brit_usa2014

Since our GC is in process, we are looking to go onto the market to buy a new home. Since this will be our first time in the US, looking for general advice on how to start?

So far from what we've seen online all of the houses on sale are very old houses, few latest houses from 2000's onwards. Is that how it is over here?

So please, any advice/tips welcome!
Thanks..

sir_eccles

State? City? Too many regional variations to comment.

brit_usa2014

Sorry forgot to mention, State is MA, city will be near Ashland

Jerseygirl

In the area of NJ where we lived all new builds were McMansions. Built on one acre or less selling from upwards of $1.5M. 10 miles or more away...you could find smaller new builds...but they would be townhouses.

Bob

Ashland and surrounds, most will be oldish stock. If you want brand new, chances are, it'll be a condo, of which there's a few and then there's a couple of new dev subs.

Not that you want to be in Framingham, but there's some nice places in North Framingham.

Hopkinton on the left is also a nice option. Budget goes up, but there's been quite a lot of new builds in Southborough. Going way up, but there's quite a lot of new builds in and around Natick too. Also some of the towns on the outside of I-495.

All going to depend on budget and where you're looking to commute too.

But as you're in Ashland, is Stones Pub still decent? They used to do a decent Sunday roast.

hungryhorace

We're within the I-95 ring, and that was our experience too. The newest house was probably 2004, and that was really one one or two of hundreds we saw online / in person. Our house we've just purchased was built in the 1950's, but has been updated. That was quite common in our house hunting experience.

Some things to be aware of; septic and well water seem to be quite common outside of major towns. I'm not sure such a system exists in England but its useful to read up on it. Our property has septic & well water, for example. Nice free water to treat the lawn with, but then had to have an industrial size water filtration system installed to reduce the nitrates and make the water soft.

Pulaski

I would never have guessed you would buy a house with a well and septic system. Personally I would never want to go back to "city water", it tastes foul in comparison to our well water.

While you're reading up on such things, take a look at 'chlorine shocking" (disinfecting) a well. Thankfully I have only had to do it once, and biological contamination of a well is usually associated with either a cracked or broken well head, or a prolonged period of disuse, causing the water to stagnate.

Hotscot

I agree with you there...our well water in winter nice and cold from the ground is very refreshing.

Not as good as Scottish water though.

hungryhorace

I am more than happy with well water (in fact, I am very happy we have our own well!), though I would have preferred town sewer rather than the septic.

Hotscot

Well as long as the septic was properly installed you should never know any difference.
Do you have any trees though? They love the leach field and the roots could clog them up..
Then it becomes messy.

Pulaski

I agree, I would never plant a tree on a septic system, but a previous owner planted what is now a very large flowering cherry, a weeping one, that must be a good 25ft tall, in the center of the drain field. Needless to say it appears to have thrived on the steady supply of water and nutrients, but the septic system has never given us a problem. We eventually had it pumped out "just because" (I guess wanting to ensure that it didn't throw us a curve ball), 20 years after it was installed, ...... and for good measure the previous owner had also used a garbage disposal unit in the kitchen sink! (I came back from closing on the house and removed the GDU immediately!)

It probably helps that the septic system is sized for a good sized house but there have never been more than two adults and one child living in the house.

Anyhow, I always wonder why, when a septic system is supposed to collect solid waste and only allow water into the drain field, and that a mature tree can remove hundreds of gallons of water a day, why getting roots into the drain field is considered such a bad thing? ..... This is just a rhetorical question, and as I had to reassure Mrs P recently, I have no intention of trying to prove a point by planting trees in the drain field.

Hotscot

Well I know you say it was rhetorical but now I wonder...I suppose in some designs the roots could get in and clog up the process thereby causing a backup? That's what I always understood the risk to be.

And when you say a GDU? That's for general garbage, not just organic?
We have two garbage disposals in the kitchen, but only for organic material, which I hear is good for keeping the septic tank fully stocked with working bacteria.

Only two of us and two cats...wish they would learn to use the toilet.

Pulaski

I have no idea what the lady that owned the house put down the garbage disposal. I would assume it was only organic matter, but I have no idea, and now that the tank has been pumped it makes no difference.

What I do know in NC is that installing a garbage disposal in a house with a septic system is contrary to the plumbing code, not that that means people don't do it of course!

hungryhorace

We have a small forrest at the end of our garden lol.

Pulaski

FWIW, IMO I wouldn't worry too much about it!