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My wife and I currently live in Manhattan, but we recently had a baby, and our 1 bedroom apartment just isn't going to cut it much longer, so we're looking to sell out and head to the burbs.
I've never owned property before, so I have quite a few questions and concerns. I don't expect anybody to be fully knowledgeable about every aspect, but if you have any advice for anything at all, I'm all ears!
I work at JFK, so moving to LI would actually likely lower my commute time. She works from home a lot, but also goes to a number NYC public schools as part of her job, mostly around Queens and Brooklyn, so her commute also wouldn't be too terrible on a normal day from many parts of Nassau County.
We're still in the early stages of the home search, but just to help get an idea of neighborhoods, we went to a bunch of open houses this past weekend. A couple of the houses were waterfront, so now my wife is in love with those and only wants to live in a waterfront house....
Since we're looking for waterfront property, I'm looking at towns along the south shore. These include Oceanside, Merrick, Bellmore, Seaford, and Massapequa. We'd like to keep the budget to around $600k-ish and below. How are the schools in these areas? I know the school rankings on Zillow put Oceanside High School, School 7 as a 6/10, which doesn't sound too impressive. Many of the other towns have schools that are 8s and 9s (Seaford I believe is a 7), although we did see some great houses in our price range in Oceanside.
Does anyone have any experience with flood insurance for a waterfront house in these areas? The realtors at the open houses were giving us numbers that seemed absurdly low. One was something like $600/year, and they swore it could be transferred to the new owner at that rate. Another was like $800 a year. However I just got off the phone with GEICO and got a quote for $3,200 for one property. The agent had no clue where the realtors were getting their super low numbers from.
Also, how common is it to rent out your dock? We don't have a boat, but all the houses we looked at have docks that can accommodate 1 to 4 boats. I was thinking it might help take some of the sting out of the property taxes if we rented one or two of them out during the season. I mentioned this to the same GEICO agent I was on the phone with, and she said that she thinks as long as I have a good umbrella homeowner's policy, nothing additional should be needed.
I'm sure I'll think of more questions, but town/neighborhood suggestions, school advice, flood insurance info is at the top of my list for now, thanks!
My wife and I currently live in Manhattan, but we recently had a baby, and our 1 bedroom apartment just isn't going to cut it much longer, so we're looking to sell out and head to the burbs.
I've never owned property before, so I have quite a few questions and concerns. I don't expect anybody to be fully knowledgeable about every aspect, but if you have any advice for anything at all, I'm all ears!
I work at JFK, so moving to LI would actually likely lower my commute time. She works from home a lot, but also goes to a number NYC public schools as part of her job, mostly around Queens and Brooklyn, so her commute also wouldn't be too terrible on a normal day from many parts of Nassau County.
We're still in the early stages of the home search, but just to help get an idea of neighborhoods, we went to a bunch of open houses this past weekend. A couple of the houses were waterfront, so now my wife is in love with those and only wants to live in a waterfront house....
Since we're looking for waterfront property, I'm looking at towns along the south shore. These include Oceanside, Merrick, Bellmore, Seaford, and Massapequa. We'd like to keep the budget to around $600k-ish and below. How are the schools in these areas? I know the school rankings on Zillow put Oceanside High School, School 7 as a 6/10, which doesn't sound too impressive. Many of the other towns have schools that are 8s and 9s (Seaford I believe is a 7), although we did see some great houses in our price range in Oceanside.
Does anyone have any experience with flood insurance for a waterfront house in these areas? The realtors at the open houses were giving us numbers that seemed absurdly low. One was something like $600/year, and they swore it could be transferred to the new owner at that rate. Another was like $800 a year. However I just got off the phone with GEICO and got a quote for $3,200 for one property. The agent had no clue where the realtors were getting their super low numbers from.
Also, how common is it to rent out your dock? We don't have a boat, but all the houses we looked at have docks that can accommodate 1 to 4 boats. I was thinking it might help take some of the sting out of the property taxes if we rented one or two of them out during the season. I mentioned this to the same GEICO agent I was on the phone with, and she said that she thinks as long as I have a good umbrella homeowner's policy, nothing additional should be needed.
I'm sure I'll think of more questions, but town/neighborhood suggestions, school advice, flood insurance info is at the top of my list for now, thanks!
Homeowners insurance is extremely hard to get on the water and can cost a lot. Bulkhead can cost up to a $1,000 a foot to replace.
Flood insurance some houses are really $600 a year on the water and is transferable. But it is often called the newly mapped rate. It is a subsidized rate. However, it will rise 18% a year until you hit full risk based on your zone and elevation.
So the $3,200 rate is the rate if you took out policy today without transfer. The $600 rate is if you took over policy and it will rise 18% a year till it hits $3,200.
But flood goes up around 3-5% a year. So that $3,200 will be more like $4,000 in a few years.
So when you sell your house in ten years from now good luck. You wont have a teaser low rate to pass on.
Homeowners insurance is extremely hard to get on the water and can cost a lot. Bulkhead can cost up to a $1,000 a foot to replace.
