Page 28 - The Business Council of Westchester - 2018 Relocation Guide

REAL ESTATE
How to Shop for a Home in Westchester
O ne of the many virtues of Westchester is that it’s not a little place. With 6 cities, 19 towns and 23 villages, stretched over 450 square miles, Westchester runs the gamut, from rustic rural to dynamic urban and everything in-between. The result is that there is essentially every kind of real estate opportunity one can imagine here in the county, but how do you narrow down the home-hunting effort so that it doesn’t become a full-time job? Below, some local real estate
pros weigh in on how to use your time wisely.
Build a team
Using your time wisely depends on get- ting the right people together to work on your behalf. This team obviously includes your Realtor, but you should also have in place a trusted attorney, home inspector, lender/mortgage broker and an accountant (especially for investors).
Know your limits going in
It’s not just the asking price that matters when shopping for a home. There are ancil- lary costs that can be the make-or-break difference in finding a home you can both enjoy and afford. In terms of 2016 prop- erty taxes, for example, Bronxville leads the Westchester pack, commanding more than $58K in taxes per year, while Peekskill is only about $10K per year. There are also insurance and general carrying charges for
the home. What’s the use or buying a great house if you can’t afford to heat it? The point is, you must establish your purchasing power before you even think about making a formal offer. Get with your mortgage broker or lender and get preapproved for your loan before tendering an of- fer. These things will deter- mine where in the county you afford to have a decent life, which will save you tons of time and energy.
Co-op-erating
For condos and co-ops, purchasers and their attor- neys should review the asso-
ciation’s monthly minutes, going back least one year. Look for assessments that may have been deferred, for maintenance items that have been delayed and not disclosed.
Do your homework... and get on the bus, Gus
Tour you areas of interest and spend a day there. For some extra fun, take a Metro- North train ride; it’s great! Tour the schools, explore the town’s community services and even speak with local law enforcement, to determine how a town or city is trend- ing in terms of specific neighborhoods and overall crime.
This is the part where you’re advised to go online and surf the municipal websites of the towns, cities or villages you’re po- tentially interested in, and that is certainly
sound advice. But for even greater depth, Westchester Magazine and WestchesterMa- gazine.com are indispensable resources for all county-related things, including descrip- tions, reviews, places of interest, econom- ics, trends and much more. Every year, Westchester Magazine publishes the West- chester Ultimate Guide, which is likely the county’s most comprehensive resource for how to efficiently navigate the place roughly 1,000,000 people call home.
Make a list and check it twice
Make a checklist of your needs versus your wants and review it with your agent, refining the list as you see properties. Fac- tor in things like top priorities and how you like to spend your free time. Let your agent introduce you to families they know in the areas you are considering (it could form the basis of a brand-new friendship!), and if your agent wants you to see a home that’s not on your list, be open to it. You may be the expert on what you’re looking for, but the agent is the expert on what there is, and sometimes an experienced agent will get a sense of what you might like, even if it hasn’t occurred to you yet.
Surfin’ safari
Internet photos don’t always represent a property as it really is, so beware of getting your hopes up on a property you’ve only seen online. However, this can be used to your ad- vantage, as well. If you are looking for a good deal, a house that has bad photos online like- ly isn’t getting the number of hits and traf- fic others might be getting, so with reduced demand often comes greater price flexibility.
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LIVING IN WESTCHESTER AND THE HUDSON VALLEY | RELOCATION & MOVING GUIDE
*Special thanks for the invaluable contributions of Joe Lippolis, Coldwell Banker (Pleasantville/Briarcliff); Paul Sarlo, The Sarlo Sales Team at Douglas Elliman (Armonk); Daniel Tuck, Rivertowns Realty (Peekskill/environs); and Nancy Strong & Stacey Oestreich, The Strong Oestreich Team at Douglas Elliman (Armonk).
FOTOLIA