Townhouse near a Cemetery (yard, residents)

[jerseyj]

Originally Posted by Calico696

My mother always said "It's not the dead you have to be afraid of, it's the living".

Unless, of course, it is the Living Dead!



YouTube - Night Of The Living Dead Trailer

[HalfFull]

Just two words of advice from Carol Anne:

"They're heeeere....."

[barrier12]

This is what RE agents would say about properties, like mentioned:" Well settled, quiet place, a lot of flowers and famous people..."

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by sorcerer

Hello Everyone,

I am in 2 minds about deciding on a townhome which backs out into a cemetery property. There is a small patch of woods (~75 feet maybe) separating the backyard from the cemetery which is moderately visible from the basement walkout during Summer. During fall and winter I am sure that the visibility will be pretty high. What are your thoughts on such a townhouse? Should I take it forward? Will resale be a problem? Will it influence prices? Please help me think through this.

Thanks in advance.

Totally depends on the town.
I would not buy if a cemetery was in my backyard.
I feel resale would be horrible.

[luckyshoes]

Originally Posted by sorcerer

Hello Everyone,

I am in 2 minds about deciding on a townhome which backs out into a cemetery property. There is a small patch of woods (~75 feet maybe) separating the backyard from the cemetery which is moderately visible from the basement walkout during Summer. During fall and winter I am sure that the visibility will be pretty high. What are your thoughts on such a townhouse? Should I take it forward? Will resale be a problem? Will it influence prices? Please help me think through this.

Thanks in advance.

I think it depends. It's not an ideal location. But I can think of far worse things to live near. Is it an active cemetery? Are you ok with seeing the daily burials that will be going on?

The real question is How long are you planning on living there? Hopefully your answer is "forever barring unforeseen circumstances" or you probably shouldn't be buying a townhouse right now anyway.

If you do plan on living there forever, and the price is right and the cemetery doesn't bother you, then go for it. If this is a situation that you feel you will be trying to resell, then don't.

[sorcerer]

".....or you probably shouldn't be buying a townhouse right now anyway." luckyshoes, can you elaborate on this?

Is townhouse generally a bad investment in this environment? Why? I was planning to keep this place for the next 5 years and then move on to an independent house so, yes resales is in the picture and hence my concerns.

Thanks to everyone for all your inputs.

[luckyshoes]

Originally Posted by sorcerer

".....or you probably shouldn't be buying a townhouse right now anyway." luckyshoes, can you elaborate on this?

Is townhouse generally a bad investment in this environment? Why? I was planning to keep this place for the next 5 years and then move on to an independent house so, yes resales is in the picture and hence my concerns.

Thanks to everyone for all your inputs.

I just think things are still kind of unstable right now, so people need to be cautious about what they are buying. I don't think people should put off buying their forever home, or somewhere that they could stay forever, if the price and situation is right. Could be a townhouse, condo, single family, whatever, but it's somewhere they could stay forever barring unforeseen circumstances.

But I would be very cautious about buying otherwise. In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, think twice if you are already planning on staying there only 5 years. You might be better off renting when you run the numbers. Remember all the costs that go into selling (that NJ realty transfer tax, the realtor, the lawyers, the rest of the closing costs). Even if prices don't go down more, you could lose money. In this situation, on this property, I would be doubly cautious on a property with a cemetery next door.

I think people should be very careful about "underbuying" right now too. Here's an example. Let's just use a young couple who is engaged as an example. Statistically speaking, within five years they'll probably have a kid or two. They think, "We'd like to buy something, this is what we can afford now, but we'll probably move in a few years to something bigger." Now it doesn't mean that they shouldn't buy something right now, but they should buy something that they could stay in if if they needed to. In this case it might mean making sure they buy a 3br over a 2br, to avoid underbuying.

Take the same couple. They decide to buy in a less-than-desirable town in terms of schools, because they can afford it there and they think, "Oh, we'll just move before school if we have kids" Well, before you know it, they have a kid, kid is ready for school and now they are in a town where they don't like the school. They underbought.

To me, it's not about buying something where you definitely know you will stay forever, because we can't know those things. But it should be somewhere you expect to stay forever, or at least where you could stay forever if you had to.

During the housing boom, people bought and sold constantly, as they moved up the housing chain. But those days are gone and we don't know when they are coming back. Ask anyone who bought a condo in the 80s, some of them watched the value drop almost 50%, not to come back for ten years to its original price.

This is all just my opinion, so take it with a huge grain of salt!

[Mightyqueen801]

I would LOVE to live adjacent to a cemetery. You could have great Halloween parties.

I just like cemeteries in general. Lots of history, lots of stories, nobody bugs you.

[bahiaboyz]

Do not buy next to a cemetery.

There is so much for sale right now - why would you want to eliminate so many potential buyers down the road when you want to sell.

It is very hard to sell a house today and will be for many years in the future. Give yourself at least half a chance

The price is irrelevant - do not buy next to a cemetery, railway lines, busy roads etc. It never ceases to amaze me that people do and then wonder why it takes so long to sell these house in lousy locations

[Nancy in Nokomis]

I would never buy near a cemetary and a lot of other people would not either. Very bad for resale.