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Old 06-23-2009, 08:23 AM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
Reputation: 75

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Over the past year I have had some interesting experiences shopping for a home. Being a 1st time home buyer I have learned some things along the way. Info that some realtors, especially the sellers agent won't have (or won't give up if they don't have to). This info you the buyer should research to know all the facts to protect you and your investment. Here are some websites that we have found helpful.

Garden State MLS
Real Estate Listings, Homes for Sale and Rental Property Listings – REALTOR.com®
Home search: gsmls has taxes, realtor sometimes has maps.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=ZZLH8
The birds eye is useful in checking how busy the road is, what the neighborhood looks like, how close the highways were and what is in the surrounding area. When researching a home once we found out the neighbor next door was a junk collector/garbage guy by looking on the birds eye map and seeing what looked like a plane crash in his back yard.
Obviously not good if you don't want to worry about toxic waste, mosquitoes and rats living next door.

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bi...t=0801&mode=11
PropertyShark - Real Estate Maps, Foreclosures, Property Reports and Comparables
Nj tax records/Property shark. Lets you look into taxes, land size, sq footage, etc. Helped us to see how much they paid for the home and if they were overpricing their home. Also can look at the rest of the neighorhood to see how much everything bubbled and help you assess a better value. Good for comps also. If values might go back to 02/03 values this will give you a idea on what you might want to pay.

NJ Highlands Council - Interactive Map (http://maps.njhighlands.us/default.asp - broken link)
NJ wetlands/highlands protection map
This site lets you put in an address of a home you are interested in to see if the property you are purchasing is in a protected zone in northern nj. Issues w/ this might be if you want to put an inground/above ground pool, remove some brush/trees to make your yard bigger or if you want to add an addition. Make sure you know what you can do w/ your property so you can create the home you want without any legal ramifications. We backed out of a home purchase because we couldn't make the yard the way we wanted, to us why buy a nice piece of land and then not be able to put in the pool we always wanted.

Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools.
We found to be the most accurate site for finding how good the schools are in the neighborhood.

Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address
Walkscore: type in your address and it tells you how walkable your town is. Good to see where the nearest grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants, libraries, schools etc are to your probable purchase.

Trulia - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, Sold Properties, Real Estate Maps
Real Estate, Homes for Sale & Real Estate Values - Zillow
Good for comps/recently sold properties & home locations.

http://www.stopthelines.com/
There is a possible powerline project going though that might add additional taller towers. Useful to see on the map where the possible PSE&G powerlines might be put up. How might this effect your health, property values and the landscape of your neighborhood.

FYI
Make sure your home is not in a flood zone
Make sure you research if that particular town is reassessing its property taxes.
From experience try to get a disclosure emailed to you up front so you can see if you want to move forward on a property. We have found things out after seeing the property a few times that stopped us in our tracks. This is a waste of everyone's time. Things like an old land fill behind the property that can contaminate the well/drinking water and foundation problems. This will also give you an idea how old the septic is and if it will have to be replaced soon after you purchase your home. This could be a big expense.
Septic Care: What is a Septic System? How Does a Septic System Work? Why Does a Septic System Fail? What are Signs of a Failing Septic System?

Hope this info is helpful, especially for the 1st time home buyer.
If you know of any helpful info please share.
Good luck and have fun home shopping!

Last edited by LCMT; 06-23-2009 at 09:20 AM..
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Old 06-25-2009, 04:37 PM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
Reputation: 75
One of the last towns in Essex county to have low property taxes is now getting reassessed. Cedar Grove hasn't been reassessed in 33 years. All of Essex county is to be finished for 2011. Verona is going through reassessment now.
Property reval to begin in two months - Verona-Cedar Grove Times (http://www.vcgtimes.com/NC/0/431.html - broken link)

Other towns that have reassessed for this July are:
Byram, Livingston, Lincoln Park & Middletown
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Old 06-26-2009, 11:48 AM
 
Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 40,698,345 times
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there was actually some cool and useful stuff there. i guess ill have to favorite some of them that i dont want to lose track of.
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Old 06-26-2009, 10:50 PM
 
191 posts, read 591,214 times
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thanks for the websites, this post and this forum overall has been so helpful to me as a first-time home buyer.
another good website is Bergen County Real Estate | Friedberg Properties | Home Page. if you input the mls number, then click on "map it" you can find out the street address of the house.
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Old 06-29-2009, 12:01 PM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
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We also take the comps from the past 3 to 6 months...get the old mls w/ the pics and specs. Compare upgrades, land, how many beds and baths, total number of rooms, finished basement, public water/gas to septic/well and square feet. If you have a comparable home that sold within the past 3 to 6 months and multiply that home per square feet and then do that calculation w/ the home you want to purchase you will find what todays price should be (also consider that 6 months later the market has fallen even more). We are finding that 90% of sellers aren't even listing at fair market value! They are still way overpriced! We also found that in 2003 prices bubbled alot. So prices should realistically be down to 02 levels.
Thats why we like the nj tax website so we can look at how crazy the prices went and get a better understanding of what we are up against.
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Old 06-29-2009, 03:41 PM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
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Error....divide the price by square footage = todays price.
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Old 07-06-2009, 07:47 AM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
Reputation: 75
Went to another open house and yet again another realtor who didn't give us any new info. Although the home was overpriced by 60k+ according to the comps we figured we would take a look. Off course we research everything so it surprises me when we ask a guestion and they can't give us an answer. If you are selling a house don't you go and get the most recent survey. We want to know one thing that we can't find out on our own (well you can if you call the town and get the info over the phone or pick up a copy, but why should we, it should be available right off the bat). How old is the septic, when was it last serviced and where the hell is it on the property. Yeah I know, you get some of that in the disclosure...then have one there at the open house along with the survey so we can get all the info up front. Those are the only things we can't find out over the internet today...so give us something. What are you there for. I pretty much know more about the town, neighborhood etc than the damn realtor. We asked one realtor who was hosting an open house if the land was on wetlands....she tells us she doesn't think so and sure we can cut a few trees and brush....find out she also grew up in the town....go home and find the entire property is on protected wetlands and most likely we can't do a damn thing to it. Again I'm talking about sellers agents. Obviously there are definitley some good realtors out there, but in todays day and age you have to have some sort of an edge. But then again I have to remember they are salespeople and some believe give info as needed. Eventually there will be a website with all that info too.
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Old 07-14-2009, 11:33 AM
 
38 posts, read 74,102 times
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Default Most Helpful

This has the most helpful post for me as a first time home buyer. I have been asking my realtor for information about property taxes but they did not have an answer. Everything I asked was given a vague answer. I've had to do the research myself.

I found this site about property taxes: New Jersey Property Taxes

Thank you. Great job!
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Old 07-15-2009, 08:35 PM
 
19 posts, read 124,539 times
Reputation: 23
This is awesome! Thanks for posting this information - very VERY helpful! I'm a first time homebuyer too and I just prefer to be able to look up this information myself (as opposed to totally relying on the realtor).

Thanks again!

~m
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Old 07-16-2009, 02:19 PM
 
250 posts, read 683,457 times
Reputation: 75
Foreclosure activity at record levels

New Jersey Real Estate Report
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