Starter Houses on Long Island? (Islip, Huntington: crime, safe neighborhood, high school)

[New2LI]

Thanks GCGUY, It's nice to hear some positive feedback about LI. Its a big move for us. My husband and I used to live in Astoria many moons ago, before we had children. It was 10 minutes into the city and everthing you needed was walking distance. Bayside for my in-laws is the "SUBS." Moving out to the North Shore is like the country for everyone we know. They expect to hear roosters crying and cows walking across the road

[GCGuy]

Originally Posted by New2LI

Thanks GCGUY, It's nice to hear some positive feedback about LI. Its a big move for us. My husband and I used to live in Astoria many moons ago, before we had children. It was 10 minutes into the city and everthing you needed was walking distance. Bayside for my in-laws is the "SUBS." Moving out to the North Shore is like the country for everyone we know. They expect to hear roosters crying and cows walking across the road

Kinda similar. While I grew up in Bayside, my mom is from BK and my dad from Elmhurst. My wife is from Astoria. Bayside was like the burbs. That's the main reason we looked in Nassau. We checked out all the way to Port Jeff...beautiful, more for your money, etc. It will be somwhat of a change at first, but I think you'll get used to it and learn to love it. My friend went to school at SUNY and moved there once he graduated. I think once he's married he's going to stay there, too.

While you can't walk to everything (and sometimes nothing) on LI, most of the island is pretty convenient to a good amount of things.

Good luck with it. Make sure you give it a fighting chance, though, if it's not "love at first move."

[New2LI]

They say change is good, think positive and hope all works well in the end (that's what I keep saying to myself).

[autumngal]

I grew up in Calverton there on Long Island and most of my family lives there. Well they will be moving down here to North Carolina soon. But that is a peaceful little town, and houses are affordable there. Great lakes, small town atmosphere, Pine Barrens are protected.
Just a thought.

[policar4]

I haven't posted since a few months ago when I was looking for a place to move to. We settled on Putnam County NY - good schools, quieter life, more space, still close to the city. The trade-off is less shopping, doesn't have that L.I. "edge" - but we'll have lots of trees!

There are many good things about L.I. - and now that prices have dropped its still a great place to bring up your kids as long as you don't overdo it.

I find the biggest problem now is the artificial prices caused by realtors - we put our house on the market and immediately got over 20 calls a day from agents telling us we couldn't possibly sell it on our own. At this point we just started advertising, and we're asking for way less than its worth (485K) just to avoid using a realtor - & not only because of the money, but because they're so obnoxious!

Anyone looking to save money should look on "for sale by owner" websites. There are tons of them, and more every day. Sure, some people ask for ridiculous amounts because they're unrealistic, but more and more people just want to move out honestly and cleanly, without the red tape, nonsense, and highway robbery of the real estate system.

Good luck to all searching for houses - they're out there, use the internet!

[nutmuffin]

policar4

Can I ask you... Ive always heard that one advantage to using a realtor is that they weed out the non qualified buyers ? Is that true ? do they do some type of background check ?
if you are using a for sale by owner website how can we accomplish that on our own ?

[momix5]

For Sale by owner is a great resource, I read recently that a lot of people avoid using it because they think that the owner had something to hide? My friend sold her house that way and also bought her house that way and saved a lot of money, just make sure you get an engineer in to inspect the premises. In these times alot of people have put in a lot of money to fix up the houses they bought and instead of spending 20-40 thousand in commision they do it themselves, My Uncle also listed with a realtor, house sat on the mkt 1 year, all the real estates told him they were too high, meanwhile he was 50,000 below all the houses in the area, found out the real estate was playing muliple games with him. The contract expired he listed the house fsbo for 5,000 more than the real estate listed it and sold it in 2 days. Try it a lot of sellers can go lowere if they do not have to pay the fee for commision.

[GypsySoul22]

I think FSBO is great...just get yourself a good real estate attorney when you are ready and you will be fine.

[policar4]

There are dozens of sites you can post your house on - I just searched for "free+sale+owner+ and ended up putting the information on about 15 sites! The only thing is that no one really knows about them. For the most part the agents are the ones who look, then they call you and try to convince you to sign with them. I've passed the 100 mark(!) of agents calling! I've had almost 50 here, most of them under false pretenses. Still, while it is annoying I think its worth it. They don't do anything that you cant! As for pre-approving the buyers, all they do is ask the buyer if they have a pre-approved mortgage. You can do that too - if they don't just tell them to go to lendingtree.com, and within a day they'll have offers from a bunch of banks, they just have to weed through and decide what they want. Make sure you get a deposit and use a lawyer!

Of course, I still haven't gotten to that part yet (lol) but I see how little the agents are doing with the house I'm under contract to buy, so I'm sure I can do a better job when I sell.

The only bad things so far are dealing with agents who make believe that they're buyers, and dealing with people who say that they're coming and don't show up.

[momix5]

You know it is funny, the days when the houses flew off the market are over, the real estates need to get off there you know what and actually put something to sell them. My friend is trying to sell her house and she asked me to go to the open house to check up on the realtor. I went and told the realtor I was looking to upgrade when I sell my house, she told me oh you can look if you want but it has no basement and only one bath, the house is gorgeous, but she had no interest in even showing me around. I reallly do not think that they are worth the 20,000 or so they make in commision. My friends house has been advertised once in 6 months. I really think if more buyers would use FSBO with an attorney and engineer they would get more of a house because the seller could sell for a lot less.