  French777 Member Username: French777 Post Number: 608 Registered: 10-2006 |
Our Family found a house for sale in Boston-Edison for Less than 10,000 and it is is good condition. Maybe new windows and such... Im trying to convince my Parents to by the house but they are somewhat uneasy about buying the house... 1,What are some benefits of living in B-E? 2. what is the security fee for the month? 3. How much have some houses sold for? | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2091 Registered: 08-2007 |
French, your folks live in RH because they like it out there. If they liked living in the City, they'd be here already. You are never going to talk them into the glory of being an "Urban Pioneer". If you're serious about the house, you need to respond to one of their most base emotions: greed. You can go to college for free. Explain to them your plans on attending WSU for urban planning. Describe to them your desire to be a fiscally responsible student and that you have an way to save them money, expand your education, and provide them with a viable tax write-off. How? As a student you'll need a place to stay. Dorm living can set your parents back almost $500 a month or $5,000 a year. Over 4 years, that's almost $20,000 just in housing. Explain to your parents that saving them money isn't your only goal. You want to expand your educational resume by running a small business: building manager. With just 3 roommates, if you charge $300 a month, you'll be managing $900 a month. Over the course of 4 years, that could be a total of over $40 grand. Now, instead of costing your parents $40 grand, you're bringing in $40 grand for a net cost to them of zero. Free. Now, if you extend your education beyond 4 years, they're going to make even more money, your resume is going to improve and your management skills will be honed to a razor's edge. Obviously, this scenario is in a Perfect World where you're able to find wonderful young people who pay their bills on time, don't flush kotex pads down the toilet, lock the door each and every time they come and go, etc. However, if you follow this plan, scales will soon fall from your young eyes and you will begin to see people for the pigs they are. That is the curse of all landlords, ... your heart becomes cold or you lose your shirt. | ||
Detroitduo Member Username: Detroitduo Post Number: 1023 Registered: 06-2005 |
We also found a handsome house in B-E and are considering the move. These houses are enormous and CAN cost a lot to upkeep. I am in a similar situation... but I have to convince mySELF to spend the money... | ||
Norwalk Member Username: Norwalk Post Number: 419 Registered: 11-2006 |
Insurance, taxes, Heating costs = $$$$$ | ||
Pkbroch Member Username: Pkbroch Post Number: 192 Registered: 02-2008 |
Buying a house in B-E and renting rooms is a no-no. Attached is some zoning and property tax and abatements info. Explore the whole web site. http://www.historicbostonediso n.org/buyer_info.shtml | ||
Strathcona Member Username: Strathcona Post Number: 65 Registered: 03-2008 |
Gnome, I assume you are a landlord otherwise you wouldn't know about that curse... "Your heart becomes cold or you lose your shirt." I don't agree that your heart becomes cold, just accurate & honest. You’re not in business to subsidize people. Being a property owner isn't a charity, it is a business and a contract is a contract. | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 517 Registered: 07-2006 |
Looks like the Fisher home that had been up for sale for several years is no longer listed. (It had originally been listed at $1.2 million, and was at $895,000 last time I looked). Does anyone know whether it was sold? Or did the owner take it off the market. | ||
Davemarc Member Username: Davemarc Post Number: 91 Registered: 06-2008 |
I looked at a house that sold for 325,000 four years ago.It was listed for 65,000,and the realtor told me to make ANY offer.Sad,the house was so cool... | ||
N7hn Member Username: N7hn Post Number: 75 Registered: 02-2008 |
I was looking into a couple in Boston edison. Always been my first pick and started looking there in the 80's. Recently w the plummeting prices I considered it again. Till I saw the average tax bill was $1000 a month. sigh, guess I;ll never get to live there ....... dammit | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 5540 Registered: 10-2003 |
a handsome house that appears to have a new roof on WCP Auction...currently at 3,700.00 http://www.waynecounty.com/WCa uctions/Auction/default_all.as p?t%20=&o=S&d=Y | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 2823 Registered: 07-2007 |
Your parents? Do not buy unless you will have 24/7 security for the next some odd years. It is not a good hood for retirees to move to unless you have VG security. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2096 Registered: 08-2007 |
Lefty, our friend French77 is still in high school, so I wouldn't put his parents in rocking chairs yet. --- Pkbroch, didn't know that such rules existed in BE. | ||
Pkbroch Member Username: Pkbroch Post Number: 194 Registered: 02-2008 |
Here is a great new revised web site for Palmer Woods, another great Historic area in Detroit. Enjoy www.palmerwoods.org It also tells about our upcoming home tour. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2691 Registered: 08-2007 |
