sir_eccles

I always love seeing this picture in the Skymall catalog.

Bob

Water isn't that bad out in the burbs, lot of nice reservoir/lake supplies that are clean....water in Boston itself is minging though.

Sceptic tanks in cold areas, not so fun if anything goes wrong in the winter and the ground freezes, can be quite expensive getting a digger in there if anything needs doing....plus you can't use bleach down the drains for smells or chemical drain cleaners, well the regular ones at least.

Saying all that, the in-laws haven't really had any issues with theirs, apart from having to get it pumped out a couple of times. Cousin's though, cracked in the winter a few years back and cost a fortune to sort out.

Pulaski

It's not the water per se, it's the chlorine they put in it, that I don't like, and wouldn't want to go back to.

Bob

Yeah, that's why the water in Boston tastes so minging, they put so much into it, but out in the burbs, it's not noticeable.

Where the folks live, their supply is one of the supplies for Poland Springs....where the bears shit in the woods, literally

petitefrancaise

We used a buyer's agent here in TX when we were buying earlier in the year. Knowledge of the area and individual houses was invaluable. She got me to look at loads of houses over a couple of months so that I could get a feel for the market too and figure out what kind of house I would like. When it came to the house we bought, I knew it was what we wanted, that the price was ok for the area and we could move really quickly.
Oh yes, and we got the mortgage ready in advance too. Through AIG inbound/Wells Fargo head office who dealt with all our financial info from France (in french) without a problem.

Amokachi

What's your budget and what are you looking for? There are a number of new builds in Holliston, just south of Ashland (15 min drvie or so from the MBTA station), they're all super modern 3000+square foot McMashion type things, seem to start circa $700,000.

Anything smaller does indeed seem to be old but there are smaller, relatively modern (post 1980) ones out there.

brit_usa2014

Thanks for the replies

Our budget at the moment is around $350-450,000. We saw one newly built home a couple of days back, but it is near a cemetery (there's one house right next to the cemetery and then the house we saw, so around 400mts). What are peoples opinions about buying a home near a cemetery? Will it be easier to sell later on in the future or difficult?

That was the only new one, the other 2 we saw were built in 1955 and 1970.
Sigh, Really confused what to do!
Whether new builds are better or old ones- how easy is it to sell old ones later on?

Also, one more question- what sites are good for searching online? I know of Redfin and Zillow, any other reputable ones?

Thanks in advance and sorry if my post is long!

Pulaski

I'd buy a house next to a cemetery, and I used to live in one in Wimbledon that was adjoined by a cemetery on two sides (at the side and behind); it not like neighbours are going to disturb you with loud parties, theors kids yelling and screaming, or teenagers revving car engines.

Personally I'd say that any use for land that secures it's use and prevents residential, commercial, or road development, (or a few other things: railways, airports, sewage farms, etc.) is a plus, IMO a huge plus. I will concede that some people might be superstitious about cemeteries.

Bob

Cemetery shouldn't be a problem, especially if it's a nice, old one. They've got them all over the place.

Padmapper.com I think has sales, or it might be hotpads.com that has a for sale option. I think there's also Zoocasa, or something similar.

dunroving

From memory, something that threw me was figuring out how the whole realtor commission worked out.

Most houses/most places, there is about 6% realtor commission to pay, of which 3% goes to the "seller's realtor" (easy to figure out), the other 3% goes to the "buyer's realtor". The latter is the more complicated to figure out.

For many reasons, you don't want to use the same realty company as the seller (conflict of interest within the same company). In the UK, you just call the selling estate agent and ask to see the property. In the US, you call the seller's realtor (the estate agency selling the property) and one of teh first questions is "Who is your realtor?" followed by a complicated conversation if you don't have one ...

Pulaski

There's a little more to it than that, because each realtor splits their 3% 50:50 with their "broker", i.e. their boss/ business owner. While the 6% seems exorbitant, the cause of the "problem" is the number of people who have their fingers in the pie.

Jerni

And for a buyer the whole commission thing is irrelevant since its paid by the seller.

jmood

If all the commission is paid by the seller, why do they care about the buyer's realtor?

Pulaski

Credible buyers have a buyers agent. In a competitive bid situation you run the risk of being ignored unless you have other significant factors in your favour, such as being a cash buyer.

It is certainly possible to buy without a buyers agent, and we have bought in the past from a "dual agent". We knew what we were doing, didn't need advice on the price, or any other of the "services" that a buyers agent provides. It led to an odd closing at our lawyer's office because we knew him and had used his services before, we knew the sellers'/dual agent as a friend, neighbor, and previously as our buyers' agent. So the sellers were left sitting at the table like a couple of gooseberries as they didn't really know anyone else at the meeting.

petitefrancaise

Agree with Pulaski on this.

Also in a competitive situation, your agent will have a much better idea of how to put together a bid which will work for you and the seller since there are other factors involved.