In Michael's book The SmallMart Revolution and its successor Local Dollars, Local Sense talk about the value and power of local business. His message relates to Real Estate in two important ways: the quality of your life is related to the quality of amenities provided by local business in your community; the value of your real estate is related to the quality and qulaities of the local businesses. In urban neighbourhoods this conveys as local coffee culture, local food culture, and local beer culture. A home located close to a perfect coffee pour will be positively influenced, compare that to the value of a home located close to a money exchange/pawn shop. Shopping locally helps home owners build value. Its like investing in the quality of your neighbourhood.
Who Lives in the Neighbourhood you are buying in
Buyers always want to know who their neighbours will be. While you can certainly get a sense of who they are from the demeanour of people on the street, and the care taken with houses and gardens, even from the cars and bicycles parked in driveways and curb-side, it is nice to have more information. In Toronto you can download ward profiles from the city website. This is a great tool that I use for educating clients about new neighbourhoods that they are considering. But a quick litmus test for a home is to use this tool from Environics that profiles the community in our quick postal code search.
