So can everyone here help me move my entire family to Atlanta or Iowa or wherever you people want me to move? Also My husband is one of seven children with a brother living in a hospital and elderly parents. Can one of you suggest a good hospital we can have him moved to? And his parents, who will help me move them? And the there is the issue of hus business and employees, offices, servers, can someone suggest a good moving company for his entire business?

This is the most ridiculous nonsense I have ever heard. I didn't even ask for advice about where we should live. As for the wording of my post, are you saying I should censor my language so that fragile people don't get upset? Can I send my posts to one of you from now on to be edited for upsetting content. Do you guys hear yourselves?

I was being sarcastic in my post but I guess that didn't come across to the simple folk. This is a real estate forum, yes? Open to the public? What's the price range I am allowed to look in? We are currently considering a house for $890,000 with 17,000 a year for taxes, is that more acceptable? We are considering a range of options. And yes, we are looking for certain things and are not willing to budge on some of them. We don't want a home with asbestos or radon, no matter what the Dr. on the gardenweb forum tells me, because it will cause problems in resale. The houses with those issues sit. Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH IT! Are you actually telling me that doctors and "experts" are never wrong about these things. C'mon! If that doctor is so sure about his little fan, why continuously test the house anyway? Because it is a dangerous situation and he is not so dumb as to blindly trust a little fan! Do some research on the subject and don't just accept what people, you don't know, tell you.

$800 a month in taxes? Are you kidding? Is there anyone else who actually pays that little in taxes? I can imagine what the schools are like there! Does every grade share the same teacher in the one room schoolhouse? Or are your taxes just low because you don't have the doublewide? I almost spit out MY coffee when you posted that!

This forum is obviously some sort of a clique and outsiders are unwelcome. Sorry to bother everyone with my nonsense. I will look elsewhere and get help from people who are less judgemental and more knowledgeable about the world outside of your insulated little towns. Some advertisement for people from Atlanta! I will make sure never to move there if this is what the people are like! Besides, don't they have a very high crime rate there? Wouldn't want to bring my kids into that area!

And by the way, DUH! No house is perfect. Who said we were looking for perfection? You guys did. We ARE looking for the best house for our money. What a bunch of strange people you are.

I repeat - I did not suggest you move here. I wanted to show you why we can't relate to your nightmare. Sorry, I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.I didn't intend to suggest you move here.

I have found the people here very helpful even when they have been critical (see my 'siding' post). It is not a clique. You obviously didn't read through my post clarifying that I would never try to get a stranger to move to another city over the Internet. I have family and friends in Atlanta, so you probably couldn't GIVE me a home in Westchester, since I like it here. The tax bill would be more per month than my mortage. Go refill your cup on that one.

I UNDERSTAND YOU. You don't want to leave NY. That is clear even to me. The suggestion on the table was to broaden your search enough to give you a better selection. It is you that refuses to see what people are trying to tell you, not everyone else trying to get you to move 1000's of miles away from your family.

FYI - You have to know the Atlanta area to understand the crime statistics. Atlanta is mostly suburbs, most of which are perfectly safe. If you want to take a crack at my city, you have to get traffic and air quality information.

Never mind on the classy part. You just stooped to the same level as others who posted here.

BTW $800 in property taxes/year are a possible in several areas and still get a great education. It all depends on the costs in the area, salaries tend to depend on that too. Other taxes than property taxes used to fund schools etc. No $800 in taxes a year does not mean you have to live in a mobile home either for many parts of the country. Sounds like good schools that teach some general knowledge wouldn't hurt.

BTW calling somebody simple folks because of an area where they live is just doing the same things you feel they did to you. You don't know anything about their education or IQ for that matter.

$800 a month in taxes? Are you kidding? Is there anyone else who actually pays that little in taxes?

No, Blue velvet elvis said that their taxes are $800 a year. I also can't comprehend taxes of $40,000 a year. That's more than double my mortgage payment. My taxes are about $400/month. I'd say that the average in my city is close to $250/month for property taxes. In my area there is a home listed for $1.4 million, with taxes of $10,000 per year. Believe it or not we have good schools, paved roads, police and fire departments.
As for the wording of your post, yes, you could have been more sensitive in describing your situation. When posting on the internet I believe that you need to be more careful in the words that you choose than when you are speaking aloud, as it is harder to convey your personality and frame of mind with just the written word.

Jenny actually wrote: $800 a month in taxes? Are you kidding? Is there anyone else who actually pays that little in taxes? I can imagine what the schools are like there! Does every grade share the same teacher in the one room schoolhouse? Or are your taxes just low because you don't have the doublewide? I almost spit out MY coffee when you posted.

