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Well, house gone to someone else, despite what our agent said was a strong offer -- I hope they enjoy the house, so we don't need to worry about the wall anymore, but it's good to know. I have been looking at other areas, as long as school district is not rated horribly, and the area income/house values are in line with our income/target range- especially since some houses are being listed well above anything in the area, and I start seeing price reduction on those houses because.
So filtering by asking price is not a good indication until we check the household income, average/median home values and recent sales, although recent sales don't always reflect true value since some neighborhoods have completely different type of homes within a block.
What we learned is that you guys are right high ranches are not the best, but you can still do a lot worse than high ranches like some of the houses we've seen with master bedroom next to kitchen and no basement no attic, with 1 car garage, storage nightmare. It seems like there isn't a lot of room for storage, almost non of the high ranches we've seen had any kind of coat closet or shoe rack or anything like that by the door, you either have to go up or down, or it just forces you to use garage entry and they don't usually have mud rooms.
Thanks for the suggestion on taxes, seems like nothing is under $14k these days, and unfortunately non of the real estate sites let you search by monthly payment, even though they list that info when you see the listing. Why can't they just let us select monthly payment (before insurance) based on posted tax amounts? Shouldn't be too difficult to implement.
Besides redfin/zillow/trulia/realtor/onekey, are there some other 3rd party websites that people use? All of these have something the others don't like I like how you can x-out houses on Redfin but you cannot hide them from view. Realtor/Trulia shows other stats like noise and crime while zillow and redfin does not. Some of these have worse mobile apps like Redfin does not let you see the map while driving if you are connected to Android Auto (which takes over google maps)
You seem a little all over the place - and your search may be sufferering from paralysis by analysis. The crime/noise/income stuff is all good...but that's all stuff you figure out way in advance. Identify the the neighborhoods you want - and then focus on just those areas.
It would appear you have a good idea of what you want in a house (which is good!) but unless you're building new construction, no house is going to have everything you want. Prioritzie and figure out what you can and can't live without.
Everybody loves central AC, but it's not the worst thing in the world to suck it up and go with window units for a few years until you install it yourself.
Well, house gone to someone else, despite what our agent said was a strong offer -- I hope they enjoy the house, so we don't need to worry about the wall anymore, but it's good to know. I have been looking at other areas, as long as school district is not rated horribly, and the area income/house values are in line with our income/target range- especially since some houses are being listed well above anything in the area, and I start seeing price reduction on those houses because.
So filtering by asking price is not a good indication until we check the household income, average/median home values and recent sales, although recent sales don't always reflect true value since some neighborhoods have completely different type of homes within a block.
What we learned is that you guys are right high ranches are not the best, but you can still do a lot worse than high ranches like some of the houses we've seen with master bedroom next to kitchen and no basement no attic, with 1 car garage, storage nightmare. It seems like there isn't a lot of room for storage, almost non of the high ranches we've seen had any kind of coat closet or shoe rack or anything like that by the door, you either have to go up or down, or it just forces you to use garage entry and they don't usually have mud rooms.
Thanks for the suggestion on taxes, seems like nothing is under $14k these days, and unfortunately non of the real estate sites let you search by monthly payment, even though they list that info when you see the listing. Why can't they just let us select monthly payment (before insurance) based on posted tax amounts? Shouldn't be too difficult to implement.
Besides redfin/zillow/trulia/realtor/onekey, are there some other 3rd party websites that people use? All of these have something the others don't like I like how you can x-out houses on Redfin but you cannot hide them from view. Realtor/Trulia shows other stats like noise and crime while zillow and redfin does not. Some of these have worse mobile apps like Redfin does not let you see the map while driving if you are connected to Android Auto (which takes over google maps)
Can’t imagine being a buyer in this market. Line down the block for an open house in my neighborhood last week it’s insane.
Using Google Earth is a great way to see everything in and around a neighborhood. If something looks off you can always look into it further (like a retention basin or something similar that you might not have been aware of.)
Schools in the area do matter even if you don't have kids of your own in school. Schools that have students who are active in things like Speech and Debate, Theatre and Music Competitions, Varsity Quiz (Quiz Bowl), etc. tend to have parents who are involved in their children's lives - always a good thing for a community.
Can’t imagine being a buyer in this market. Line down the block for an open house in my neighborhood last week it’s insane.
