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Old 02-14-2017, 03:20 PM
 
4 posts, read 12,744 times
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Hi all, my husband and I are planning to purchase a house on Terrill Road, Fanwood, NJ.. Although we hear great things about Fanwood neighborhood and schools, we also found out that we will be right on the edge of Fanwood. That is, if we cross the road, we are in Plainfield. Did some online research and turns out Plainfield, crime wise, has a pretty bad reputation. We have two young kids, and thier safety is the most important to us. Do you guys suggest we should go ahead with the deal considering the house falls under Fanwood, or should we back off because we're on the shared road with Plainfield? Thanks for your feedback in advance.
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Old 02-14-2017, 04:31 PM
 
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Have you walked around the neighborhood? I only ask because that will probably tell you more than anything else.

Glen Ridge and Maplewood both border "sketchy" areas (East Orange and Irvington) and are under heavy demand. Glen Ridge even used to have a superfund site in the middle of it. So if you like the house, if you can make the budget work, and you feel safe when you walk around those are the things you can control.
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Old 02-14-2017, 09:34 PM
 
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I've driven down Terrill Road a bunch of times to get to 22 and honestly never knew Plainfield was on one side of it. It's always looked like a decent to nice area to me, along the road. I won't lie, Plainfield is a pretty bad city. Outside of Elizabeth it sees the most violent crime in Union County and it has a large gang presence, but there are parts of it that are better. One is near the Scotch Plains border, I would assume it would be the same near the Fanwood border. I don't know much about that particular area (despite being a Union County resident) but I assume you would occasionally see some crime spillover into your area from PF but this happens basically everywhere. It's not like you will see a sharp difference literally across the street just because one side of the road is PF and the other side is Fanwood. It's more likely that either that side of Fanwood is the "sketchier" side or that side of Plainfield is the nicer side, or maybe both.

I know a Plainfield resident who lives near the Scotch Plains border and she lives on a nice little quiet street and has only seen a major crime on her street once in about 15 years. You'll probably be fine. I'd be more concerned about living on a busy street like that than living on the border of what's considered to largely be the better side of Plainfield to be honest. My biggest reason for considering a different home would be the street itself.
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Old 02-14-2017, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Central NJ and PA
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I second what was said about living on Terril because of the busy road. It doesn't seem quite as bad as Martine/Park, but we drive there all the time to swim at the JCC in Scotch Plains, and it's a mess.

We looked at a home a block off Terril, but in Scotch Plains. We loved the house, and it had a great yard. As we left, we drove north to get to our next appointment. Within a few blocks there were such run down homes and businesses that we crossed it off our list. We may not have ever seen any crime, but we worried about resale value, since we plan to leave NJ once the kids graduate.
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Old 02-15-2017, 04:31 PM
 
Location: union county, nj
389 posts, read 660,717 times
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some houses on Terrill are really quite nice. That said, there has been (around the state--not just in SPF) some package thief activity. Houses on main drags (like Terrill) seem to have this occur a bit more frequently (easy escape) versus houses on quieter streets
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Old 02-15-2017, 08:47 PM
 
Location: West Orange, NJ
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We looked at a house in Fanwood a few blocks from Plainfield. There was enough not to like about the house so it was moot as well as Fanwood not being our ideal location. If Fanwood was where we wanted to be and the house was good it would of been a close call.that being said terrill road is a busy street runs right into Plainfield I probably wouldn't go for it but that doesn't mean it's not a good choice.
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Old 02-16-2017, 08:04 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415 View Post
I know a Plainfield resident who lives near the Scotch Plains border and she lives on a nice little quiet street and has only seen a major crime on her street once in about 15 years. You'll probably be fine. I'd be more concerned about living on a busy street like that than living on the border of what's considered to largely be the better side of Plainfield to be honest. My biggest reason for considering a different home would be the street itself.
I agree, but I want to add another bit of advice when purchasing a home, namely the importance of driving through the neighborhood (in this case, the adjoining neighborhood in Plainfield) very late at night.

Many years ago, I knew somebody who was about to buy a house in an urban area that looked okay during the day, but when--on my advice--he drove around the neighborhood around 1:00-2:00 AM, it turned out to be a haven for hookers and their potential customers. Needless to say, he canceled his plans to buy that house.

Things can look very different in the wee hours of the morning.
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Old 02-16-2017, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Central NJ and PA
5,027 posts, read 2,230,818 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirk98 View Post
some houses on Terrill are really quite nice. That said, there has been (around the state--not just in SPF) some package thief activity. Houses on main drags (like Terrill) seem to have this occur a bit more frequently (easy escape) versus houses on quieter streets
True, and like you said, it's not just the towns like the Plainfields. Our town saw three break-ins in the last month, despite being ranked one of the safest towns in NJ. All three houses are in a part of town with very quick access to I-78. Could also be that due to the amount of traffic on Terrill, you wouldn't have to worry about a break-in since you'd have too many people around.


I'd also try to meet some of the neighbors. Regardless of how much you love a house or a neighborhood, having terrible neighbors can make you miserable. We got lucky there. It wasn't something we'd ever thought about, but it turned out well. I love our neighbors. One fixed my ground wire when I accidentally hit it with the mower, and came over to ask about to put up a shed, even though he's completely within his rights to do it. He described what it would look like and where he wanted to put it. Thoughtful. The other used his leaf blower to clean up a bed of pachysandra I couldn't rake. You get the idea.
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Old 02-16-2017, 11:15 AM
 
4 posts, read 12,744 times
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Thank you all for your responses. I am going to take all the advice:

- I am going to walk/drive around the neighborhood at different hours of the day.
- Consider pros & cons of Terrill Road being a busy street
-Get to talk to some neighbors.

Thanks a lot to each of you. Will write about the decision we'll be taking in a coming few days.
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Old 02-17-2017, 11:33 AM
 
1,614 posts, read 3,743,273 times
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It all depends on what you can afford. If you choice is fanwood on the border of plainfield vs plainfield on the border of fanwood then it is a no brainer. If you other choice is Chatham, then no
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