To become the potential owner of the best house in the neighborhood would seem like more than an ideal scenario, you'll get the AWWs and admirations of all the neighbours and visitors. However, if you dig deeper you may not want to own the neighborhod's top property. Before you make your decision on whether to buy the home think about the following:

How do the other homes in the neighbourhood fare? If there is an obvious difference between the other homes in the neighbourhood and the one you are looking to buy, then be sure that the other homes probably cost a lot less.  So what does this mean to you?

If you also look at your home as a potential investment, then buying the best home in the neighbourhood may not be the best decision. The home's value will be hard to increase with additional renovations - additional home renovations will further profilitrate the disparity with the neighbouring homes. Life is full of unexpected events, if a misfortune happens it will be hard to find a buyer when under pressure. Also, people who want the type of home you are trying to sell will look at more compatible neighbourhoods where that type of architecture is the norm.

Buying the best home in the neighbourhood will make sense if you are sure that gentrification will occur. This means that you are puting all your odds that all the other homes in the neighbourhood will improve, and that the neighbourhood is up and comming. Throughout time the area will improve drastically and your home's value will also increase.  This can happen but, the more common thing is that it doesn't.

You are actually better off buying the worst house in the best neighbourhood, than buying the best house in a bad neighbourhood. Rememember that once you buy you can make changes to the house but you can't make changes to the location. By buying a home that needs improvement, even the small changes will increase its value.