$800/month is $9600 per year. Fairly high by anyone's standards. P.S. I realize the poster who mentioned $800 taxes did say $800 per year, not per month.

Does anyone smell a troll?

Sorry, terriks, I'll try to be more sensitive in the future so that I don't upset anyone. Lord knows y'all were very sensitive of my feelings.

notrafficinga, calm down, I wasn't talking to you, it's NOT all about you. It's not all about you! It's not all about you! It's not all about you! It's not all about you! It's not all about you!

lyfia, I was trying to show them how it felt for someone to judge them based on nothing but stereotypes. I actually do realize that not everyone outside of NY is "simple". I am equally sire that Atlanta is a very nice area. However, the people who attacked me do seem to have issues. Just like not everyone from Westchester is a snob. Although there are plenty of 'em. I was asking for advice about something and got attacked for where I want to live and how much money I have. I am not above giving as good as I get.

High residential property taxes generally translate to school districts that have no other tax base to support them -- and possibly poorly managed schools (gasp!). Residential real estate taxes in the New Trier school district (Top 10 HS, located in Winnetka, IL) are about 1.5% of a home's true market value. That's about half of what the OP says she will be paying. If schools don't take a major share of those taxes, I wonder what services do.

Sorry, terriks, I'll try to be more sensitive in the future so that I don't upset anyone. Lord knows y'all were very sensitive of my feelings.

Hey, I don't remember making any rude comments to you personally. I just suggested that your choice of words in the title of this thread may have prompted others to respond critically.

OK Jenny I understand and chuck this up to a leasson from now on to just ignore them. The first post you made to them was very good, the last one just didn't come across as well. As far as them having issues you'll learn that posting on the internet seems to bring out those that will say things they never would have said if they were talking in person. Part is reading comprehension and reading things into a post based on their previous bias or just because they had a bad day. Hard to tell with the written word. In addition some people just are that way. You just got to learn to ignore them.

Take your time and keep looking, eventually something will go your way. It is hard when you look in an area where things either don't come up for sale often or the price vs what you get just doesn't jive with what you'd like to see.

Jenny,

If you look back on all your responses, you received a lot of very good responses to your question. You received a few responses which you considered "judgemental". Just ignore those and move on. Take the good information and ignore the rest. This is a public forum; conversations get diverted; not everything posted (even on your own thread) was meant to be directly related to you. Even on a thread you started, others are trying to give their viewpoint to help EVERYONE that reads this forum, not necessarily the original poster.

I was originally feeling badly that you were offended, but after reading your most recent posts I think you have stooped to a level below that which you accuse others of. You have directly insulted others who have tried to help. I am one of the people from Iowa who tried to give you advice. I did comment on the high cost of living where you are, but it was not meant personally in any way and I meant it in jest (you even said you laughed so I guess you took it that way) and never did I suggest you move to Iowa.

However I find your insinuations to be very insulting -- that just because we have low property taxes, that Iowa must run on one-room overcrowded schoolhouses. Iowa is ranked among the best nationally for its public school systems. Your comments are not only directly insulting but they are downright wrong.

(Oh, and it's $800 A YEAR, not a month!)

Jenny, We currently pay $1300/YEAR in taxes; we'll be paying $3400/YEAR on our new house. You're flabbergasted by $800 a month or year in taxes...we cannot imagine $40,000 a year in taxes. I don't know of anywhere in Iowa where taxes are that high. What do YOU get for all that money? I'd be really curious to know. You must drive on streets lined in gold. We live in Iowa, which is rated quite highly nationwide for its public school system. I know a lot of people who have moved here from the East and West coasts just for the school system and the family friendly communities. Our state is scattered with one-room schoolhouses that have been restored as museums, but no longer are used as schools. We may be a little behind you West/East coasters, but life in the slow lane works just fine for us.

"Or are your taxes just low because you don't have the doublewide?"

I missed that comment before.

I can't believe anyone would actually post something like this. That really just says all we need to know about this person.

To others (not the OP) who might be reading this and actually believing some of these absurd comments: Here in Iowa my kids go to a public school system that is ranked nationally. We are very lucky to own a 5000 square foot, 5 bd/5ba new house on 7 beautiful secluded acres, with a security system, 1/4 mile paved lane, remote control gate, large modern outbuilding with heat and water (horses, etc.), other amenities such as a huge spa/sauna/exercise room done in imported tile and cedar, and a guest suite in the lower level which includes a second top quality full kitchen with more cabinet space than most houses have in a primary kitchen. And the whole works cost us $320,000. And I can actually drive to it without getting stuck in traffic. And I can actually raise my kids in a place where there is virtually no crime.

