South Hills??? (Pittsburgh, Bethel Park, Mount Lebanon: spring break, apartment, broker)

[Matthew123]

Looking for help for a couple that is relocating to Pittsburgh. My job is located in Peters Township. I'm familiar with the area from visiting.

I was going to look for an apartment, but we're having difficulty finding a dog-friendly rental, so buying has just moved into first place.

1. Can anyone suggest a good realtor to use? I prefer to use a small company because a larger realtor, they'll show only their properties and have conflicting interest because they are buyer and seller agents.

2. Can anyone recommend a neighborhood within 25 minutes of the McMurray area? We want a yard and safety, prefer an older established area though nothing fancy. Ideally, we'd find a rough home with potential in a great neighboorhood. We have no kids, so school district isn't a factor beyond resale.

Any help with either the realtor, or area would be greatly appreciated!

[MDYinzer]

If you're going to stay in Pittsburgh, might as well buy, homes are cheap.

Peters is in Washington County, just outside of Allegheny. There are some nice places around there, but Washington is more rural, with some planned-type communities springing up for people who want out of Allegheny. (Wash. Co. is generally friendlier when it comes to taxation).

I would look at Mount Lebanon. It's right up rte. 19, it has a nice little downtown type area with a few restaurants w/ bars, and it's close to South Hills Village and other big shopping areas. And it's also close to downtown Pittsburgh. Mt. Lebanon has a reputation as being an expensive area, but in reality there are quite a few cheap houses on the market there. And there are some nice expensive ones too, if that's what you're in the market for.

If you're just looking for bang for your buck, I'd look in Washington Co., anywhere except Peters or North Strabane. Those places are nice, but they're more in demand than other places, so the prices are more on Allegheny Co. levels.

I'm sorry, I don't know of any specific agents. But here's a great website to browse. Moderator cut: link removed, please wait till you have at least 10 posts

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by Matthew123

Looking for help for a couple that is relocating to Pittsburgh. My job is located in Peters Township. I'm familiar with the area from visiting.

I was going to look for an apartment, but we're having difficulty finding a dog-friendly rental, so buying has just moved into first place.

1. Can anyone suggest a good realtor to use? I prefer to use a small company because a larger realtor, they'll show only their properties and have conflicting interest because they are buyer and seller agents.

2. Can anyone recommend a neighborhood within 25 minutes of the McMurray area? We want a yard and safety, prefer an older established area though nothing fancy. Ideally, we'd find a rough home with potential in a great neighboorhood. We have no kids, so school district isn't a factor beyond resale.

Any help with either the realtor, or area would be greatly appreciated!

I would make sure your broker works at it full time as opposed to a soccer mom or a retiree who only does it a few hours a week. I would pick an agency that has an office in the area you want to look in and pick the agent that has the most listings. You can find all of this out by the agency's website. Welcome to the burgh.

[CJCsMom]

We bought in Bethel Park exactly one year ago. We are close to Washington Rd, so it is an easy drive down to Peters. Upper St. Clair or Mt Lebanon would also fit that description.

We moved here from California and had to fly in and find a house in a few days over spring break in 2010. We worked with Dixie Shaffer at Prudential Preferred in Bethel Park. We just lucked into her because we were interested in one of her listings. That one didn't work out but she went above and beyond showing us houses and helped us find one that was perfect for us. We have moved a lot and worked with many realtors and I find so many of them don't listen to you or try and help you meet your family's needs. They just push you to the house they want to get rid of. Dixie wasn't like that at all. She worked hard to find us a house and I would work with her again in a heartbeat.

[SteelCityRising]

Just in case it matters her name is spelled Dixie Schaffer. P.S. Your home is lovely, CJCsMom!

[Matthew123]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess I'll need to break down and look for a realtor from one of the majors. From my experience, this means we'll be ushered from one home their company is selling, to another, excluding all others...

We drove Washington Road today and saw properties in Mt. Lebo, Bethel and Peters.

Could anyone recommend neighborhoods in these areas??

[greg42]

Dunno. I would think especially that if you take an active role in the search, suggesting properties you've found in online searching and/or driven by, they won't be steering you away from them. I would in fact be upfront and share this concern with any agent you talk to. A good agent should not be concerned with this at all and should help you find any MLS-listed properties in the areas you're looking for even if you are not able to be active in looking on your own.

My agent wasn't from a true area major at the time; she was with Keller-Williams. It's a large outfit overall I suppose but not particularly large in the Pittsburgh area. And I was particularly interested in doing my own searching and drive-bys first; thus I was not wasting too much of her time. But I did get emailed new listings from a search she put in, and they were never restricted to one realty company. Can't recommend specific agent because AFAIK she is no longer active at least in this area.

[heartchya]

I use Harry Anderson from Northwood. He has helped my family buy 4 houses so far. He will show you whatever YOU want. Never pushed us toward Northwood listings only. The houses my family have bought have been in all different price ranges. My first time buying I had a very small budget and he still took the time to help me. I highly recommend him!!

As far as neighborhoods go if I were looking in South Hills I would go with Mt. Lebo. There are some really nice houses well below 200k. I love the sidewalks/trees/REAL neighborhood feel. Also it is a great school district.

Best of luck to you!

[PittsburghNative]

Therea are very few homes today in mt Lebo under 200 and if you can find one in good repair, your be lucky. Mt lebanon is a wonderful safe place to live, and very beautiful!

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by PittsburghNative

Therea are very few homes today in mt Lebo under 200 and if you can find one in good repair, your be lucky. Mt lebanon is a wonderful safe place to live, and very beautiful!

There are currently 60 homes listed in Mt. Lebanon from 59,900 to 199,900.