The great part about buying a new car is that you get to take it for a test drive and truly experience it. You can adjust the seat to make sure it will be a comfortable ride for all of the road trips you plan to take. You can play with the radio to make sure the speaker system is just the way you like it. You can take it out on the highway to make sure you feel comfortable in the car and like the way it drives.

Unfortunately, when you are buying a new home, you don’t have the ability to get quite as up close and personal. While you cannot stay in a house for a few days to make sure you really like it, there are a few simple ways to test out a home before you make it yours.

Drive Around the Town and Neighborhood
One of the most important factors that potential homebuyers typically consider is commute time. To get an accurate depiction of what your commute would look like from a house, test it out. Your GPS could say that it is a 30-minute drive on a Saturday afternoon, but that same drive could easily turn into an hour with morning work traffic.

Additionally, drive around the neighborhood at different points of the day. Do you see a lot of people walking their dogs in the mornings? Are kids playing together in the afternoons? Are people driving too fast through the neighborhood in the evenings? You want to be sure that you are moving to a safe and enjoyable place.

Listen to Your Surroundings
When you go to a showing for a home, it is easy to quickly become consumed with all of the interior details. You want to check out the bedrooms, bathrooms, flooring, outdoor space, and more. While all those details are important, make sure you also take some time to just listen. Do the walls within the house seem to be paper thin? Can you hear all the traffic zooming by? Is there a dog next door that won’t stop barking?

Check Out the Storage Space
A house should always look pristine when it’s on the market, but you also need to be realistic when you are checking out a house to potentially buy. Are the closets large enough to contain all the toys that your children have? Is there plenty of storage space for your holiday decorations? Is there enough cabinet space in the kitchen for all of your dishes and serve ware?

These are the things that you cannot learn from a house listing, but they are still extremely important details to keep in mind.