Why You Walk It

Photographs and satellite views show you what a neighbourhood looks like. Walking it shows you what it feels like. Noise, traffic patterns, the condition of the neighbouring properties, the distance from your front door to the nearest convenience, the actual slope of the driveway in winter. None of that comes through on a screen.

If you are moving to the GTA from outside the city, or from one part of the GTA to another, the neighbourhood walk is the step most people skip and most people regret skipping. A thirty minute visit on a weekday evening and a second on a Saturday morning will tell you more than any listing description ever will.

The Weekday Evening Walk

Visit between five and seven on a weekday. This is when the neighbourhood shows you its commuter reality. Notice the traffic on the nearest main road. Is it backed up? For how long? Walk from the property to the nearest transit stop and time it. If you will be driving, sit in your car at the nearest intersection during the evening rush and observe.

Listen. Can you hear highway noise? Is there a flight path overhead? Are there trains? These are things you stop noticing after a while, but they affect resale value and they affect your quality of life. Stand on the driveway of the property you are considering and close your eyes for sixty seconds. What you hear is what you will hear every evening.

Look at the neighbouring properties. Are they well maintained? Are the gardens tidy? Is there construction happening? One renovation on the street is normal. Three or four suggests a neighbourhood that is turning over, which can mean noise and disruption for months.

Check the street parking. If the street is full of parked cars at six in the evening, that is what it will look like every evening. If you have a narrow driveway and rely on street parking for a second car, this matters.

The Saturday Morning Walk

Come back on a Saturday between nine and eleven. The weekend shows you the neighbourhood at rest. Are people walking dogs? Are children playing? Is the street quiet or is there through traffic using it as a shortcut?

Walk to the nearest grocery shop and time it. Walk to the nearest park and notice whether it is maintained. Look at the nearest school, even if you do not have children, because the condition of the local school is a reliable proxy for the condition of the neighbourhood and a significant factor in resale.

If there is a coffee shop or a small restaurant within walking distance, sit down for twenty minutes. The people around you are your future neighbours. The conversation, the pace, the feel of the place will tell you whether this is somewhere you want to be.

What to Look Up Before or After

Walk first, research second. If the walk felt right, confirm it with the following.

Check the municipal zoning for the lots nearby, particularly any vacant land or large lots that could be redeveloped. A six-storey residential building on the lot behind you will change your experience of the property. Your municipality's planning department has this information online.

Look at the property tax rate for the municipality. Municipal tax rates vary meaningfully across the GTA, and the rate you pay is determined by where you live, not where you work. This affects your carrying cost every month.

Search for planned infrastructure projects. A new transit line is generally good for property values. A new highway interchange directly adjacent to the property is generally not. Metrolinx and the relevant municipality both publish project maps.

Check the flood plain maps. Toronto Region Conservation Authority maintains maps showing which properties sit in regulated flood plains. This affects your insurance, your ability to renovate, and your resale.

Three Things People Miss

The first is the school bus route. If the property is on a school bus route, you will have a large yellow bus stopping outside your house twice a day during the school year, with the traffic that accompanies it. This is not a problem for everyone but it surprises people who did not expect it.

The second is the snow clearing. Side streets in some municipalities are cleared promptly. In others they are not. Ask a neighbour. They will tell you honestly, because they live with it every winter.

The third is the bin collection schedule. Some areas have curbside collection early in the morning, which means bins on the kerb the night before and collection trucks at six in the morning. If you are a light sleeper and the bedroom faces the street, this matters more than you might think.

The Point of All of This

A house is a structure. A neighbourhood is a life. You are buying both. The house you can renovate. The neighbourhood you cannot. Thirty minutes on foot, twice, is the cheapest due diligence available to you.

If you are considering an area of the GTA and want a local perspective on what the neighbourhood is actually like to live in, call me at 416-560-4983. I have worked in Toronto and York Region for thirty years and I can tell you things that do not show up on a map.

Danny Macedo, Macedo Real Estate Group, Royal LePage Supreme Realty, Brokerage.