There are many advantages to living in Iowa. I get sick of all the slams from people who have no clue.

akkw, your place sound lovely. What you described would cost about $3-4 Million in my town in Mass with taxes in the $30K per year range. The differences throughout the US are very interesting and we all have good reasons for living where we do.

Thanks chispa. As I said, we are lucky, and I wasn't trying to say that Iowa is better than anywhere else, just trying to dispute what seems to be a generalization of some people that we all are hicks here who live in trailers.

There are lovely areas all over the country, with advantages/disadvantages to everywhere. It's all about balance I guess! I do find it very interesting to hear about the housing market in other places in the country, that's part of the reason I read this forum. I have learned a lot.

Akkw, this is a serious question - If your house is valued at $320K and you only pay $800 per year in taxes, how are your schools funded? I don't believe Iowa is densely populated, so the money isn't being made on volume (heck, if that were true my NYS school taxes would be low as our area is fairly densely populated). So, where does the money come from? Are businesses taxes at a much higher rate? Tons of lottery players? What?

There's a guy from Omaha who's done pretty well for himself. You may have heard of him - Warren Buffet.

I agree jenny's last message didn't come across great, but having said that she has been attacked from all angles by people telling her she's crazy to want to live where she does. I don't blame her for getting a bit on the defensive.

In my market the lowest price unit on the market is a 465 sqft studio for $247,500.

The average 3 bed condo is $1M and most homes are above that.

People here tend to be young (mainly in their 30s) and most work in NYC but live here because it is less expensive. A $1.7M Brownstone is considered a bargain to people who have been looking in NYC, even if it does need some sprucing up. That doesn't make buyers of these homes crazy. It's all about location and how much homes cost in those areas.

If you are looking in an area where the average home is $2M and you only have $1.6M, finding a nice house is going to be tough and present the exact same challenges as someone searching for a home with $250,000 when the average home costs $300,000.

I agree there may need to be some more compromises made, but from the homes jenny is describing it doesn't sound like she is trying to find the 'perfect' home.
If her whole family lives in this area, why does it seem so strange to everyone that she might like to live near them?

"Akkw, this is a serious question - If your house is valued at $320K and you only pay $800 per year in taxes, how are your schools funded?"

xamsx -- I never said I pay $800/yr in taxes -- that was another poster from Iowa, who has a much lower priced home in a generally lower priced area of Iowa (still good schools there, however). I was only trying to correct the misunderstanding in year versus month.

I pay closer to $4000/yr, which I always thought was very high but I have a new perspective now :)

"I agree there may need to be some more compromises made, but from the homes jenny is describing it doesn't sound like she is trying to find the 'perfect' home.
If her whole family lives in this area, why does it seem so strange to everyone that she might like to live near them?"

The thing is, we're all here (or most of us) because we are trying to either sell or buy a house. Or both. Everyone is frustrated by the slow real estate market, the high prices of everything, all the compromises that have to be made, all the hassles of just everything about it. At first blush, probably most of us would love to be in the shoes of Jenny who can do a cash transaction to buy a 1.5 million dollar house but can't find one that is suitable because of the idiotic real estate market. We'd all love to have that 1.5 million dollars in our hands because hey, look what we could do with it in other parts of the country! We'd all run straight for the hills of Iowa (oops... except it's flat here) and buy a multimillion dollar mansion (or else buy my house and retire with the rest of the money... any takers???)

Some might really do this. But many (or most) wouldn't. We'd stay where our jobs are, where our homes are, where our families are. Is that unreasonable? No way.

Point is, it's just such a novel concept to most of us, having that much money for a house that I think (at least to me) that we don't even KNOW how to respond to this situation. So we respond with our horror and disgust about the out-of-control, sky-high real estate market and how it's all just INSANE, and the OP takes it personally.

We're all in the same boat, mad and frustrated that someone in this situation has to COMPROMISE what she really wants in buying a home when she should not have to! It's the insanity of the market! She should be able to buy anything she wants. Fact of the matter is, she can't. She has values and priorities just like the rest of us, they make whatever sense to her that they make, we are in no judgement of that. We have our own little idiosyncratic "wants and needs" when we do our own house hunting. Hers are no different. The dollar (or millions of dollars) only stretches so far.

It's just a crying shame that a million dollars doesn't stretch far enough for Jenny to live a relatively modest life in her home area with good schools. It should be that way. For her and for all of us who work so hard for it. That's what the bottom line is here, I think.

Akkw - oooh ok. Wrong poster, sorry. Still, if $4K includes school taxes that is very cheap. Does your $4K include school taxes or is that just property tax?

