{"id":15137,"date":"2013-04-03T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T18:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/upstater.com\/?p=15137"},"modified":"2013-04-04T23:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T03:09:27","slug":"upstate-101-five-things-you-need-to-know-about-buying-a-house-upstate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upstater.com\/upstate-101-five-things-you-need-to-know-about-buying-a-house-upstate\/","title":{"rendered":"Upstate 101: Five Things You Need to Know about Buying a House Upstate"},"content":{"rendered":"\"upstate-new-york-country-house\"\n

Susan Barnett, a realtor, writer and journalist whose family moved to Woodstock, NY from New Jersey when she was in elementary school, can tell you everything you need to know about upstate New York. Her knowledge ranges from secret hiking trails to secrets of upstate New York real estate, and she’s going to share those secrets with you.<\/p>\n

You can also catch Susan as the host of Northeast Public Radio’s 51% The Women’s Perspective, and catch her columns in regional magazines and newspapers. She’s the author of a collection of short stories, “The View From Outside,” <\/a>published by Hen House Press and is a fan of old houses, unusual houses and country living. This week, in her debut Upstate 101 column, Susan writes on a topic of great interest to our readers. More below.<\/p>\n

How Buying a House Upstate Is Different from Buying in the City<\/strong><\/p>\n

While plenty of our readers reside upstate, I know that many thousands of you are city dwellers, accustomed to a certain ferociousness of real estate market that is overwhelming, outrageously priced and full of head-scratching twists and turns (including the opacity of co-op boards).<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m here to clue you in to the way things work in the upstate real estate market. You may already know bus and train schedules and have studied up on real estate aggregator sites like Zillow or Trulia, and, of course, have scoured the pages of Upstater.<\/p>\n

There are five more things you should know.<\/p>\n

1. Rely More on Your Realtor than You Do on Websites<\/em><\/p>\n

Just because Zillow puts its price opinion in writing doesn’t make it so.\u00a0 It’s a sore spot with upstate sellers and realtors, as price is carefully determined based on a comparative market analysis \u2013 comparing a house to others like it that are for sale or have recently sold.\u00a0 Imagine if someone tried to tell you a 2 BR condo in Greenwich Village should cost the same as a 2 BR condo in Queens. That’s the challenge of the upstate market \u2013 even within one community, values can vary widely. And the market is changing by the day. Zillow can’t keep up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Find a realtor you like working with. Take those Zillow and Trulia listings to him or her and ask if the price estimates are realistic. If not, ask why. Let your realtor educate you about the communities you’re looking at \u2013 nobody knows a neighborhood better than the people who live and work in it.<\/p>\n

That leads us to #2:\u00a0Find An Upstate Realtor You Trust. They’re Out There. Really.<\/em><\/p>\n

Real estate may be a blood sport in the city, but upstate realtors are a close-knit crowd and tend to know each other well. That doesn’t mean we’re not competitive \u2013 trust me, we are. But we respect boundaries. We all work hard for our clients and put in a lot of hours (and use up a lot of gasoline) with no guarantee of pay. So we try to build relationships with our colleagues\/competitors as well as our clients. Many a shaky deal has been saved because the listing and buying agents worked together to make it happen.<\/p>\n

But what’s in it for you?<\/p>\n

If you’ve got a relationship with one realtor, you will get the benefit of everything and everyone they know in the area.\u00a0Think you’ll save money by working only with listing agents when you’re buying? Nope. Unless you’re with a buyer broker, all commissions are paid by the seller. And each listing agent you work with also has a fiduciary responsibility to their seller. Don’t you want someone in your corner (particularly since you’re not paying for it?)<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Make Advance Appointments to See Upstate Houses<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy oh why,\u201d you wonder, \u201ccan I never get into the houses I want to see when I come upstate on a Saturday?\u201d There are many fewer open houses upstate than down, and upstate sellers like to have enough notice to clean up the kitchen, make the beds and run a vacuum over the rugs. Last minute requests for showings can make sellers cranky. And knocking on a door \u201c’cause we were driving by\u201d could leave <\/span>make upstaters seem very rude indeed. People in the country are there because they enjoy their privacy (isn’t that what you want, too?), so it\u2019s a good idea to give them a little time to get used to the idea that company is coming.<\/p>\n

4. Water in the Basement Isn’t Necessarily a Deal Breaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s a lot of water upstate. So much of it, in fact, that it’s piped down to New York City and runs through downstate taps. Sometimes that means a high water table. That’s not necessarily a flood zone, but it may mean basements get wet. There could also be an underground or aboveground stream near your dream house. The questions to ask are A) How wet? and B)What’s being done about it?<\/p>\n

Sump pumps and French drains (channels around the edge of the basement to drain water) have to be inspected by a professional, but if they’re working properly, don’t walk away because they’re there. Battery powered sump pumps will keep your basement dry even in a power outage. On the other hand, if there are old watermarks halfway up the foundation, half an inch of water in the basement and no sign of any attempt to remedy the issue, don’t walk away \u2013 run!<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Be Realistic about the DIY Country House.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve learned this one firsthand. My favorite house was one we redid, room by room, for years. We stripped and painted exterior siding, restored windows, repaired or removed plaster. We did bathrooms, a kitchen, bedrooms. I used enough wallpaper (it hid a lot of sins) to cover a Walmart. Would I do it all over? Absolutely. There is nothing like the experience of working hard on a home you love. Did I realize how long it would take and how much of my life it would consume? Absolutely not. So if you have romantic notions of old houses and DIY restoration, just be realistic. Your every-spare moment will be spent on your projects and you will never, ever be done. But hopefully you won’t mind. And hopefully<\/span> if you followed my advice and worked with a good realtor, you’ll have a long list of local plumbers, electricians and contractors. You’ll be strengthening your roots in the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan Barnett, a realtor, writer and journalist whose family moved to Woodstock, NY from New Jersey when she was in elementary school, can tell you everything you need to know about upstate New York. Her knowledge ranges from secret hiking trails to secrets of upstate New York real estate, and she’s going to share those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[975],"yoast_head":"\nUpstate 101: Five Things You Need to Know about Buying a House Upstate - Upstater<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/upstater.com\/upstate-101-five-things-you-need-to-know-about-buying-a-house-upstate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Upstate 101: Five Things You Need to Know about Buying a House Upstate - Upstater\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Susan Barnett, a realtor, writer and journalist whose family moved to Woodstock, NY from New Jersey when she was in elementary school, can tell you everything you need to know about upstate New York. 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