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LIgrlatheart
LIF Adolescent
Member since 7/06 638 total posts
Name:
christi
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anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
me and my dh are going on our first round of house looking tomorrow..
agents taking us to about 8 houses....
is there anything you wish someone told you to look at or out for when you were looking at homes?
right now we are pretty much in the dark... we know to ask for like age of CAC, etc...
any input would be great!
thanks
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Posted 6/1/07 11:05 AM  |
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Long Island Weddings
Long Island's Largest Bridal Resource | Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate |
alnem
This is gonna be a good year!
Member since 2/06 9562 total posts
Name:
Emily
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
why are the sellers looking to sell?
how old is the roof, boiler, hot water heater, windows, doors?
sewer or cesspool?
where are the schools in relation to the house? bus stops, etc?
are the taxes listed with STAR or without?
are all CO's in place? if not, is the seller working on getting them now?
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| Posted 6/1/07 11:07 AM |
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LIPrincess
Foxy Lady
Member since 6/05 1610 total posts
Name:
Jaimie
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
How fast or slow do they want to close? Is anything staying or going that may not be listed in the add. I once saw a house that they were leaving the pool table, thats fine if you like pool, but what happens if you want to finish the apt and do something else.
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| Posted 6/1/07 11:17 AM |
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JldDolphin
Member since 1/07 6929 total posts
Name:
Jen
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
If there is a house you really like and you are thinking about putting in a bid, first make sure you know what the real taxes are. Call the local town and/or Village and give them the address and they will tell you what the taxes for 2007 will be without any STAR program or any other discount the owner might have. And the next big thing is CO's. I can't stress that enough. We are going through this right now. It's holding up our closing. Just ask a lot of questions and make sure you look everywhere, even in closets and under sinks to see if there is any water damage. Your agent should guide you enough, but if you want to look somewhere, just ask your agent if you can.
Good Luck!
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| Posted 6/1/07 11:42 AM |
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LIgrlatheart
LIF Adolescent
Member since 7/06 638 total posts
Name:
christi
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
wow thanks ladies this is all helpful and just pasted to a document and printed to bring with me tomorrow!
just noticed frontpage of newsday.com right now is a big artilce about CO's
the star program is just for ny correct?
i think its called FAIR in nj... ill have to see if thats the same type of thing
ill take any advice i can get thanks!
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| Posted 6/1/07 11:53 AM |
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Goobster
:)
Member since 5/07 27557 total posts
Name:
:)
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
Posted by JldDolphin
If there is a house you really like and you are thinking about putting in a bid, first make sure you know what the real taxes are. Call the local town and/or Village and give them the address and they will tell you what the taxes for 2007 will be without any STAR program or any other discount the owner might have. Good Luck!
Also try
www.mynassauproperty.com
It will give the address, appx value, taxes, you can sometimes figure out if there are discounts such as Veterans or Star. But I admit, it is difficult to figure out exactly what is what on there.
Town of Huntington, Suffolk, has their own tax website which lists the actual taxes. So very helpful to know if realtors are lying.
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| Posted 6/1/07 2:45 PM |
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cjik
Welcome 2010!
Member since 2/06 8879 total posts
Name:
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
Definitely COs! Though you can't even go by what the seller's say all the time, ours claim they were unaware they need to get one for a conversion they did, and it's holding everything up now.
Also, don't look at too many houses in one day, tempting as it may be--they will all blend together, and you will not remember them. Also if there are too many to see, the realtor may rush you through them. I think 4 is the max, 3 is preferable.
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| Posted 6/1/07 2:50 PM |
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csorisi
My 2 LOVES
Member since 11/05 1984 total posts
Name:
Corinne
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
My biggest thing was the cesspool. I have never lived in a house with cesspools so I knew nothing about them. Make sure that if you really like a house with a cesspool ask when was the last time it was pumped have they had any problems etc. I would also have a company check for you once you put a bid on a house and want to buy it. We didn't find out till after we closed that our cesspool had 6600 gallons of crap in it and that if we would have waited any longer to replace it we would have had it in our basement. I have learned my lesson if I ever want to buy another house with a cesspool.
Good luck--happy house hunting.
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| Posted 6/1/07 3:07 PM |
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MrsFlatbread
Skinny jeans are in my future
Member since 6/06 10258 total posts
Name:
Baby Momma
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
ask if there are any underground streams running through the area. I would also do a google search about the area to see if anything pops up.
In addition, check the NYS sex offender registry for the area to ensure there are no child predators in the area.
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| Posted 6/1/07 3:11 PM |
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Goobster
:)
Member since 5/07 27557 total posts
Name:
:)
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
Posted by csorisi
My biggest thing was the cesspool. I have never lived in a house with cesspools so I knew nothing about them. Make sure that if you really like a house with a cesspool ask when was the last time it was pumped have they had any problems etc. I would also have a company check for you once you put a bid on a house and want to buy it. We didn't find out till after we closed that our cesspool had 6600 gallons of crap in it and that if we would have waited any longer to replace it we would have had it in our basement. I have learned my lesson if I ever want to buy another house with a cesspool.
Good luck--happy house hunting.
Wow, thanks for sharing that. We dont have them where we live now, but we may move to where they have them. Can you tell us anything else about cesspools?
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| Posted 6/1/07 3:14 PM |
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charon54
My two boys!
Member since 5/05 7279 total posts
Name:
Rebecca
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
The neighbors' houses, we really didn't pay attention.
We also missed the fact that we only had a one-car driveway, LOL.
You spend so little time at your house before you actually buy it, it's funny what you miss.
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| Posted 6/1/07 5:14 PM |
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csorisi
My 2 LOVES
Member since 11/05 1984 total posts
Name:
Corinne
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
Posted by charon54
The neighbors' houses, we really didn't pay attention.
We also missed the fact that we only had a one-car driveway, LOL.
You spend so little time at your house before you actually buy it, it's funny what you miss.
I agree with this too. We bought our house in the winter and never even looked at the neighbors houses. We later found out that our neighbor doesn't like to cut his grass often and doesn't rake leaves in the fall so his house always looks like a disaster. As for other things about cesspools I still don't know but it cost us $3500 to replace the one we had which was an expense we never really thought of.
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| Posted 6/1/07 5:27 PM |
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GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!
Member since 11/06 26792 total posts
Name:
Shawn
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Re: anything u can share that you WISH you knew when looking at houses
Is there heavy traffic on the street at times? When we were looking years ago, we went into a house on a relatively quiet street. When we left the house, the Ronkonkoma train let out 5 minutes earlier, and we had to wait to get out of the driveway!!!! Needless to say, we kept looking... 
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| Posted 6/6/07 6:40 PM |
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