Good point. I think the Walk Score for my house is low, too - I walk everywhere from here. I’m a dedicated walker, though - people who don’t walk would find the 4 kms. from my house to the nearest mall too much to walk. I consider that walking distance.
I think it’s a good start, though - if the Walk Score is 0, you know what you’re getting. 
a minor issue: look at the property boundaries.
When you visit a house, don’t assume that the fences and flower beds which you see actually sit on the legal property lines.
In 99% of homes, there are no problems. You can look at the neighboring lots and , if they are all similar, assume that your lot is probably good, too.
But if the house you fall in love with is a bit isolated, (i.e. there are some empty spots along the street), then be careful.
If it happens to have a larger-than-average back yard, or a big wooded area behind the house, don’t assume that all that space will be yours. There may be an empty lot that borders on yours, which the current resident uses as his private land, because nobody has caught him yet. But it legally belongs to somebody else, who might decide to build his own home there tomorrow morning, and fence you into a smaller area.
If in doubt, check the municipal land survey records, or pay for a professional land surveyor to mark the borders of the property.
Isn’t a survey required when taking out a mortgage?
Otherwise, what he said. In my case, everyone assumed the bushes in the backyard were the property line, but the actual property line was like another 10 feet or so beyond that. So I cut down all those old dead bushes and now can use all of my property.
No, a survey’s not part of the mortgage process. The plot from the county’s considered accurate until proven otherwise. That proof will all be on your dime.
In many (most?) cities you can see the plat map online to see the actual shape and size of the lot. Just Google it for your city or county.
Roddy
Maybe it depends on who the mortgage lender is because I got a site survey as part of my mortgage paperwork and I didn’t do anything to initiate that.
The can be a 4th and 5th part of monthly payment as well.
My lender requires the homeowners insurance payment in escrow with them as well. It’s a CYA for them. If the house they own most of, burns down, they don’t want to be screwed because I got lazy and forgot to pay it for 6 months, so they directly pay the bill to the insurance company.
The fifth part can be PMI. If you can’t get a full 20% of value as a down payment, they require mortgage insurance, paid by you monthly, on your mortgage. It should away after you get to 20%-22% equity.
Thanks, forgot about those. It’s been a decade since I had to pay PMI, so it slipped my mind. Also, currently I pay my homeowner’s insurance directly (although no matter how the insurance gets paid, it’s something a buyer should budget for).
To summarize all the good advice about knowing your location, when you look at a house the first time you are being driven by your realtor, and she might drive you on a route that avoids the nasty bits. Or even good bits you might be interested in.
When we bought this house we were on a one week house hunting trip, the first few days of which were spent looking in places which didn’t work. There was no time to check out things at night, and we didn’t even check out the commute at a reasonable time. I know the places where we ate lunch and opened bank accounts, but then I had no sense of how close they were to our house. It worked out okay, but someone, like the OP, who is buying locally has a big advantage.
I think people tend to exaggerate the impact of the deduction too. They forget to compare their itemized deduction to the standard deduction.
Realtor[sup]TM[/sup] here. In rural areas, usually (and it would be to your advantage to have one). In urban areas, not so much. Ask your financial institution.
In either case, you may request that the Seller pay for a survey in your purchase offer. Whether they do or not is all part of negotiation. A properly written offer should include wording that makes the lender happy and provides funds to do so if necessary.
Yes…as hard as it is for you to believe, the utility/ heat companies WILL tell you what the previous bills were…based on the address. I would have to assume that this is applicable in all states…as no privacy issues are being violated…they no longer own the home, and you are not getting their names,etc…:smack:
Yes to driving thru, perhaps even parking a bit in the neighborhood at night, esp. weekends.
Check the property for municipal easements. We had a “dog leg” kind of thing at that back of the house. We couldn’t improve it or build there, as it was a City easement for the utility, but all the same, we were responsible for clearing the weeds etc.
And get a HOME DEPOT (or the equivalent) credit line. 
Something we now wished we’d looked at while shopping for a house was what utility and tax rebates were available and whether the houses we looked at qualified for them if updates were done. Our house was built in 1972 and the windows, furnace, exterior insulation and evaporative cooler were all 35+ years old or original and are worth replacing. Unless we stayed here another 30 years we wouldn’t get paid back for those things w/o the rebates the utility companies and IRS offered. But we’d only get those rebates if we did ALL of the updates in a one year span and we only planned to be here 2-3 years at most. Had we studied on all that before we may not have bought this exact house.
When we look at houses, we usually meet our realtor there, and you’re right - we know the routes around there, and we usually go a bit earlier and look around the neighbourhood a bit. I’d say that’s preferable to being driven by your realtor, if you can do that.
Yup. It won’t be long until you know all of your local big box hardware stores quite well.
The gas/electric is through the same company, WE Energies. The water bill is through the city. I’ve never tried getting billing info for water but since it’s a public utility I can’t imagine it’s not public knowledge. I know I have called in and got a monthly budget amount for my rental unit.
I just tried calling in to WE Energies to see if I could get it for another address but I didn’t feel like waiting on the phone for the 25-30 minute wait.