What are the Not-so-Obvious Things to Research Before Buying a Home?

[NateW]

West facing also means the driveway melts clear of snow faster and more often than East or North facing houses, really nice in a cold climate.

Thanks Sunset, good point. Ours faces east, but that's about to change.

 

[Out of Steam]

Good point about railroads. When I was a kid I'd visit my grandfather and he lived half a block from the RF&P mainline. That was enough to convince me that 2 miles would be about right for the minimum distance to a railroad.

Depends on how much train traffic. We're just less than that away from a track that has four short freight trains a day. We can hear them, but they have no real impact on our lives.

That is a very realistic minimum for a set of mainline tracks, though.

 

[rk911]

...Believe it or not, we got so used to it we didn't even notice. But any visitors would go nuts and ask how we could possibly stand it.

i believe it. the UPRR tracks are 125’ +/- from our rear deck. we love the house. the view from the deck is a federally protected wetland. the house is on a U-shaped 3-street neighborhood so the only traffic are residents, people coming to see them or people who made a wrong turn. our house is on a corner and is set back much, much farther from the street than our neighbors. oak trees galore on our lot and the adjoining lots. the only downside are the RR tracks. but after 33-years we hardly notice them but it can be amusing to see the reaction to folks who aren’t used to trains.

 

[Blue531]

What I am about to say isn't something to research but it's something that I didn't give much thought to when I purchased a home but wish I had in retrospect. We get so excited when we are buying but we often don't realize that we have more leverage that we think. The reason being is that most of the time when we are buying, we don't have to buy but the seller is usually under pressure to sell. Not always, I know but think about it, the seller is selling for a reason. It's a big decision to sell so by the time they do, they're ready to go. Maybe to a new job in another state. Maybe to a bigger house because they need more room. Or maybe someone died and the heirs need to sell. The buyer has the advantage most of the time to get a better price. Try not to overlook that due to excitement over the new purchase.

 

[Music Lover]

West facing also means the driveway melts clear of snow faster and more often than East or North facing houses, really nice in a cold climate.

I have a SE facing house in a very cold climate. It's nice to have the sun shining into the living room on a cold day....and in summer the hot sun later in the day has moved past the window so it doesn't heat the house up as much. However, many people in hot climates may prefer a north facing living room.

Orientation is also a factor when designing outdoor spaces. If the only place you can build a deck or patio is on the south it can be unusable in the summer without built in shade.

 

[NateW]

Look at the zoning maps for the area, with all the overlays, in conjunction with a review of the zoning laws. In addition to knowing what you can and can't do with your property, it will also inform you what the neighbors can and can't do with theirs. Like sell to a developer who will put in apartment buildings next door to you if it is not single family only, or start up a dog breeding kennel if home businesses are permitted...

Thank you Gumby; I've added this to my list.

Along these lines, a couple days ago DW Googled the name of a neighborhood of a house we were interested in seeing. The search returned an article that said the home builder in this neighborhood had received approval to add 200 more homes (there are about 75 now) and work will begin in the fall. That cooled our interest!

 

[NateW]

...?Stop at a local store and buy a half gallon of ice cream or cookies and go to the nearest Fire Station in the area your looking at. Ask the Firefighters for their honest opinion of the area your looking at while at the same time asking questions about this and that. You'll totally break the ice with the goodies and these guys will give you the straight scoop. Sounds ridiculous but as a Firefighter it's the real deal and these guys will be more honest than a realtor. You'd be surprised how often this type of thing happens.

I never would have thought of this, very clever. Added to my list, thanks!

 

[NateW]

.....I'd add to look on maps for Super Sites.
We nearly bought a house near a Super Site, and a few years later there was news items of gas entering the peoples houses, and disease clusters.

Very good advice. I actually did this when over the summer I accidentally discovered (I was looking on the County real estate assessments site to see if our increase was inline with houses around us) several houses in a row on our street (ours was in the middle) changed ownership within the last 2 years.

In the town where I grew up there was a 30 plus storage tank petroleum products distribution terminal. It was several miles from our house. Residents living next to the tank farm (happened to be a very upscale neighborhood) began smelling gasoline and diesel fumes in their basements and then upper levels. The storage tanks were leaking their contents. That was one big superfund site and just about bankrupted the terminal operator!

 

[NateW]

We lived in a beautiful home that we loved, it just happened to be in line with approach for the airport. We weren't anywhere near the airport, but every 5-7 minutes an airplane would be flying overhead (and they started their decent much further away from the airport than you would think).

Here is a link to the (unofficial) pilots' map (aeronautical charts) of the United States that identifies all known airports and other hazardous areas. I still am learning how to read it.

VFRMAP - Digital Aeronautical Charts

 

[NateW]

One of DW's cousins owns a house very close to the Potomac River in MD just a few miles northwest of D.C.'s airport. The airliners all follow the Potomac River into and out of D.C. During a couple of family gatherings there I noticed that it was virtually impossible to hold a normal conversation in the back yard. You have to pause every few minutes for an airliner to go by before resuming. I couldn't stand living there.