Hi, my company moved from rochester, ny to westchester about four years ago. I didn't go for numerous reasons, but many of my coworkers did go.
They ALL had hard times finding a house that wasn't falling apart. They were very upset with the cost and condition of the houses.
Many of them settled and those that built found out that their new houses had to be remedited for radon. I believe the entire county has radon issues (as well as jersey).
If you do buy a house that comes back negative for radon and doesn't have a remediation system please have someone come in every year and double check this, as this can change.
As I understand it, everyone has it there. It is just the way the land is. If you are uncomfortable with that, you may have to look elsewhere for your house. however, most of the areas around the city do have radon, so I am not sure where you could go really.
Also, get your house inspected no matter what.
If someone thinks they have asbestos and they test for it they are required by law to tell prospective buyers there is asbestos in the home. Well, what do you think most people do then? Better to not test it and leave it where it is and then you don't have to say it is there! So make sure you get a home inspection and make sure the inspector takes samples of suspected asbestos items if you are concerned with this.
Also most of my coworkers were looking for more modestly priced homes they all had problems with finding a nice house in the area, so you are not alone.
If you have so many relatives in the area, won't it be possible to buy off them or live WITH them? If their house is too small you could use your money and add on to enlarge their place. If you have some older folks in your family with a larger house maybe you could buy their house from them and move them into a smaller home in the area? I think that would be a win-win !
-renee

Jenny -

If you've been looking for 2 years, you've found out that you are going to have to change some of your criteria. Housing in the very high-priced suburban areas around NY City seems to be going up in price, not down as in so many other markets.

The compromise you suggested in your post was houses with potentially serious defects. Several posters have attempted to address your question, but you basically know that none of us can really answer your question except by saying what our own experiences with mold, mildew, and dry rot have been, and telling you what we think we might do in your place.

I hope the house one poster knows works for you, but if not, I don't think there's that much more we can say. These forums can be good for helping people think out of their "boxes", but only you know which compomises you will be willing to make.

"$800/month is $9600 per year. Fairly high by anyone's standards."

Not by NJ standards. Those are pretty average taxes for a middle class house in this state. I would be thrilled if our taxes were only $10,000 a year.

Most McMansions in our area have taxes in the $20,000 - 50,000 range.

C

xamsx -- that amount is including school taxes (that represents the vast majority of it)

carolineb -- I guess at this point I'm curious about how people continue to pay those kind of taxes. Who has these McMansions? Even for the "normal" folks -- how do they pay that amount? Are salaries that much higher there? I've been offered jobs in that area of the country and have had to turn them down because we just can't afford to live there.

I do understand how some people can afford to buy a house in these inflated areas (because they have lived there for awhile, sold a house, moving up, etc) but the taxes, which would represent a monthly expense (and not a small one) has me baffled. I just don't understand how there can be so many people who can do it.

Supposedly our household is financially in the upper-middle class and we couldn't possibly do it. I'm a physician, DH is a health care administrator, we each (separately) make six figure salaries. Combined, we make a good six figure household salary and have no debt. But our $320,000 house here, which we bought about three years ago, was a huge deal for us. I guess maybe we are too financially conservative?

Right now a $400k house purchase (in the area we're moving to) seems like a huge amount of money to us. My husband's definition of being financially comfortable is being able to make the house payment and not even think about it being a big deal. I'm sure we could afford more house probably, but I just want to be comfortable and be able to save. I'm not sure it's worth the stress. Are people able to save in these areas of inflated housing costs, and how do they do it? Do they all have incomes more than us or expenses less than us? I would really love to know. It's a question that DH and I have asked ourselves repeatedly as we drive through miles and miles of McMansions and wonder how other people do it.

We do have three kids, so maybe that is part of the issue, I don't know.

HI Caroline B. It was me who posted that most would agree that $9600 is high. I did not mean to say it was not average in some areas (I live in Rockland County, New York and it is average here), but it I still consider it HIGH! SKY HIGH!

AKKW, regarding how we pay the taxes. I can give a pretty good example since I work for the government and someone in Iowa in my same position would earn the same base salary as I do. Different areas get different cost of living adjustments and high cost areas get an additional locality pay adjustments. I just checked the pay scales and I make about $11,000 more than someone who lives in Iowa. I'm guessing most of that goes to taxes! I moved to the area 7 years ago and purchased what passes for a nice house in New York (there is very little new construction in this area, so our standards are a bit different). I would never be able to afford this same house today. We have a very hard time getting people to move to NY - even to take the highest positions in our office.