Tax bills of $1,000 a month are based upon the prior selling price/value. Once you buy the place for $30,000 or less, the taxable value comes down. I am not sure how you get it reassessed so the value comes down right away, but that's what happens. You would be looking at a tax bill of maybe $100 a month. Example. We have a house in our neighborhood that is taxed at $12,000 plus per year. It was purchased three years ago for about $350,000. So, if it sold this year for $130,000, the tax bill would come down to about $4000 a year. See how it works? | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3603 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: It might be about time for them to change that ordinance, no? Many of the brownstones in NYC are split into multiple apartments, and many of the homes in Boston-Edison are larger than the average brownstone. If done in B-E, it could be a good way to salvage the cost of repair/upkeep on some of those old houses, while bringing density back into city neighborhoods. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 1018 Registered: 04-2006 |
Yeah, B-E could be the next Brush Park! That would do wonders for the density in the area. | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 520 Registered: 07-2006 |
Iheartthed, I think that it is a difficult policy question. On the one hand, allowing rentals would make the properties more profitable, increasing the likelihood that someone will purchase them, which is surely better than them being vacant. On the other hand, many owners buy in Boston-Edison because of the character of the area, which is one signified by large, single-occupancy homes. Unquestionably, allowing rentals would bring in more residents, but there could be far greater costs, if rooms are rented at extremely low rates. | ||
Rid0617 Member Username: Rid0617 Post Number: 340 Registered: 03-2008 |
Anyone know what zip code Palmer Woods is? | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 1019 Registered: 04-2006 |
48203. | ||
Rsa Member Username: Rsa Post Number: 1583 Registered: 10-2003 |
Gazhekwe selling price is not tied to taxable value. the city determines the taxable value of the home you purchased. however, they only assess the value every time it's sold, which is why most people find a huge jump in taxes from the previous owner to what they have to pay. especially if it's been a substantial amount of time since the house you're interested in hasn't been sold in recent times. it would be possible to buy a house for $1,000 and end up paying $1,000 a month in taxes[irreguardless of it's previous sale price], just as an example. i find a good rule of thumb is to assume that your taxes will double from what is listed as the current monthly amount. but this is when NEZ's come into play and start to bring your monthly amount down. it is also good to appeal all the way up to the state level. the city has a habit of over-inflating values. it's not necessarily an ordinance iheart. it's more along the lines of zoning prohibiting it and the neighborhood not wanting it. it's an effort to combat the effect of turning the mansions and neighborhoods into "flop houses" and the resulting increase in traffic, crime, lowered values, etc. this all happened in the 70's-80's in some other historic neighborhoods and is unwanted there. however, i don't think the city would really crack down on friends staying with you and helping out with costs. besides, comparing the brownstowns/townhomes in NYC to the huge homes in BE is a little like apples and oranges. | ||
Django Member Username: Django Post Number: 2139 Registered: 10-2003 |
I see a new off campus frat in the works.  | ||
Rsa Member Username: Rsa Post Number: 1584 Registered: 10-2003 |
french; i really appreciate your enthusiasm. i would recommend that you really do your research and present it to your folks as a research project and/or proposal. the big thing about buying one of these homes is the hidden costs. a lot of people can afford the sticker price, but it's the monthly costs that will accumulate and make it cost prohibitive. it also depends on what type of condition the house is in. this can be a blessing or a curse. on the one hand, it could be in pristine condition with little work required; but this would probably mean a higher monthly cost (due to outdated systems and technologies). on the other hand, if it needs a lot of work, you can upgrade all of the systems to be more energy and thermally efficient (eg. furnace, windows, insulation, hot water heater, etc.). i probably don't need to tell you that renovations cost a lot of money. if this place needs new windows, you could easily be looking at $40,000 right away. a new roof could add up to $15,000 pretty easily. new kitchen could be $15,000 and baths could be upwards of $8,000. it all adds up and these are some of the things to think about when looking at the house. there are programs out there that allow you to roll renovation funds into a mortgage payment, but you'd have to research all of that out as well. to answer your other questions, a security system (that is monitored; recommended) usually runs about $20-40 a month. most will charge you an installation fee that might run around $1,000. there is a site out there where you can find the values of the homes in a certain area. i can't really remember it right now. it might be trulia dot com or zillow dot com. those aren't completely accurate, but are close enough. i don't personally live in BE, so i can't really answer anything about the neighborhood. hope some of this was helpful. good luck. