Delaware good things (Dover: sale, real estate, apartment)

[maryCh]

Rockky,

I know what you mean about "your" pink house. I lived in Norfolk/Va Beach from 1961 to mid 70's and beyond (back and forth over the years... too long a story), but the Va Beach of my day is NOT what it is now! Way back when, what constituted Va Beach was just the oceanfront/resort area, and the rest of the "burb" was all part of Princess Anne County. Including a very rural area (can we say pig farms and all?) and a lovely Williamsburg style county govt complex. Fast forward too many years, and all the land is filled up, the pig farms are gone (I think), and there is no rural stretch to the govt complex. In fact, last I heard the powers that be are trying to move the govt operation to a more centralized location. Uh, how things evolve!

I still have brother and sister living there, so we visit frequently. If I have my choice, I'd never live there again as it has grown way too much for my taste.

Peeweeaz - don't ya know honey/sugar is the sweetest nectar there is? Gotta wish you knew what bees know! Keep us posted on your travels; the new comers here (including me) will probably want to meet you for a meal when you're in town!

Gotta run, off to lunch with the ladies!

Mary

[JulieF]

Geeze, you guys are taking my thread in all sorts of directions. KIDDING! Here is my official permission to, as Rockky would say, "drive" it anywhere!

Rockky, I'm fairly wary of going almost anywhere on my own, even the beaches off season, and that particular treasure of an area that both you and I love is included. Fortunately, husband or others are usually with me. We did see a nude (guy) jogger when the children were younger! I know there used to be a nude beach near Rehoboth, but don't know where. Next funniest thing was a cat walking along the beach behind its "owner." No leash. Great litter box, don't you think?

Mary, sorry about your husband's fender-bender, and so glad it wasn't worse. We, by the way, haven't taken our day trip south of Dewey to the Seashore National park yet. We are fortunate, this week, to be able to choose our day, and will make it a week day.

Peeweeaz, we live in northwest Dover, but have family living in various other areas of, or near, Dover, so if you can tell me where and when you might choose to rent, I'll spread the word. We expect to be moving within the next two years and I think renting in the area (wherever that turns out to be) is what we'll plan to do.

Sorry if I've missed anything. I work from home, but I assign myself long hours! (Necessary.)

Hope you have a great lunch, girls. Tell us all about each other. I picture each of you, but those impressions are probably way off.

Lori

[maryCh]

Lori,

We'll have to make the next lunch a 5-some if you're interested. I may suggest a diner in Dover, as Lash is more up that way. Have you been to the Hollywood Diner, and if so, would you recommend it for a bunch of chatty women for lunch on a Tuesday????

Mary

[JulieF]

Mary, you caught me, but I'm not supposed to hanging around here at the moment!

I rarely drive along the Hollywood Diner area of Rte. 13, and couldn't have told you if it was still there! All I know about it is that an older (male) friend of ours used to go there for breakfast almost every day, but that was years ago.

OK, now I've really got to move along here!!

[lash5107]

I'll butt in here with my 2 cents, as we just got here about 7 weeks ago after trying to find a rental from Nebraska.

We found our rental on DoverPost.com classifieds. We also looked at newszap.com. The most fruitless and frustrating avenues were calling the real estate agencies. They either 'wouldn't' send us pictures or required us to come visit in person before they would rent to us...which wasn't an option.

The private owner landlords that we talked to were all very helpful about sending pictures and giving us information on the area.

I'm sure people here would be willing to help out if you need someone to 'scout' a house for you!

LA

Originally Posted by peeweeaz

maryCH,

I had asked you, awhile back, what resource(s) you used to find the house you are renting. My wife and I are exploring coming back to the East Coast and are considering renting for awhile. If you wouldn't mind, pretty please with sugar on it!

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by elizamary

LOL..............This is work cuz I know sugar always gets me.

Oh Lord.........Another typo. I should read these before I post them and not after

[peeweeaz]

Lash5107,

Thanks for that info and offer. I've been downloading (is that a computer term?) the online "Dover Post" every now and again to get a feel for prices and availabilty. Thanks for the tip on realtors. I said somewhere else in this forum that realtors make their money upfront on sales and have to wait monthly if they're into property management. Might be a reason why most realtors don't want to be bothered with rentals.

[lash5107]

Yeah, I remember. Our original discussions of the rental topic were in my thread on "Dover Neighborhoods" back when we were living in NE. DoverPost.com had lots of rentals, it just involves lots of phone calls and emails. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you need a set of eyes in Dover to check something out.

LA

[JulieF]

Mary, I'm sorry I didn't catch your earlier mention of me possibly joining you four for lunch next time. I was hurrying to do an online task that should have been finished two days ago. Still not finished, but here I am. You sound like a great group. I remember mentioning in one thread that I thought a number of you, both those who had just moved to the area, or were considering doing so, would have an interesting and compatible group of friends. I kept your number and I may be in touch.

Peeweeaz, in case you missed it in my post above, I'll be glad to join LA in helping (will keep my ears alert anyway!) to find a rental for you. It occurs to me that we may be offering our house as a rental for a while when we're ready to move along, but we expect that won't be for about 2 years. My husband hasn't mentioned this, but he does say that he wants to rent for about a year wherever we go, to be very certain before moving that he wouldn't prefer to be right here in Dover, so....if you're still around and interested in a 2 story, 5 br's, 3 1/2 baths, and so on.

Lori

[maryCh]

Hey gang,

I'm finally catching up, as I had to grab a nap after lunch with the girls! Man, there should be warning signs on the sausage around here!

Anyway, about the realtors.... what I seemed to notice over the summer when pestering realtors is that not many "agencies" have a rental dept. The ones that don't usually have a few, but they are typically properties owned by a certain realtor (or that realtor is doing a friend a favor) and independently managed by same. I spent a lot of time on the phone over the summer trying the realtor avenue for a rental.

Our experience was similar to LASH... although coming from NC during the summer, we were able to drive to DE for long weekends to look for a rental a few times. We got lucky on our early August trip and found where we've landed listed in the Dover Post. I was getting desparate and even tried an Air Force connection to see if there was a network there and struck out.

It really can be hit or miss looking for a rental (other than an apt) in the real estate market. We found rents to be very near or higher than what a mortgage payment would be, which probably speaks volumes about the availibility of rentals out there. With the current problems in the mortgage industry going on, I think foreclosures will increase in the next year and will impact the rental market as well. Should be an interesting year... peeweeaz, you may be looking to buy instead of rent.

Mary