One weekend, three neighborhoods, and a promise to walk each one instead of driving through and calling it research. I had already read too much advice on Home Price Drops about what to look for, so we made a plan and stuck to it.

We did rush hour and Sunday morning, both, on purpose. Same street, completely different town. At rush hour it was a queue of cars and a lot of reversing. On Sunday it was quiet enough to hear a radio through an open window. Neither of those is the whole truth, but together they get closer than one viewing on a Saturday morning.

Schools and parks we checked on foot, and not just how they looked. Where the children would actually walk. Whether the crossing had a light. Nobody can tell you how a place feels on a wet Wednesday in February, so we used our imagination, which sounds silly until you realize that is exactly what you are buying.

The walk to the nearest shop settled more than any brochure. A few minutes is one thing, a long trudge uphill with a bag of potatoes is another. We timed it. Twice.

The best thing we did was talk to a neighbor. She was outside, we said we were thinking about the house, and she told us more about the street in ten minutes than the listing had in ten photographs. Nothing dramatic. Bin day, and which corner gets the wind.

Then I asked myself the question that finally decided it. Can I picture an ordinary Tuesday here? No open house, no excitement, just work and dinner and a walk. One of the three said yes straight away.