I can identify. When I wo*led, we lived in Northern Virginia, 16+ miles south of Reagan National Airport. Not as bad as you describe, but bad enough on certain days. Then at some point several years ago, the FAA allowed National Airport air traffic to approach more directly over the local neighborhoods and ours was one of them. It got more annoying after that!

 

[NateW]

There will always be surprises in buying a house. We moved in 2019, and I think we did our homework, but have had several surprises. None are particularly serious as of now.

1. In house types and sizes, as well as lot size, our new neighborhood looks quite similar to our old one. I think we assumed that the residents would be more similar than they have turned out to be. This may limit our opportunities to make friends among immediate neighbors....

This is my concern and one reason we thought about 55+ communities (but were turned off by the small lots and the possibility of being the youngsters in the neighborhood). Not sure how to research how friendly the neighbors would be.

 

[NateW]

buy acreage...my buddy had 40-acres.

two of the things we checked when we were looking to move were restrictive ordinances ( we would never consider an HOA) for radio towers and RV parking.

My next door neighbor did just that, bought several acres in West Virginia and is having a house built.

In the states we are looking in only about 5% of the houses are in non-HOA neighborhoods, probably because they are in newer neighborhoods.

 

[NateW]

Here are a few of my items

1. What type of heat (fuel type) does the house under consideration have? In general, it will be electric (resistance or heat pump), natural gas or propane (forced hot air furnace or hot water "boiler"), or heating oil (forced hot air furnace or hot water "boiler"). Note that for the same heat output, propane and heating oil cost 3 to 4 times what natural gas does. Also, heating oil furnaces and boilers are more maintenance intensive than those fueled by natural gas or propane, and require special equipment to correctly set the fueling and combustion air that the average do-it-yourselfer can't get. Figure one professional tune-up and cleaning per year with oil-fired equipment. Rural locations tend to not have natural gas.

Electric resistance (forced hot air, baseboard, or heat pump back-up) heat tends to be a little more expensive than propane or oil heat and its cost is dependent on your electric rates, which can vary significantly based on location.

In the 1980s I had a house with a heat pump with electric resistance supplemental (back-up) heat. (Heat pumps can have backup heat supplied by natural gas, fuel oil or propane as well). I did not like the luke warm heat it produced. Perhaps they are better now.

2. Water and sewer: Does the house have public water or well water? Does it have a public sewer connection or is it septic tank/field equipped? I don't know much about well water or septic tanks/fields, other than they are quite common in rural areas and especially with older properties. A friend of mine who has septic and well water told me that you need to know how deep the well is and how high the water table is. You don't want to have to drill a new well because the old one crapped out. Very expensive he said. As for septic, he said if a new septic tank has to be put in, it's $20k plus. He also said some jurisdictions require yearly tank pumping at about $300. I reviewed some of the information in Inspectapedea covering septic systems and that was enough to make me want to steer clear of them. Too many unknowns.

3. Know how much snow the area under consideration gets on average. Are you ok with this amount?

4. If you perform your own home maintenance (like I do), keep in mind that as you age you may not be able to do what you once did and perhaps select a more maintenance friendly house, unless you don't mind hiring this work out at some point. I'd rather not have a two story house, or one that requires a lot of exterior painting.

5. Consider the layout and accomodations of the house in terms of your future mobility as you age. A few houses we saw online had wheelchair wide doorways and roll-in showers.

6. Is there a vaulted ceiling that includes the kitchen and living/great room? We have that now and all sounds are amplified tremendously and are somewhat distorted. We hate it and never again will have this in a house. We also never thought anything of it when we were looking at our current house.

 

[Souschef]

Here is a link to the (unofficial) pilots' map (aeronautical charts) of the United States that identifies all known airports and other hazardous areas. I still am learning how to read it.

VFRMAP - Digital Aeronautical Charts

Interesting site. Select sectional instead of hybrid, and enter your state in the search box. I was able to locate the airport 1/2 mile from our home in CA.

 

[rk911]

Here is a link to the (unofficial) pilots' map (aeronautical charts) of the United States that identifies all known airports and other hazardous areas. I still am learning how to read it.

VFRMAP - Digital Aeronautical Charts

to what sort of hazardous areas are you referring or hoping to identify with this chart. these charts, known as 'Sectionals', will show virtually all airfields, public and private, bodies of water, railroad tracks, cities and towns, nuclear power stations and just about anything a pilot flying under visual flight rules would need to be aware of for safety or navigation purposes. other than identifying airfield locations i'm not certain this will serve any useful purpose in identifying undesireable locations.

one thing. you'll notice that each airfield is identified by. 3-character alpha or alpha-numeric ID such as my home field, ARR. you can lookup these airfields to get an idea of what sort of air traffic they serve and how busy they are.