Our area (E. Cobb, Lassiter High) is pretty much built out, so we have a lot of teardown situations. A new house out here in what seems like the boondocks is going to run at least 750K. Taxes were around $7500 for 2006. I, too, wonder who can afford that after paying the large mortgage payment. This is not a few houses. They dot this section of the county, poised right next to a doomed cedar ranch or sprawling contemporary. Further in, they are much more expensive.

The disparity is interesting. Across the street from my 250k-260K house you will find a sprawling McMansion listed for 1.6 million.

Thanks for your post brody misamom!

My husband works for the government too (the VA) but in our experience the cost differentials elsewhere haven't been enough to make up the difference. He has been applying for VA transfers all over the country for a few years now, and we've refused several offers due to this. It could just be his particular area within the VA --- I don't know. We've really only focused on areas with a reasonable cost of living, similar to our area. We finally found a good opportunity (so we are moving in July!)

My husband lived in Sacramento in the 1980's and would love to live there again. We simply can't afford it. I had an awesome job opportunity in Sacramento in 2000 that only paid $30,000 more a year than I make here, and it wasn't enough to be able to afford the entire transfer of cost of living.

Given your post it might be about timing -- I can see that if one buys at the right time, that makes all the difference.

We have put a lot of our money here in Iowa into "farms" (land with timber/prairie ground/some crops/etc). I am not sure how much we have now but I'd estimate it to be about 400 acres of land (aside from our home acreage). We didn't do it as an investment (we did it for recreational purposes, mostly my husband's hunting), but because land in some places in Iowa (particularly southwest Iowa) has been very cheap, we've been lucky in that the value of this land has risen considerably since we bought these farms five years ago or more.

Jenny, check out listing #2714687 It just came on the market. It looks like everything you are looking for and appears to be in beautiful condition. (Im sorry, I dont know how to link to share with everyone else.)

"Jenny, check out listing #2714687 It just came on the market. It looks like everything you are looking for and appears to be in beautiful condition. (Im sorry, I dont know how to link to share with everyone else.)"

Wow!!! Now that is a house! It seems to be in your area. If this is the level of house you're looking it, it is very nice! No mold problem there!

Thanks a lot everyone for your help. Sorry I got pulled into all that nonsense. It was just sort of shocking to be treated like that. I am new at this and am learning that certain people like to start trouble on these forums, I shouldn't have sunk to their level. I hope I didn't offend anyone, I really was just trying to show them how it felt to be judged. I don't really feel that way. Thank you to all those who were helpful.

I'm not sure if Jenny saw the house mentioned a few posts above, below is the link.

I would jump on that one, looks perfect.

Thanks for the listing. That is actually one of a few areas that we have decided to avoid. You will really laugh when you hear this one, it's a very exclusive area and my husband outright refuses to look there. There are issues with the schools (most kids here go to private) but mostly it is the "attitude" of which some people here mentioned. I am sure you will all jump on me again but I would rather have a fixer-upper in another area than the perfect house in this one. I don't want my kids to become like that, believe it or not. We are avoiding Bedford and Armonk for those reasons. But I really do appreciate your help.

Right now we are looking at Somers, Yorktown Heights, Katonah-Lewisboro, Pleasantville (no land here), Briarcliff, Chappaqua, Irvington (no land here),
Ardsley, Pocantico Hills, etc

I know that we will find a house. My main question was what issues would cause you to immediately walk away from a house? What are the problems that are too difficult to fix, no matter how much $ you have? That's why I asked about the mildew smell. I would, of course, have a home inspection, but they are often useless. So all I wanted to know was what are the big issues that become a "can of worms" that you wouldn't be able to easily remedy. That's pretty much all I was asking in the first place.

Jenny wrote:

"$800 a month in taxes? Are you kidding? Is there anyone else who actually pays that little in taxes? I can imagine what the schools are like there! Does every grade share the same teacher in the one room schoolhouse? Or are your taxes just low because you don't have the doublewide? I almost spit out MY coffee when you posted that!"

Are you kidding ME? I was sympathetic towards you until you posted that charming statement. You just completely reinforced the negative posters judgements of you and your lifestyle. Way to take the high road.

And you will laugh at this one. You might want to take a look at it. It looks fabulous. We just put a contract on a house in a neighborhood that I swore I wouldn't live in. We fell in love with it and that is that. We have met our new next door neighbor and really like her. We don't "do" neighborly, but I hope we make a fast friend.

I absolutely understand about you not wanting your kids to be like that. I made a deal with my husband that we could get a loft downtown anywhere I want when the dust settles and we sell our current home. That way we have the best of both worlds, and my son sees the other side of the tracks. Some of them have roof access and are in walking distance of the major Atlanta attractions.

