Homebuyer Due Diligence Checklist (Bethpage: real estate, power lines, homeowners insurance)

[squishface]

I have an accepted offer on my dream home (okay almost dream home), and I'm going crazy trying to find a gotcha before I sign my life away. What do you seasoned real estate heads suggest a buyer look into before committing?

I'll start the list here with everything I could think of & have done so far:

1. Per the late great Walter Greenspan, use the U.S. Census Bureau's Address Search function (scroll down a bit and look on the right half of the page to find it) to find out exactly what town, hamlet, school district the home is in.

2. Find accurate tax numbers (mynassauproperty.com is a great resource)

3. Is the house in a flood zone? Find a FEMA map, or go to floodsmart.gov. If you're even remotely concerned, call a local agent and get a rough quote for flood & homeowners insurance.

4. Read as much as you can about crime, income, demographics on city-data and elsewhere. Search the area name on Newsday, Google News, etc. See if there's a NYT "If You're Thinking of Living In..." on your new town. Search on YouTube (I watched someone jet ski down the street past a home I had put in an offer on during hurricane Irene), search on Facebook (who lives in this town? what do they say about it? are there groups created to address problems in the neighborhood?)

5. Call the school district you think you're in and confirm the schools you're zoned for. Read reviews of those schools (bearing in mind the tiny sample size) on GreatSchools.org.

6. After you've exhausted all the information on City-Data, use a tool like PropertyShark to get a ton of specific information about the home and neighborhood - owners, previous sales, square footage, additions/ improvements the government *knows* about, comps - the site is subscription-based but you can get a few free trial searches.

7. Walk the area, day & night. Chat with the neighbors. Use Google Maps.

8. Without panicking, look for potential environmental hazards (e.g. the Bethpage plume, incinerators, huge power lines etc) and localized health concerns (e.g. cancer clusters).

9. Time your commute.

That's all I can think of at the moment. What did I miss that will have me ing myself later?

[Elke Mariotti]

Did your agent make any additional suggestions?

[long isle]

Make sure your home has 2 of 3 garage, basement or attic. All 3 plus. Make sure you have access to gas. Public sewage. Not on a slab.

[ocngypz]

Fairly current survey..... and also check for any open permits........and verify that what you see.. is what the town knows about.... aka unpermitted work.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by ocngypz

Fairly current survey..... and also check for any open permits........and verify that what you see.. is what the town knows about.... aka unpermitted work.

You can ask for a survey but if none is available/suitable, it's the responsibility of the buyer to obtain one.

[timothyjames14]

All depends.

If you are getting a mortgage. A new survey is a requirement. Appraisal. Doing your own comps and trying yourself to appraise the property is not something i would recommend. Most times than not...you will be wrong!

I HIGHLY suggest a home inspection. If your paying cash...two.

[squishface]

Ah yes, I was assuming a home inspection. I'm just wondering about things that a buyer would want to do over & above the standard due diligence.

I thought of another one - check flight patterns to make sure your hair won't be blowing in the wind every time a passenger jet goes by. (Thought of that one as I watched a bunch of planes fly overhead at my [hopefully] new house.)

[squishface]

Elke - my agent seems to be pretty thorough. But what I'm getting at with this list is the old "if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself" principle. I've seen a fair number of posts here by buyers who ran into unforeseen problems, and the response is often "well you should have checked that out yourself instead of trusting someone else with the details of the biggest purchase of your life!" (Usually not in such polite terms

[ovi8]

Good list, can't think of anything else... the flight path thing is a big one. In the summer you will have windows open and you're buying here to spend outside on your bigger property too. I wouldn't trust flight maps but rather go there and hang out yourself. Sometimes I see planes but they are far enough often enough that you don't hear every single one. Last year or thereabout, I was able to hear one every minute. Something changed. Just about the only other real annoyance in peaceful suburbia are the landscapers' leaf blowers who come through every day for different houses. God here we go...

Good neighbors are also important.

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by squishface

Elke - my agent seems to be pretty thorough. But what I'm getting at with this list is the old "if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself" principle. I've seen a fair number of posts here by buyers who ran into unforeseen problems, and the response is often "well you should have checked that out yourself instead of trusting someone else with the details of the biggest purchase of your life!" (Usually not in such polite terms

Nothing wrong with "being sure" . And some agents don't do as thorough a job as others... Same as in any other field.
One other possible search might be to check the neighborhood for sex offenders since you have children. Here's a link to the Family Watchdog site: National Sex Offender Registry - Family Watchdog