Flood insurance some houses are really $600 a year on the water and is transferable. But it is often called the newly mapped rate. It is a subsidized rate. However, it will rise 18% a year until you hit full risk based on your zone and elevation.
So the $3,200 rate is the rate if you took out policy today without transfer. The $600 rate is if you took over policy and it will rise 18% a year till it hits $3,200.
But flood goes up around 3-5% a year. So that $3,200 will be more like $4,000 in a few years.
So when you sell your house in ten years from now good luck. You wont have a teaser low rate to pass on.
Yeah I vaguely remember hearing something about the policy being transferable, but it increasing by a pretty large amount every year until it reaches the "normal" rate. What a surprise the realtor glosses over that part....
Then again we are saving like $7k a year by not having to pay NYC income taxes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl
Yeah. Unless you make a boatload of money you're screwed.
Well, we do pretty good I guess. Maybe around $185k a year or so between the two of us, and we could put like $200k down, so we'd only be getting ~$400k mortgage. And my mother-in-law lives in a 2 family house that she owns in Farmingdale. Our plan, once we buy a house, is for her to move in with us, then we would either get all the income from renting her old house (~$3k a month) or just sell it (~$400k), and we could just throw that big lump payment against our principle and have the mortgage paid off pretty fast.
Still though, I realize these are a lot of assumptions, so I'm trying to get as many of my ducks in a row as possible before really moving ahead. Realtors aren't really a good source of information as I've found they just paint the rosiest possible picture.
Yeah I vaguely remember hearing something about the policy being transferable, but it increasing by a pretty large amount every year until it reaches the "normal" rate. What a surprise the realtor glosses over that part....
Then again we are saving like $7k a year by not having to pay NYC income taxes.
Well, we do pretty good I guess. Maybe around $185k a year or so between the two of us, and we could put like $200k down, so we'd only be getting ~$400k mortgage. And my mother-in-law lives in a 2 family house that she owns in Farmingdale. Our plan, once we buy a house, is for her to move in with us, then we would either get all the income from renting her old house (~$3k a month) or just sell it (~$400k), and we could just throw that big lump payment against our principle and have the mortgage paid off pretty fast.
Still though, I realize these are a lot of assumptions, so I'm trying to get as many of my ducks in a row as possible before really moving ahead. Realtors aren't really a good source of information as I've found they just paint the rosiest possible picture.
Also if home got damaged in Sandy and got a FEMA or NY Rising Payout flood insurance is mandatory for life. If you drop it you won't get a second grant.
Also that subsidized $600 rate is ONLY for folks with one single flood claim. AKA Sandy, you get a second claim in a ten year period you lose that rate and goes right to full risk. So you cant have a claim till November 2022.
Flood insurance, flood history and if it took prior grants are house specific.
Finally, that subsidized rate if for primary owners only. If you decide to rent it goes up at 25% a year till full risk rate plus and immediate $250 surcharge for a non-primary residence. Plus a non-primary residence is not paid at replacement cost. So if down the road you plan to rent is an issue.
Well, we do pretty good I guess. Maybe around $185k a year or so between the two of us, and we could put like $200k down, so we'd only be getting ~$400k mortgage. And my mother-in-law lives in a 2 family house that she owns in Farmingdale. Our plan, once we buy a house, is for her to move in with us, then we would either get all the income from renting her old house (~$3k a month) or just sell it (~$400k), and we could just throw that big lump payment against our principle and have the mortgage paid off pretty fast.
Still though, I realize these are a lot of assumptions, so I'm trying to get as many of my ducks in a row as possible before really moving ahead. Realtors aren't really a good source of information as I've found they just paint the rosiest possible picture.
What they're trying to say is that it might be hard to sell the house in the future, esp. many years down the line when who knows how much insurance will cost. Maybe you could check what happens to insurance if you buy north of the Sunrise Highway. Maybe you can look at Massapequa Park or Village of Valley Stream.
Who doesn't want to live waterfront? Enjoy the next flood, by the way you check what you get for that $3200 a year in flood insurance. And the deductible.
$250,000 coverage (which is the maximum), and $25,000 of contents coverage (more can be added for very little), and a $5k deductible.
Only the mechanicals are covered in your basement. I am not in a flood zone but I miss it by inches, so I bought flood insurance at minimal cost. Having doubts that it's at all worth it. Given the elevation of my property, the most that could happen is that my basement (2/3 of which actually sits above ground) gets flooded out and that's a risk I might actually be willing to take given what I'm actually covered for. Anything worse than that would take a storm the likes of which would truly wipe out half of Nassau.
Waterfront or close to waterfront property requires a lot of thought. A lot of thought. Becoming a weather watcher is another hobby you will also have like it or not.....for the next 20-30 years. After Sandy my brother's house on the water Oakdale went from $1.2 million to about $650,000 in value. Yes it's going back up...until next storm. Insurance never goes down and never covers what you have and getting them to pay is another story. $185k a yr is nice but paying that monthly nut + extra insurance just because the wife likes looking at the water will get old.....fast, especially if you're not a boater. So is renting dockspace.....remember you have to supply a place for them to park while they're on the water. Do you really want to look at Fat Tony's gut out your kitchen window?
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