically not available.

I get the feeling that the realty market is only steps above the new car market... which is of course only one step above the used car market.