Coming down to look at Land +Houses (Seaford, Middletown: real estate, crime rate)

[sleeplessinpa]

We are heading down to DE in mid- October to look at Land and homes.

We have been looking on ther MLS sites and found 4, 5 and 6 acre lots. They average around $130.000 or so.

Afew are in Seaford, Georgetown and Milsboro. Are taxes low in these ares as well?

So I woud like to know about each of these ares. Do Any of them get hit hard with flooding- or Hurricans? I would like a full basement- is this realistic down there?
Is there something I should be aware of before I go down. Questons I should ask the Realator?

I am alittle lost with the Real Estate system- I have been seeing there are several types of Septic systems (we only have 2 that I know of here in Pa - Turkey Mound or Standard). Also soil testing is another thing we have not done here. What is that?


I see some list Soil Impact fees( Sewer I think as well) which can be in the thousands! What is that? We do not have anything like that here in Pa.


Thanks..

So far we found a few properties that are affordible to us. We want at least 3 acres- We have 3 dogs and we are training them for competition so we need room for them to run. As well as set up their obsticle course for training.. Of course I do not want a road by the house in case they run out. So I would prefer we built a private road to our home away from the county road.

Thanks for any help!

[winnie]

I wish I could answer some of your questions but I just don't have the answers you are looking for.

DE has some wetlands, maybe the soil impact fee is some sort of survey to see how a septic would drain to make sure there is no leeching into waterways???? That is common in NYS if there are wetlands on the property or if the property is waterfront, the DEC needs to come out and approve the septic plans...

Might want to call a builder or a realtor to get a feel for what those fees mean, and while you are at it, pull up some houses in different towns and ask the listing realtor what the taxes are. I have been told that most of Southern DE is cheap real estate tax, but I don't know specifically about the towns you are looking in.

Good luck getting the info you need - and those lots are nice sized for the $$!

I caught the tail end of it on the news, something about statewide property tax relief for PA??? With seniors benefitting the most, but everyone getting a break? I will have to do more digging - might be good news for both of us in the time being LOL!

[dolphnsfan]

I have lived in DE my entire life. I used to live in Magnolia but now live in Smyrna. I am currently looking for a house and I have done very extensive research on houses and this is what I know. Leaky basements are pretty much hit or miss. If your from out of state, I would definetely recommend a home inspection before you buy any house with a basement. New or older!!. The only real experience I have is pretty much in Kent County which is in the middle of Delaware. As far as Kent County, I can tell you which schools are good, which developments are nice (in my opinion of course) and what is around, both positive and negative of which developments. I'll let you know which developments are starting to go downhill, etc. Hope I can help, talk to you soon.

[SXMGirl]

Make sure you have a radon test done on any home that you select. The Middletown area has had extremely high levels of radon found in many homes, but it is not limited just to Middletown.

[Denise1218]

any info on townsend or is it called odessa i am not sure but Ryan ( i think is the name of the builder) is building home. what about the schools, crime rate i thought de was cheap but those homes are going for 300 grand plus

[MPBsr]

Originally Posted by Denise1218

any info on townsend or is it called odessa i am not sure but Ryan ( i think is the name of the builder) is building home. what about the schools, crime rate i thought de was cheap but those homes are going for 300 grand plus

Actually, we were also going to look at Ryan in Townsend. His smaller model is going for $270+

[sleeplessinpa]

We were looking in sussex because of the lower taxes. We do not plan on moving until Hubby retires in 4.5 years but buying land is a Big Possibily now.

Schools are not important to us as our kids are Adults now . I never lived in a developement and Hubby would not like it. He has heard to many horror stories from co-workers about the limitaions of what they can do with their property.

Besides we are looking to move where taxes are lower and do not want Home Owners Association Fees, Sewer Fees and Water fees to end up costing us as much as our Taxes here in Pa.

We do not have any of those fees here in the Country in Pa. We are looking for a Country Setting in Delaware with at least 3 acres. We Have Relatives in Lewes who live in a Developement and they do have a lovely home on 3 acres but again my husband does not like the idea of living in a developement. Their taxes are just $654.00 a year ! They said homes are going for around $450,000 in their area.

This is not really bad considering we would have at least $200,000 as a down payment.

Anyway, my cousin said we should call a Real Estate Agent. Hubby wants me to contact a Remax .

Thanks all,

[sleeplessinpa]

Originally Posted by winnie

I wish I could answer some of your questions but I just don't have the answers you are looking for.

DE has some wetlands, maybe the soil impact fee is some sort of survey to see how a septic would drain to make sure there is no leeching into waterways???? That is common in NYS if there are wetlands on the property or if the property is waterfront, the DEC needs to come out and approve the septic plans...

Might want to call a builder or a realtor to get a feel for what those fees mean, and while you are at it, pull up some houses in different towns and ask the listing realtor what the taxes are. I have been told that most of Southern DE is cheap real estate tax, but I don't know specifically about the towns you are looking in.

Good luck getting the info you need - and those lots are nice sized for the $$!

I caught the tail end of it on the news, something about statewide property tax relief for PA??? With seniors benefitting the most, but everyone getting a break? I will have to do more digging - might be good news for both of us in the time being LOL!

Let me know what you find. But from what I had heard previously. They were raising the Tax Rebate for Seniors who made up to $30,000 a year. I think it is at just $15,000 a year right now.

But that will not benift us since we make more than that. By the Why I really think they need to Limit the Percent School Districts increase their taxes every year for everyone!.

My School District(which you all know I complain about) just raised one of the towns(in their district) Taxes 28% because they made an error in their tax bills over the last few years! The towns people are So Upset- but what they don't realize is they were geitting a break for almost 5 years while People like me were paying a Bigger amount for their break!

[dolphnsfan]

Ryan homes are probably the nicest in Delaware. However, they also have an expensive tag along with them. I just bought a house and went through all the footwork. Hope to never have to do it again but I have a wealth of knowledge about the homes and builders in Kent County. If any one has any questions, e-mail me @ dolphnsfan@hotmail.com

[winnie]

SleeplessinPa - this is what I found so far on the PA tax relief...

http://www.pde.state.pa.us/proptax/site/default.asp

this is the homepage for the progress made on implementing this.

I don't think this is going to help any time soon - see the PDF timeline... And I am confused to exactly when we will see any relief!