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Philly Homeowners: How did you start your home search?
I know I don't participate often here but I'd really like to hear your experience & any tips on buying a home in Philly. We will be buying a house sometime in the next 6-12 month, obliviously we have know how much spend and have minimal expectations as far as other requirements (we want at least 2brm/1ba) but DH & I aren't agreeing on a neighborhood yet (He wants to go with a transitional neighborhood where as I'd like a more established neighborhood).
We live in south philly now (don't love the block I live on now, it's not somewhere I'd buy a house), since I know in south philly at least it can be very block by block in terms of safety & sense of community.
How did you go about go about your home search? Did you just trust your realtor to go to neighborhoods you like or did you know ahead of time what neighborhoods you liked? I am not going to lie some parts of west & north philly scare the crap at of me.
Re: Philly Homeowners: How did you start your home search?
We are in South Philly now and have been our whole lives. We are in the stadium district. We both grew up in other parts of South Philly (where I grew up is now called Lower Moyamensing). I have no complaints about where we are now.
First off, this board is a great resource. Lots of us live in various parts of the city and could certaintly help you out.
Def talk to others and visit various neighborhoods is the best advice I could offer and what I would do if I were to venture to another neighborhood. Once I did my research, I would then talk to a realtor who is familiar with your target area.
Good luck!
I have to know you, PM me
Jonathan Dean 4.5.08
Anna Capri 5.4.11
a tip: when you think you like a house, put the address into this
http://opa.phila.gov/opa.apps/Search/Disclaimer/disclaimer.aspx?url=search
and check homeowners on the block. Wish we had done so (hanging head) because we have 3 PHA properties and a million rentals (yes, I could very well have even looked at mailboxes and doorbell buzzer things). Even so, some of the rentals are single unit and not multi, but in hindsight, no matter how much you want to believe people are good, it seems to be a trend that renters just don't give a frick about their block. Ditto for their property mgrs.
We lived in south Philly/newbold until this past October. I assume that might be one of he transitional neighborhoods you will look at. Everything is block by block. In newbold. I really loved the neighbors both new and old it was much more community then we seem to have in our new home in manayunk. If its up and coming I think key is to have a really good neighbors association. They keep you on the notice about everything.
I'm on the other side of the city (Morrell Park in NE Philly) from the previous posters, but I agree 100% with NewQueen. Drive through at night in warm weather to get a real feel for it.
One other way that I gage things is to go to the local recreation center and talk with the workers there about programs, etc. Most centers don't open til 1:30 or 2 in the winter, and are open until 9 or 10pm. Personally, I would want to be near a center where there are activities that I am interested in for either myself or DH or my daughter...and where the staff is invested in the neighborhood. Of course I am biased on this because I work for the Parks & Rec, and live up the street from the center where I work, but honestly to me it makes a world of difference. I want to get the most for my tax money with programs and amenities...plus a quick tip- with budget issues, we are understaffing/not staffing at all some of our properties, which could lead to increased quality of life issues for people living around some of those centers. Consider things like this before you buy on a nice block that becomes overrun with teenagers drinking in vacant areas, etc.
We wandered around a lot between Northern Liberties and Fairmount and settled on Fairmount. NL was too "block to block" as you described, at the time.
Another issue with lots of rentals is street parking, you may get up to three/four car owners per rowhouse.
We probably looked at 30 houses before we found 'the one'. Our realtor was a bit of a pita BUT when she saw our place at a realtors'-only showing, she made me look at it before it got re-listed that Saturday and we put in an offer over that weekend. So, she did 'get it' in terms of what we wanted.
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch!
Spot on advice.
Also, more properties hit the market in Mar/Apr