Buyer Beware! Neighborhood issues.

Most buyers in New York know that NY is a "Buyer Beware" State, which, in general means, a typical seller of property is not required to offer information about a property he or she is selling (except as I have discussed in a previous blog relating to the NY Property Condition Disclosure Act). It is up to the purchaser to do his/her homework to learn as much as possible about the property and the surrounding area or neighborhood.
Obviously, a professional inspection is first and foremost, which will disclose much about the actual property in question, but little or nothing about the neighborhood. I recently had a discussion with an attorney in Rockland county who was consulted by a woman who purchased a home in Rockland and discovered, after the closing that there was a serious leak from an underground oil tank on her property. The cost of the cleanup exceeded $250,000!!! A professional inspection before contract might have disclosed the issue or uncovered some clues. But, with a spills tendency to spread underground, how would a neighboring house be affected?
Now there are other resources available, especially with the internet that can be very helpful.

One such resource is www.everyblock.com . This free site is designed to allow a user to enter an address into the webpage and learn about all sorts of issues that affect the particular area. This includes very local news, building permits, violations issued, crime reports, Real Estate listings & sales, graffiti and more. While it cannot cover every "quality of life" issue, it's a good place to begin an investigation into a neighborhood.

Even more specific is a website I read about in the New York Times recently.
While we have all become more aware of environmental issues lately, it has been difficult to know specifically about a particular neighborhood from a "toxic" point of view. Now, along comes www.toxictargeting.com . A user enters an address into the site and is directed to a map based page disclosing environmental hazard sites in the vicinity.

Now, if only www.noisyneighbor.com delivered as one would would hope, I'd never have an unhappy client again!!!