theres a house that just went up for sale here in latham right past on rt2 the cicrle heading towards watervliet, its got a basement, its brick, single floor, garage connected within the house and a detatched 2 car garage in the backyard. really nice place. i drive by it all the time if you want i can get the phone number. the seller is Assist 2 sell iirc.
Bingo.
Tough to find a great “starter” house. They are called that for a reason. I consider my home a starter home. I wanted the oversized one car though. Was my main selling point. House was built so well.
I dunno about Rotterdams taxes not being bad, my parents are over 11k a year there.
Two ways around that.
- Make it a steel construction and disassemble upon future resale.
- Make it a two story, or at least habitable (space wise) quarters above the garage space for storage or else.
Swimming pools devalue the property typically? Interesting.
And it’s not exactly turning a 1 car into two, it’s turning a two into over-sized 4, tall enough for a lift and habitable quarters above.
?
Price tag is quite a bit more then I can afford, otherwise not too bad.
My selling point at the moment, is the fact that there are very few decent properties within my price range to begin with. Once you factor in the location, taxes and detached two car with possible room for expansion; pickings are slim.
lol its based on property value. The rate isn’t low, but it isnt high, and in addition, the assessor doesn’t know how to price hosues so you might luck out and he might put a really LOW value or you might luck out and put a HIGH value.
Every single house I looked at over there, property taxes were atleast $5,000 or more. In my eyes, for a first home, that’s a lot.
x2 everyone i know with a house there, whether its nice or a shithole, pays ridiculous taxes.
What do you plan to do with the steel structure, take it with you? The ground prep/slab/wiring/etc is the expensive part on a steel building which you cant get back.
Is the town cool with you converting a 1fam home to a 2fam? What can you get in rent for whichever one you’re not going to live in?
It’s 10 new hurdles you can solve by just buying a house with the garage you want already there. That way the previous owner has already taken the hit and you can buy it at a depreciated value. The goal of a starter home is to get equity and gtfo into something you actually want to live in. People often get stuck there by dumping money into making the place better but they’ll never get it back out again. Just my $.02, as always.
Rotterdam prop taxes are a good chunk higher than average around here, how can you say otherwise? For what you pay in taxes for a shithole in R-dam, you can have an average $350k house in Clifton Park. With better schools and…not in Rotterdam. That’s why Schen Co. houses are so cheap - they have to be so people can afford the taxes.
So you’re counting on the assessor putting a low value on the house…when all he does all day is assess homes to make money for the county and town… Sounds like a good bet. :poke
Following Jclarks advice I’ve looked around for houses that already have a bigger garage structure.
Found two, one in Niskayuna which looked like a solid investment in everyway and showed a two deep two wide garage on the side of the property. However in the description it was listed as “none”.
Come to find out, they’ve split the lot and now the garage is to be demolished. That explains why they haven’t been able to sell the house in Niskayuna for nearly half a year.
Take two.
Found a house in lower Watervliet just above Menands with a 4 bay detached. Two family, 3000sq ft. However three issues.
- Taxes are higher (total not %) and are around $4K a year.
- House is in a city. Not sure how bad it is, but I’m used to living in more rural
environments after I left Moscow. - Garage could use some love and doesn’t look to be tall enough for a lift.
Going to look at this one next week.
The Port Schuyler side of Watervliet is alright. I’m over on the opposite end of the city by Latham and it’s nice over here. Did you call the city and check with them on the taxes of the property? I looked at ALOT of properties in Watervliet and 8 times out of 10 on the MLS sheet the taxes were incorrect. If it is infact correct that it’s $4,000 a year in taxes, does that number include the STAR Exemption? If it doesn’t, that’s easily another $1,000 off of your taxes.
I would assume it’s without STAR, and haven’t looked into the exemption itself either.
Are listed taxes typically higher or lower then realistic?
Not too excited about the fact that it’s Watervliet and parking will be a disaster with me having 5 vehicles alone and then the second family presumably having ~3 and then I’d have at least a roomate with at least a car. From what I understand there is no driveway, just the back street and front street (House connects two both streets, garage is on the back, home front is well, on the front).
Be patient and hold out for the one that you really want. It’ll come up eventually and it’ll rock.
When I was looking at them, according to the MLS reports were considerably lower. If you are seriously considering the property, it would be wise to contact City Hall and get more accurate numbers from last years taxes. You also have to make note that the water in Watervliet is rather on the high side as well. It’s a flat rate of ~$600.00 every 6 months, however it is not metered.
Where is this house your speaking of in Watervliet? Chances are I probably looked at it because I do remember looking at a house near Port Schuyler that connected directly to a street on the front and back side of the property.