Jenny,
I would walk away from a house with asbestos. It just seems like much too much of a dangerous hassle to me.

I would not walk away from a house with radon as I believe that it can be effectively remediated.

Mold could go either way. You have to get a few mold companies in there to give you estimates and see how extensive it is. If it was extensive, I would probably walk away b/c I would assume there were other hidden problems, etc. Plus, if it were in a good portion of the walls, it would probably involve a major renovation, and at that point I would just want to build a new house.

I'm sure you've already looked into it, but is it possible to rent a house there while you build something? Hopefully on a huge lot where you've torn down some relatively Inexpensive house of course!

Whatever you do, it's out there waiting for you somewhere. Really!

Akkw,

I have never lived anywhere but NY / NJ so I have to assume that although we have a higher cost of living, salaries and business opportunities are greater here. As an example, my sister (attorney) and her fiance (Wall St.) make a combined $300,000 a year and are looking for homes in the $750K and up range. They are both in their mid 20's. Because of their bonuses and savings they will have a substantial downpayment. She has many friends who are in investment banking or law who start with a comfortable six figure salary and then additonally make that entire amount in their yearly bonus.

Most of the people we personally know are professionals or small business owners so I have to assume that the earning potential is simply much greater here.

C

Jenny, I did a search for you using your areas. I came up with 63 available homes.(all 4 or more beds, 3 or more baths, 1 or more acres, from 900,000 to 1,600,000) This one in particular is new construction. I would be happy to email you the list so you can weed thru and tell your agent which ones you want to see.(no strings) Homes are out there, it doesnt seem like hes figured out what you want.

In case the link doesnt work... MLS #2705954

Wow, both those you posted Linda117 are lovely. I hope Jenny takes a look.

Carolineb hit the nail on the head, akkw. Much of the housing pricing in the metro NYC area is driven by the finance industry. You wouldn't believe the number of people I know that make well in excess of a million dollars a year. Base salaries aren't that high, but bonus money is astronomical! After bonuses are handed out in February, you'll see a spike in home sales, luxury car sales, boats, jewelry, etc.

The rest of the state isn't quite as fortunate with their salaries, but no other part of the state is so high for housing either. A 30 minute express train commute into Manhattan is worth a lot.

Taxes are high in NYS - it is school tax. My property tax isn't bad - my school tax is horrendous! It varies by district. I just happen to live in a high school tax district (and in this case you DO get what you pay for). Taxes are deductible from federal and state returns (adjusted according to AMT) so preferable to fees. And yet since we looked in Jersey, I know the taxes here are no where near what I would have paid there.

FYI, our house built in 2003 had a mold issue from a leaky air conditioner that was successfully remediated long before we bought it as the first owners. We bought mold insurance, which is quite expensive (for us), but I bring this up to say you might want to consult your homeowner's insurance company before you buy. Perhaps they could recommend an inspection service. Perhaps they could discuss remediation costs in general. And they could address the how-bad-can-it-be question. Just a thought.

800 a YEAR not a month. We'd be living in the shed if our taxes were that high. That's more than our mortgage :~)

Jenny,

Here is an exert from our list of what was deal breakers for us. We looked at all age houses and land/lots only too. Yes it is picky, but we will be having a long commute and not have to deal with a lot of this. Plus we compared everything to our current house which is almost completley remodeled and in a very nice part of TX.

- Asbestos flooring/shingles
- Popcorn ceilings (easier to avoid since many have asbestos even from the early 80's, guess left over material) as we would want them removed, unless the house was built in the late 80's or 90's.
- location, not all flat (unless a city lot - reason is drainage since we can get an inch of rain in less than 10 minutes) no oil/gas wells visible from property or chances of one going in next door, no businesses bordering the property or chance of it happening
- neighborhood with restrictions unless huge acerage - no barnominimums allowed, no mobile homes, etc.
- not on a busy street
- had to have mature trees a must for shade in TX
- Space for a 60x40 shop/garage plus house.
- indoor laundry (one historic one we looked at had it in a separate building, hence it made the list after that)
- no flat roof parts, not even on porches
- wood rot in several places. A spot in a few places not a big deal especially for the age of some, but one we saw had several areas on the sills and large sections of rotted siding, along with the deck. Unknown damage underneath and not something we'd want to deal with. Also a large chance of termites since the deck was bad too.
- low foundation almost level with the ground. Two reasons for this water could easily make it in in heavy rains even with a small slope around the house and it is an easy path for termites to enter the house.
- flood plain even 100 year one was a major deal breaker.
- 8' ceilings or lower in all rooms in the house. At least high ceilings in the living room. We don't have that now, not even in the house my DH rents during the week, which is a POS.