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3604 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: Yeah, but nobody is buying them. And the property values are falling through the floor. This was happening in Boston Edison before the national real estate fall out. Money always talks louder than the "character of the area". I bet if you showed the residents of Boston Edison the neighborhoods in Harlem where the city of New York was selling brownstones for $1 just 10 years ago, and how those same brownstones easily fetch $1M - $1.5M today, then the residents of Boston-Edison might reconsider their position. (Add to that these neighborhoods have been largely insulated from the foreclosure fallout.) Also, high density does not equal ghetto. Just because a property is a rental property does not mean it has to be low income. These brownstone neighborhoods in NYC aren't ghettos; yuppies are flocking to them in droves. The occupancy rate in these areas are routinely above 90%. Furthermore, you can keep your home as a single family dwelling while the house down the street is converted into a multiple family dwelling, and you could benefit by increased property values. In the Chelsea or West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan, or Brooklyn Heights, it is common for brownstones to be split into multiple rental apartments. The median incomes in these neighborhoods rival Michigan hot spots like Royal Oak, Birmingham and Ann Arbor. So this is just what I would push for if I were a homeowner in the area worried about saving my neighborhood. You can take my suggestions with a grain of salt. (Message edited by iheartthed on November 11, 2008) | ||
Pkbroch Member Username: Pkbroch Post Number: 195 Registered: 02-2008 |
What Rsa and some of the others say about buying an older home is true. These house even with minor upgrades are expensive to maintain. Heating 4000 sq feet is expensive. Insuring a home for replacement value is expensive, Property taxes even with nez is expensive. Owning an historic home is a labor of love. Trullia and Zillow have gotten very bad with areas and values. I don't even use them for comparisons. | ||
Rid0617 Member Username: Rid0617 Post Number: 341 Registered: 03-2008 |
http://www.realtor.com/ just type in the zip code (or city) your looking for, number of bedrooms and baths. | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 168 Registered: 06-2008 |
Pkbroch is right about those websites...their info is not reliable at all...way off base. | ||
Rsa Member Username: Rsa Post Number: 1585 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: i never said that it does. but you're comparing two different types of housing in two different areas. -NYC has the demand to justify these. BE does not. -NYC has mass transit available to these. BE does not. -brownstowns are somewhat easily converted into rental. a mansion is not. -conversion takes money. BE does not have that demand, nor is the economy in any shape to demand that. -there are plenty of other rental areas that are more attractive than BE. -converting these old mansions into rentals has a strong history here of turning them into "flop houses." this in turn results in lowered maintenance, lowered rent, and lower income peoples. this is why such ordinances and/or zoning has been introduced. -these mansions are much more valuable and desireable as large old houses. once you lose that, it will make them less marketable in the future. -i don't believe the residents in the area want this. like i said, apples and oranges. what you're missing here, that NYC has in these brownstowns, are: location, location, location, mass transit, demand, and ease of conversion. sorry about the zillow and trulia recommendations. i seem to remember a website that you could click on any house in a particular area and it would give you the value, when it was last sold, taxes, etc. any ideas on what that was? i remember it being fairly accurate... | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3605 Registered: 04-2006 |
^NYC has the demand now because they were creative enough to realize that their city was dying and fixed it. If these areas were in demand 10 - 15 years ago, the city would not have been selling off these properties for $1. I'm comparing apples to apples. | ||
Pkbroch Member Username: Pkbroch Post Number: 196 Registered: 02-2008 |
Just checked Zillow again using my neighborhood. It has houses listed that sold over six months, have meet the new neighbors. Rsa I know the site you are talking about now I just have to find it again. Iheartthed; Your ideas are great for the old two and four family places on the streets adjacent to B-E some of those flats are 1200+ sq, ft. I have often wondered why more people in this area don't like to rehab flats. There are a few in Islandview that are wonderful. | ||
Rsa Member Username: Rsa Post Number: 1586 Registered: 10-2003 |
no you're not. you completely ignored all of my other points. if you want to have an intelligent discourse, you have to address contrasting points of view and then respond to them. if you just want a soap box, then this is the last bit of attention i pay towards you. |
