Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm on my 3rd house and I realized no matter how closely I examine a house before the purchase there will always be surprises waiting for me.
1) I hear mice behind the wall in my bedroom at night
2) My 2nd floor bathroom has a leak and I see mold growing on the 1st floor ceiling
3) I don't live anywhere near an airport, yet I hear/see airplanes flying by right above my house everyday
I didn't even know airplanes were required to take the same path to the airport even at 30 miles away, so how unfortunate it is to buy a house right on the flight path without knowing ahead of time!
NextGen is why you hear and see the planes every 30 seconds apart, all day, every day.
The FAA installed NextGen which makes planes fly lower, like 3000 ft and even lower and they don't need a lot of space between flights, hence 30 seconds apart.
I too, live nowhere near an airport, yet the planes that were never in my neighborhood for the last 25 years have now intruded our neighborhood for the last2 years already.
They do switch runways from time to time so it gives us a bit of relief, but never the less the FAA did not take into consideration all the tax payers that live below these flight paths, that were NOT there when people bought or rented their homes.
The link I gave you will tell you where they are flying if this is the closest airport to you.
Our planes are landing in LaGuardia, yet I am all the over by the Verrazzano Bridge, clear across the land, yet I hear the and see them daily. You can check many airports by this site.
The FAA is the most corrupt agency on Earth. All the airlines care about is making more money. They do not care about all the tax payers living below the new flight paths. They changed them without giving the public any notice what so ever at all, as if by diving right the FAA was entitled to.
They say it makes the planes quieter, that is a lie.
It doesn't. How can more planes flying lower then ever before be more quieter?
and dont forget, we are all breathing all this cancerous jet fuel in daily.
2 planes a minute, 120 planes an hour, but ten hours, every day, all day....
After buying my Co-Op, I didn't notice all the condensation in between the glass of most of my windows. I am also one of those clean window freaks, so all my windows had to be reglazed, and it cost a lot of money.................................*****sigh*** *
I'm not on a major road (although it is the main street into my subdivision, but still a 25mph zone) but we have ambulances roar down the street with sirens blaring at least twice a night!
Either there are a lot of ill people in my subdivision (possibly since I'd guess about 50% are elderly) or they use my street as some strange, obscure shortcut. We aren't even close to the hospital?
If even considering a house next to, or even a few houses over, from and school -- or -- church, you MUST ask more questions. AND visit the site at more times of the day, and on more days, than other houses you might consider.
School have band practices, sports games, special events. Churches have services and other events. The parking nightmares alone would be enough for me to say no to a house too close to a school or church. The trick is to be near enough to make it a positive in the listing, but not close enough to be bothered by it.
Home day cares also are PITAs when it comes to parking, also music teachers who teach private lessons at home. There are all kinds of things that could be lurking -- and affect the enjoyment of your home. As they say location, location, location.
Quote:
I have an 8' tall privacy fence around our back yard. Behind the fence is a large yard for the middle school. The school rents the field on weekends to the junior soccer league, so during soccer season I hear ref whistles and parent cheering ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL weekend long......sunrise to sunset.
There are no games during the holidays. It's been great.
But, how was I to know about that during my house hunting?
I'm not on a major road (although it is the main street into my subdivision, but still a 25mph zone) but we have ambulances roar down the street with sirens blaring at least twice a night!
Either there are a lot of ill people in my subdivision (possibly since I'd guess about 50% are elderly) or they use my street as some strange, obscure shortcut. We aren't even close to the hospital?
When my mother was alive, she lived on a road that was two laned. In speaking with law enforcement and EMT's, I found out that the road was the connector to the north end of the county and an interstate highway to the north. There was a constant stream of ambulances and sirens going all the time. I think she kind of enjoyed it as it added a little excitement to her day. She didn't like AC so all her doors and windows would be open. Sometimes it was hard to carry on a conversation when they would go by, especially if it were a stream of police cars, one after the other.
Now it is a four laned road, she is gone and they still use it as a connector road to the north.
I have a gas easement running through my backyard. I can't grow anything taller than 6 ft tall in my backyard or else the gas people have a right to remove it. I also have to call that "Before you dig" number to do anything. I learned of the easement after I was under contract to buy the house, but I decided to go ahead with the purchase. Before this year, they hadn't cleared anything off the easement for two decades, so I'm betting they'll go away soon.
I must say I got pretty lucky with my 1st house which I'm now in it for a year. Nothing big as far as unknown defects, basement stayed dry and sump pump never even turned on for the various heavy rain storms and Sandy. So all in all, no real surprises.
Examples of things that I found: I had to fix a small drip from the furnance (turned out to be a loose condensate tubing), needed to sealed the exterior doors better to keep the cold air out (relatively easy fix), and one hexagon shape window that is very drafty and the half bath it's in is 10+ deg colder than anywhere else in the house. Also, some of the wood fences are buried below the dirt, which means the bottom of the planks are rotted. So nothing scary, just annoying.
I have to agree, lack of maintence is always surprising. Most things I knew about as the result of a very thorough inspection report. However, the seller refused to fix anything which is unfortunate, as there were several things that would have been relatively easy & free to repair under the original homeowner warrantly (i.e., window seals broken), but now I get to pay full cost.
The lighting was awful and the paint was almost white so I didn't realize how ugly some of walls are---they are pretty solid, so I'd have to get someone in here to fix them up, I think. Other than that, I could tell they probably didn't maintain anything very well, given that half of the doorknobs were falling off of the doors.
Subscribing myself to this thread. We've been married over 30 years, owned at least five homes over the years. We recently sold our home, moved out of state, will be going into a rental apartment soon. We will be homeowners again, it's just a matter of time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