Water damage was a semi-deal breaker. We actually made an offer on a house that had water damage in the bath, but since it was part of an area that we would completely re-model and move walls we didn't care as we would re-do everything and be able to see what the damage was and fix anyways.

BTW I if I had a choice I wouldn't want to live in an area where radon was even a possibility. However, if I did live in such an area I'd want a re-mediation system in my house even if when I bought it didn't test positive for radon. I'd also want to put in the meter somebody mentioned since radon can change so much and it doesn't necessarily show up the day you test it.

I wish there was a way to edit posts here. I wasn't trying to be rude and by the way I was raised in Los Angeles so I understand "big city talk" and I've never been described as simple folk.

My comment wasn't specifically for or even about Jenny. It was about a culture that allowed to take that as a norm. It can't be possible that I receive the same kinds of services for 800.00 that someone else pays 40k for. The taxes logically should be less because there is a bigger population of homeowners to draw from.

It astonished me about the taxes. I was taken aback. For our 800.00 a year we get great schools, roads that are fixed in front of our properties are paid half by us and half by the county. We have little crime so we don't have a local police station but we do have a sheriff that lives up the street.

I live near a university town. The people are well educated and jobs are plentiful. While apparently not making as much money as the rest of you back east, we make, to the best of my limited knowledge base, much better than average salaries of most of our neighbors. My husband and I are right at a six figure income at the moment.

I wasn't making a value judgement about what or who was chosing which home and why. I perhaps was a little flippant in my remark about the mayor.

And a side note, our school district is rated third in Iowa and Iowa is rated amongst the best in the country for school districts. The high school has a plan to have 75% of all high school students have a college plan in place. They required before they begin high school to map out what courses they'll take for the goal of either a four year or graduate degree. The private school my boys went to did little to prepare them.

BTW I'm going to have a little chat with the assessor's office if AKKW's house is 800.00 a year in property taxes too! lol

Jenny wrote:

"Disneyrsh, maybe with all of your superior wisdom you could tell me all of the things you do for starving children? What that has to do with a real estate forum, I do not know. I did not realize that only poor people could post here. You call me a snob, you are acting like one. I guess it's just hard to hear that some people have money when you are obviously not doing very well. Maybe you should get some psychological help for your issues with people who are doing better than you. I am a counselor and would be willing to work on a sliding acale if you have trouble affording therapy. Just a thought.

Are you actually telling me that doctors and "experts" are never wrong about these things. C'mon! If that doctor is so sure about his little fan, why continuously test the house anyway? Because it is a dangerous situation and he is not so dumb as to blindly trust a little fan! Do some research on the subject and don't just accept what people, you don't know, tell you.

$800 a month in taxes? Are you kidding? Is there anyone else who actually pays that little in taxes? I can imagine what the schools are like there! Does every grade share the same teacher in the one room schoolhouse? Or are your taxes just low because you don't have the doublewide? I almost spit out MY coffee when you posted that!

This forum is obviously some sort of a clique and outsiders are unwelcome. Sorry to bother everyone with my nonsense. I will look elsewhere and get help from people who are less judgemental and more knowledgeable about the world outside of your insulated little towns. Some advertisement for people from Atlanta! I will make sure never to move there if this is what the people are like! Besides, don't they have a very high crime rate there? Wouldn't want to bring my kids into that area."

And that's what I like to refer to as "True Colors". :P

I could go through it point by point and argue each egregious misquote and inconsistency, but I think my original assessment that your temperament, as displayed on this thread, necessitates that you rent for any kind of peace of mind or happiness, is probably the best line to stick with at this point.

I have no problem being blunt and opinionated. I've also noticed that people react with anger when you present them with a truth that they're not interested in hearing.

Whatever.

There are good places to live all over the world; and I think it's blind arrogance to assume that money buys it,(along with happiness) and honey, I am by no means poor or uneducated-ask the government, who's really enjoying gobbling up my hard earned money, and the loan people, who are quite happy with the number of decades I went to school. And calling Gardenweb "cliquish" when some of the posters have the temerity to question you, how rude of us!

Taking a pot shot like that at me and Gardenweb when you have a psychology degree-really, darlin', you should know better than that.

I do hope you find some happiness with your home search, but I think (and of course we all know this is MY opinion) you need to find a little zen in your life.

""Oh, boo hoo. Spare me.
You people are choosing to live in ludicrously overpriced areas of the country because you're under the mistaken impression that somehow it's "worth it" or "better".
It's not.
We've turned down several job offers because the part of the country (San Francisco, Bell Labs area of NJ) had housing and tax costs that were just plain stupid.
We've lived all over the world, in Japan, Italy, Miami, New England, etc. Trust me, the OP can't see beyond the tip of her own high maintenance nose, and is looking for sympathy.
Really, nightmare? I don't THINK so.
Children starving in Africa is a nightmare.""