AirNav: Airport Information

 

[doneat54]

Lots of great suggestions already. Yes, streetview the whole neighborhood.

You might find this website useful. It will show you previous occupants at an address, owners or renters. Used it Googling the names on mail that was being delivered to our 2nd home we bought in 2019.

clustrmaps.com

 

[Finance Dave]

I am a retired home inspector, sounds like you're going to hire one. Are you talking about a brand new house? If so...

1) Neighborhood covenants
2) Plans for building adjacent (if they will be building for a few years yet, you will have dirt all over your house until they are done)
3) Airport path? May be noisy
4) Don't be the most expensive house in the neighborhood
5) Don't pick a house where adjacent lots slope towards yours...this can cause water in your basement or around your foundation and can lead to all sorts of problems.
6) Does the builder use "contractor grade" mechanicals? Do you have the option of spec'ing your own?


If you want tips on some key house construction techniques I'd recommend, I can give those...but would want to know more about price range and what part of the country you are living in.

 

[Finance Dave]

...

 

[Bamaman]

Now that you mention it, a large percentage of the houses we have looked at online are in neighborhoods without sidewalks. And these are 2005 and newer $400k to $500k houses. Sidewalks are important to me too, but I never really gave it much thought.

I agree with you on the need to not live near to high voltage power/transmission lines. I didn't know they could be noisy, though.

The longer these postings get, the better the information.

We moved just over a year ago, and we hope this is our final move. Our house is in a small 20 home subdivision that's probably the nicest housing within 5 miles in any direction. We're in the country about 10 miles out of town surrounded by huge farms.

Behind our house 150 yards is a two lane highway. We had no idea that that road would be so noisy, especially late on Friday and Saturday nights.

It seems as if there's not a Mustang or V-8 powered truck in this end of the county that even has a muffler. And when the weather gets warm, out come the Rice Rocket motorcycles drag racing until 2;00 or 3:00 a.m. many nights.

Around 3:00 a.m., many heavy trucks sound like locomotives on the highway behind our house. They're hauling groceries and other consumer goods into retail stores for the day's sales.

And as many have said, it's good that many can filter out familiar noises.

I just wish we had restaurants, doctors, dentists and more restaurants in this quadrant of the county. We have a Publix as the only grocery. But we do have a great Domino's out our back door. We also wish it wasn't 10 miles to the big box stores including Walmart. We are very thankful for Dollar General stores that are 3 miles apart in every direction.

 

[NateW]

Interesting site. Select sectional instead of hybrid, and enter your state in the search box. I was able to locate the airport 1/2 mile from our home in CA.

Thanks Souschef, I'll give it a try.

 

[HarveyS]

Look out for a closed/abandoned quarry nearby. You should be able to see this on google maps. Sometimes these get re-opened and blasting & truck traffic become an issue.

Look at the overall demographics of the area. Have the local gov'ts build lots of elementary schools to support the young families moving to starter homes? If so, these schools may be empty in 5 - 10 years. Will a nice walkable school from your house close, leaving young kids to bus to school? And who will be paying for the empty schools? Not an issue for you, per se, but maybe for resale.

 

[NateW]

to what sort of hazardous areas are you referring or hoping to identify with this chart. these charts, known as 'Sectionals', will show virtually all airfields, public and private, bodies of water, railroad tracks, cities and towns, nuclear power stations and just about anything a pilot flying under visual flight rules would need to be aware of for safety or navigation purposes. other than identifying airfield locations i'm not certain this will serve any useful purpose in identifying undesireable locations.

one thing. you'll notice that each airfield is identified by. 3-character alpha or alpha-numeric ID such as my home field, ARR. you can lookup these airfields to get an idea of what sort of air traffic they serve and how busy they are.

AirNav: Airport Information

Instead of "hazardous areas" I probably should have used "some of the undesirable things near a neighborhood". I was looking at the aeronautical chart for the Richmond, VA area and it identified a coal-fired power plant and other manufacturing facilities and I think quaries and high-voltage power lines.

Yes, I stumbled upon the aeronautical charts when looking up information on regional airports on the AirNav site.

 

[RetireeRobert]

Check for water pressure and water quality. Look inside toilet tanks to see what kind of residue the water is leaving over an extended period. Flush the toilets and run bath faucet and sink faucets at same time. Taste several glasses of water from different faucets, preferably on different days.

 

[Sunset]

We lived in a beautiful home that we loved, it just happened to be in line with approach for the airport. We weren't anywhere near the airport, but every 5-7 minutes an airplane would be flying overhead (and they started their decent much further away from the airport than you would think).

I did that once, it was so LOUD , if you were talking about 6 feet to a neighbor, both of us simply stopped talking and waited for the loudest sound to fade a bit.

 

[Gumby]

We live about 3 miles from the Sikorsky helicopter plant. After they build a new helicopter, they take it out for a test ride and usually fly right over our house. When that happens, you can feel it as well as hear it. However, it is infrequent, brief and always in the middle of the day, so we don't mind.