It is insane, and some houses are under priced to draw more interest, and they just end up waiting for better offers, someone eventually offers some unreal number and will get the place. We recently looked at one, that didn't have line, and it was already priced above area price, and was a small 1400sqft house with a tiny pool that's like a glorified koi pond.. I didn't understand why had to make a pool so small for a yard that's close to 10k sqft. Anyway, we made an offer well above asking, but our broker suggested we go higher, we declined and we lost the house. We are not sad because the price we offered was already what we thought this house was worth, due to compromises we were making. Maybe it's a castle for someone, so they jump on it. There is a lot of action in the market, there is also a lot of pressure too..
Quote:
Originally Posted by S.I.B.
You seem a little all over the place - and your search may be sufferering from paralysis by analysis. The crime/noise/income stuff is all good...but that's all stuff you figure out way in advance. Identify the the neighborhoods you want - and then focus on just those areas.
It would appear you have a good idea of what you want in a house (which is good!) but unless you're building new construction, no house is going to have everything you want. Prioritzie and figure out what you can and can't live without.
Everybody loves central AC, but it's not the worst thing in the world to suck it up and go with window units for a few years until you install it yourself.
It's a problem that comes with being flexible with the area. I looked into the distance, and no matter where I go it will take ma over an hour to get to work, and I am planning to go in twice a week, so it won't be too bad. In order to find the kind of house we want (or something close to it) we had to expand our search, this created more problems because now we are venturing into areas we did not check before.
I don't mind the window A/Cs but the noise really made us hate the window units, we just want peace and quiet without constant humming while we enjoy dinner with friends or when we are sitting and watching a movie, also from what I heard you cannot easily get central air system in every home, and the way most home sales are going (super quick) we really won't have time to check if it's doable or not before making an offer. We thought about getting split units they tend to be quieter, but if it's a 4 bedroom, plus the family room, kitchen, etc we would need to get several units, not only it's going to be ugly, it will also require a lot of wiring/work, and possibly older electric systems may not handle that much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rfomd129
Using Google Earth is a great way to see everything in and around a neighborhood. If something looks off you can always look into it further (like a retention basin or something similar that you might not have been aware of.)
Schools in the area do matter even if you don't have kids of your own in school. Schools that have students who are active in things like Speech and Debate, Theatre and Music Competitions, Varsity Quiz (Quiz Bowl), etc. tend to have parents who are involved in their children's lives - always a good thing for a community.
Retention basin, thanks for the correct term, I always thought it was something like storm collector or drain pit. Is it bad to be next to one or across from one? Does it attract mosquitos?
I usually use google street view, but then I just recently realized some of the street view footage in Suffolk was super old, and area might have changed since they captured images. I never thought of using google earth, I just used google satellite view.
Thanks for the comment on school, we have a 10 year old, I will not get a house that's horrible and needs a lot of work in a tiny lot just because it is in "best" school district. Just trying to find something that makes it worth moving 50 miles into Suffolk. The image I had in my mind was completely different when we first starting looking at houses. We adjusted our expectations and priorities.
I read in another post that deer are major problem in some roadways even backyards, bringing disease, eating plants/flowers, and possibly dropping lyme causing ticks. I never thought about this before, I thought unless you physically get close/pet the deer, you don't need to worry about ticks. Should we avoid houses near large parks?
What about basement vs no basement? I heard houses with no basements can cause mold on 1st floor and will be more difficult to heat?
How about hot air heating vs hot water radiators/baseboards. Twingles you mentioned earlier that we should focus on heating more than cooling, but personal experience is that hot air heating is never really efficient. One broker said she is perfectly fine with it, but not everyone likes it. It seems there are also different type of ways to heat with hot air/forced air systems.
Central A/C is not necessarily quieter than window units. Besides the fan, you can hear my compressor outside humming away behind the house from the back rooms. The same fan is used to heat the house. When I got this new unit, it bothered me because it was substantially noisier than the old unit, but I've grown used to it.
Forced hot air can be quite drying. You might need a home humidifier.
I think you're over thinking this. You know the RE mantra, location, location, location because that is the one thing you cannot change.
It is insane, and some houses are under priced to draw more interest, and they just end up waiting for better offers, someone eventually offers some unreal number and will get the place. We recently looked at one, that didn't have line, and it was already priced above area price, and was a small 1400sqft house with a tiny pool that's like a glorified koi pond.. I didn't understand why had to make a pool so small for a yard that's close to 10k sqft. Anyway, we made an offer well above asking, but our broker suggested we go higher, we declined and we lost the house. We are not sad because the price we offered was already what we thought this house was worth, due to compromises we were making. Maybe it's a castle for someone, so they jump on it. There is a lot of action in the market, there is also a lot of pressure too..