Disneyrsh, I think your rude, insulting tone speaks for itself. Unfortunately, it speaks alot about the area you come from.

You turned a very nice post into something nasty and bitter. You need to learn some manners and etiquette. What rock did you crawl out of?

jane_ny wrote:

"I think your [sic] rude, insulting tone speaks for itself. Unfortunately, it speaks alot [sic] about the area you come from (I was born and raised in Boston). You need to learn some manners and etiquette. What rock did you crawl out of(rocks are solid objects.)?"

I know some people think I was harsh, but my original assessment that the OP was a "high maintenance perfectionist control freak" hardly approaches the level of vitriol I'm seeing now from other lovely posters.

I can accurately state that I am also a high maintenance, perfectionist control freak, and having that temperament (and I'm ok with it), I also understand that one can make oneself crazy with criteria. Like, my house MUST have this, it MUST have that. And at some point you either learn or you make yourself nuts.

Instead of realizing that I was making a guess as to her personality based on exibited behaviors similar to mine, and perhaps saying, hey, yeah, I AM like that and it's making life tougher than it needs to be, she instead (and I was fairly surprised at this) turned very, very ugly and bigoted.

I feel bad for all the other posters that Jenny slammed.

I'm personally fine with it, since it confirmed my suspicions based on her other posts, and really, it was kind of funny in a sick sort of way when her head started spinning around and pea soup came out (in a literary sense).

What I find really amusing (in a depressing, our society will never advance sort of way) is that people can't take any sort of criticism.

To tie this to housing and buying and selling, I think if Realtors could be more honest and critical with their clients, then there'd be a lot less heartbreak down the road.

Like, your house is filthy, you need to clean it up if you want to sell it for the number you're giving me.

Or, In the criteria range you are looking in, there is NOTHING that will fit your needs.

I think the world could use a lot more brutal honesty, because it exposes the REALLY ugly people very quickly.

about asbestos--

our house in suburban boston had it in the basement, wrapped around all the pipes. the first thing we did was hire an asbestos abatement company--they came in plastic suits like in the movies and cleaned it all out (sealing everything off), and left the basement so clean, you could eat off the floor. It wasn't that expensive--under $2000, and it only took a few days.

i know you can get mold abatement too, but that seems a lot more complicated to me. at least with asbestos, you can see what is there.

dry rot would scare me away--probably because i don't know that much about it yet.

Maybe Jenny should consider that $320,000 house in Iowa and use the leftover cash to charter a jet to fly home every weekend and holiday to see the family in Westchester. It would be cheaper!

Everyone has their priorities and everyone has some that they are willing to let go of. We made the choice to move across the country from our family to have everything else that we wanted. We are content with being able to visit family several times a year and have the the perfect weather, school district, crime rate and everything else on our list. If, after two years a person has looked and not found everything, it may be time to re-evaluate the list and decide what they can truly do without. Or, accept (without complaint) that they may have to wait for quite a while longer for the "perfect" place.

By the way, our taxes are no where near $40,000 a year and my children attend an excellent public school. It is a small charter school, where one-fifth of the senior class was National Merit Finalists this year.

Jenny - getting back to your original post - did you get an inspection and/or is the house still on the market?

Meanwhile - since you seem to know your market area and the probablity of considering a home that is not new, not perfect - perhaps a little outside the box research might be help you when considering future possible houses.
Maybe call around and find out what general asbestos removal estimates are (they won't want to give you one without specifics but insist on some sort of ballpark or example)
same with mold.
You may want to interview some home inspectors - there is a website that have home inspectors that have met some sort of test or standard. Find one you trust and can maybe help you with some questions - like is a musty smelling basement pretty common in houses of a certain age because they are block and the water table is high - or whatever, that's just a made up example. Are there peculiarities that cause problems in your area? Soil types leading to basement troubles, lots of trees will shorten roof lives, I don't know, I'm just trying to come up with a list of things that you may run into over and over so you would realize right off the bat that it shouldn't be a show stopper.
That way - when you run into this situation again, you will be a litte better able to assess when is the right time to invest the money in an inspection (that was your original question right?)

Just for comparison, we also considered a different house that had a moldy basement--and the estimate for cleaning that was $20,000. And we weren't guaranteed that the mold wouldn't be back next year. These were both $500,000 range character homes--I've found that contractors charge more or less based on your zipcode.