I’m considering providing a service for homebuyers that would help them assess their potential neighborhood. As far as information about specific properties, I don’t have access to anything that wouldn’t be available publicly from the Assessor’s office. I do however, have access to all of the characteristics listed below. The product would be maps and other data. There don’t seem to be any published studies about the neighborhood preferences of home buyers; the below just seem to be common sense. Is there anything missing here…I’ve never bought a house.
So, if you could tell me what you want in a neighborhood, it would be really helpful! P.S. Is there ANY way to buy or obtain MLS data without a R/E license?
Physical characteristics of the area: Slope and aspect, sunlight direction
Average rainfall
Flood zone status
Neighborhood demographics :
Race (I know, but I have to be realistic)
Average age
Family size
Crime:
Sex offenders
Amount and character of crime (property, assault, etc.)
Schools
Obviously everyone with kids wants to know about quality, class size, test scores, etc. and I can get lots of information from the state here, but is there anything you’d be burning to know about?
Recreation:
Distance to parks, theatre, streams. (Say I could perform an analysis finding lots within 2 miles of Brown Elementary and 1 mile of Gray Tabby Park, would that be useful?)
As somebody who doesn’t drive, walkability is very important to me. That means both the infrastructure (sidewalks, crosswalks, etc. versus just streets) and the amenities within a few blocks to a mile (and preferably within a half-mile radius).
So is it that you don’t want to live next door to someone like Barack Obama? Or are you using that as a code for something else? You’ve already mentioned crime – perhaps you want to know something like the relative wealth or poverty of the people living in the neighbourhood.
I strongly agree with “walkability.” There’s a huge shopping center about 100 yards from my neighborhood. But it’s on the other side of a freeway and walking or biking to it is impossible due to the dearth of sidewalks here. The freeway doesn’t impede my ability to reach the shops on foot, but an “as the crow flies” distance would be a sham.
Going off what Moonlitherial said, utility providers would be interesting. If I were in a position to move anywhere, I’d probably steer clear of Comcast or Cox. I’d be interested to know if I could get FIOS. I’d want to see how my house/neighborhood fits into cell company coverage maps.
I’d also want to know what the trash pickup situation was, what the water possibilities are (ie has a well, but can pay to tap into city water), who the electric and gas providers are (if nothing else but to check out their online bill paying options!) and whether or not my town had its own police and fire, or what the police and fire situation is.
Also, is it a historic district, i.e. are there restrictions on home improvements? Are there particular ordinances and/or fees for a subdivision?
Is there a community or neighborhood association? Does it have a website?
Is the area on a major fault line? Built over caves?
How many foreclosures in the neighborhood?
Recent sales and listings. Average age of homes.
If the area is older, what sorts of permits have been pulled for rehabs, infills, etc.? For example, I live in a neighborhood that is “up and coming.” Some homes go for $200,000+ while others of the exact same size, on the very same block might go for $50,000. It all depends on whether a place has been rehabbed or not. If I have some way of determining that there is a lot of improvement going on and rehabs are selling well (give or take a housing crisis now and then), I might investigate the neighborhood further.
Besides distances from restaurants and shops, what kinds of restaurants and shops? Chains/franchises or independently owned? Check cashing businesses or yoga studios?
Average age of houses
HOA requirements
Avg. $ / square foot currently listed; sold last 12 months; sold last 5 years
Avg. income per household
Avg. # children per household
Avg. # days temperature is below freezing
Avg. # days temperature is above 100 F
Avg. # days of sunshsine
Avg. # days of precipitation
In SE Michigan we tend to self-segregate. While there are news reports of certain Realtors that try to steer minorities away from “white” neighborhoods, the general concensus is that blacks and whites in our area really, truly, do self-segregate. Therefore, I’d certainly want an idea of the demographics of the neighborhood I’m about to move into. That would also be paired financial demographics prior to making a final decision.
Cost of living in the area.
Access to major highways.
Types of housing in the neighborhood:
[ul]
[li]Condominium [/li][li]Co-operative[/li][li]Manufactured home (mobile or modular)[/li][li]Mixed-use property[/li][li]Multiple-family homes[/li][li]Planned unit development [/li][li]Single-family dwelling[/li][li]Townhomes[/li][/ul]
Predominant architecture in the neighborhood:
[ul]
[li]Ranch[/li][li]Split-level[/li][li]Two story[/li][li]Three story[/li][li]Etc.[/li][/ul]
Well, I couldn’t claim to know the motivations of someone wanting that information, but if someone wants to buy the demographic “package”, (as we might call it) would they not consider it rather incomplete to omit it? As the source is Census data, I would not be able, nor would I consent to even if possible, to pinpoint a specific property as occupied by a minority. It’s a business decision to include it.
Personally, I’d love to live next door to someone Barack-ish.
Walkability - a proxy for this is a sidewalk layer, I guess. Utility line layers are available also.
Recent sales, listings, improvements, - yes, that would be primo, I believe. I think that stuff is in the assessor’s data. Zoning would be included, of course, but there would be something of a time lag between updates, meaning it wouldn’t be up to the minute.
What sort of MLS info do you want to know? I’m currently house shopping and most of the info I want to know is right there in the listing. My Realtor provides info on what other houses in the neighborhood have sold for recently (I can look this up too, but it’s easier for her to do it) and gets the condition reports. The rest of the info I can look up myself on the city assessor website, google maps, etc.
Seems the main question is what incentive is there to use your service rather than an agent? I suppose if you’re planning to move to a distant city you could use your service if you don’t want to use an agent. There is probably a market for that. But as someone looking for a house in my current city, I probably wouldn’t bother because I can find most of the stuff you’ve mentioned online myself and the only cost is time.
That’s what I need to know-what info is unavailable in a timely manner from an agent? Also, would it be unbiased? I’m thinking of a one-stop portal for all information one might want to evaluate before seeing a Realtor. Would an agent be able to pinpoint lots that are x miles from y while being x miles from z, and within Q school zone? (I’m not saying they couldn’t, maybe they have the software capability now, but the ones I’ve talked to don’t). I’m not trying to compete with them on building-specific stuff like condition, but the area in general.
It might be a useless idea, that’s what I’m trying to find out.
Yep. My current place has a walk score of 99%. I imagine that 1% is for the lack of a mainstream movie theater in the immediate area, since I really can’t think of anything else.
In this day and time, is there any other kind?