It's a problem that comes with being flexible with the area. I looked into the distance, and no matter where I go it will take ma over an hour to get to work, and I am planning to go in twice a week, so it won't be too bad. In order to find the kind of house we want (or something close to it) we had to expand our search, this created more problems because now we are venturing into areas we did not check before.
I don't mind the window A/Cs but the noise really made us hate the window units, we just want peace and quiet without constant humming while we enjoy dinner with friends or when we are sitting and watching a movie, also from what I heard you cannot easily get central air system in every home, and the way most home sales are going (super quick) we really won't have time to check if it's doable or not before making an offer. We thought about getting split units they tend to be quieter, but if it's a 4 bedroom, plus the family room, kitchen, etc we would need to get several units, not only it's going to be ugly, it will also require a lot of wiring/work, and possibly older electric systems may not handle that much.
Retention basin, thanks for the correct term, I always thought it was something like storm collector or drain pit. Is it bad to be next to one or across from one? Does it attract mosquitos?
I usually use google street view, but then I just recently realized some of the street view footage in Suffolk was super old, and area might have changed since they captured images. I never thought of using google earth, I just used google satellite view.
Thanks for the comment on school, we have a 10 year old, I will not get a house that's horrible and needs a lot of work in a tiny lot just because it is in "best" school district. Just trying to find something that makes it worth moving 50 miles into Suffolk. The image I had in my mind was completely different when we first starting looking at houses. We adjusted our expectations and priorities.
I read in another post that deer are major problem in some roadways even backyards, bringing disease, eating plants/flowers, and possibly dropping lyme causing ticks. I never thought about this before, I thought unless you physically get close/pet the deer, you don't need to worry about ticks. Should we avoid houses near large parks?
What about basement vs no basement? I heard houses with no basements can cause mold on 1st floor and will be more difficult to heat?
How about hot air heating vs hot water radiators/baseboards. Twingles you mentioned earlier that we should focus on heating more than cooling, but personal experience is that hot air heating is never really efficient. One broker said she is perfectly fine with it, but not everyone likes it. It seems there are also different type of ways to heat with hot air/forced air systems.
Actually, I believe the correct term is "recharge basin" as it recharges rainwater into the ground, it is not designed to "retain" anything. The colloquial is "sump" and sumps make good neighbors - they don't create children, animals or other noisemakers, do not add to traffic or parking issues and don't put up political signage. Even in extended periods of rain I don't remember standing water being an issue in any sump near where I have lived - Long Island's sandy soil allows for fast drainage. I lived two houses from a sump while growing up and the sump created no problems at all, bugs or otherwise.
Bringing deer into your decision making process will accomplish exactly nothing; deer roam, and they'll roam throughout the entire area you are considering. They don't know the difference between parkland and private property and they do carry ticks and so do the squirrels, mice and birds. Ticks prefer to live in grassy areas so it doesn't matter if you live next to a park or not, your lawn will suit them just fine. Yep, people on Long Island get tick born diseases - the vast majority do not. Cars hit deer and deer hit cars, infrequently. You'll hit many more potholes - guaranteed. Deer are in no way a "major problem."
You "hear" this and you "hear" that which shows only that different people have different opinions - you're the one whose opinion matters because you're the one who is going to live there. Baseboard heating is by far the most common distribution for hot water systems built in the last 75 years on Long Island - you'll generally only find stand up radiators on houses older than that. Some people like hot water heat because it is quieter and cleaner than hot air heat as well as less drying and more even; others like hot air heat because that's what they're used to, it reacts quicker to thermostat changes and generally the same ductwork can be used if air conditioning is a consideration but requires filter changes and periodic duct cleaning. Once again your preference based on your own experience, not that of an agent or anyone else should be the decision maker - if a decision needs to be made on such a point.
Do you really want to buy a house or would you be better off renting until what you want and where you want it becomes clearer in your mind? If you're determined to buy something now, I'd suggest you keep a few of those old adages in mind like "it's best to get the cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood" and "the only thing you can't change about a house you buy is its location."
Coney have you lowered the fan speed to the lowest setting on your unit? When I installed my central air the unit out of the box was set to high for some reason and it was noisy.
"Rentention basin or pond," "recharge basin," whatever the correct term is for your particular area, it's a place where water collects. It comes down to an individual choice whether someone would want to live near one. I'm just pointing out that you won't always know there's one nearby but if you take a look at Google Earth and you see an area that looks like one, you can always investigate further.
Coney have you lowered the fan speed to the lowest setting on your unit? When I installed my central air the unit out of the box was set to high for some reason and it was noisy.
I called a repair service for a different reason and I'm going to ask when they come. The installer did adjust it when I complained about the noise and it is better, but it's still loud.
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