5 Crime Questions to Ask Before You Buy a Home
Posted under: Home Buying, In My
Neighborhood, Property Q&A | February 20, 2013
12:35 PM | 54,337 views | 37 comments
The list of question every buyer asks about the various properties during a house
hunt is relatively predictable. How many bedrooms does it have? Baths? Square
footage? What are the HOA dues? What’s the school district?
Then,
we get more specific, personalizing the questions based on our own vision,
aesthetics and lifestyle needs: Can that wall be moved? Is there space for
Grandma’s dining room table? Is there a shady spot for an orchid house in the
backyard?
When
it comes to crime, most of us simply don’t ask any questions at all, as (a)
agents might be prohibited from doing much beyond pointing us to law enforcement
sources, and (b) we tend to assume most neighborhoods are either ‘good’ or
‘bad,’ low-crime or not. The truth is never so black and white. Fortunately,
technology has made it easy-peasy for us to get a deeper, more nuanced, and more
usable understanding of the crime that takes place in our neighborhood-to-be,
which in turn allows us to make smarter decisions about which home we buy and
how we live in it, once we buy it, than we could have even ten years
ago.
The
key to tapping into this nuanced crime information is asking the right
questions. Here’s a short list of the right questions to ask about crime before
you buy a home.
1.
Do any offenders live nearby?
In most states, Megan’s Law and similar provisions mandate that certain
individuals with histories of criminal convictions must register their home
addresses with local authorities, who in turn are required to make this
information available to the public. Google “your city, your state Megan’s Law
registry" to find sites where you can type in an address (like the address of
the home you’re considering buying) and find a list of registered sex offenders
in the area. Many of these sites will also offer you a map showing your address
and the relative locations of the homes of the registered offenders.
The
reality is that every neighborhood - even very upscale areas - has someone
living in it who has committed a crime in the past, so don’t completely freak
out if you happen to find someone in your neighborhood-to-be with a history of
sex offenses. The utility of this information is that it empowers you and your
children to recognize these dangers and to take care to avoid hazardous
situations. That said, if you happen to have young children and notice that the
Megan’s Law map has a halfway house with a dozen registered sex offenders living
right next door to your target home, that
information might change your decision about whether that property is the right
one for you.
There
is also power in following the path of the information you are given on these
registry sites. Many will surface information like what the registrants’ crimes
were, when they happened, the registrants’ photos and more useful intelligence.
This information can help you evaluate the degree to which you should be
concerned before you buy.
2.
Was the home a drug lab? You
think your home’s former owner’s food or pet smells are toxic? That’s nothing
compared to the truly unpleasant and health-impairing effects some have
experienced after buying a home that turned out to have been a methamphetamine
lab in a former life. If the sellers know this about a home, they should
certainly disclose it. Unfortunately, many of these homes end up sold by banks
as foreclosures, or by estates, trusts, landlords or other corporate owners who
don’t know the home’s past - or don’t have a legal obligation to disclose it.
Get
the answer to this question to the best of your ability via this two-step
process:
(a)
talk with the neighbors - they often will reveal whether the house had a shady
past, then
(b)
search the federal Drug Enforcement Association’s Clandestine Laboratory
Registry, here: http://www.justice.gov/dea/clan-lab/clan-lab.shtml.
3.
What sorts of crimes happen in the area. Where and when do they happen? Crime
happens virtually everywhere. But the details of crime patterns vary widely in
various neighborhoods. One side of town might be plagued with an overall low
crime rate, but the crime that does happen tends to be violent crime after dark.
While another neighborhood across town might have lots of car break-ins during
the day while people are at work, but not much going on after residents get back
home - and not much violent crime at all.
This
sort of information can be highly useful to a buyer-to-be, as it can help you
make decisions not just about whether or not to buy, but also about whether to
park your car outside (or not), whether to get an alarm and where in a given
neighborhood you might prefer your home to be (e.g., interior cul-de-sac vs.
thoroughfare in the same area).
Trulia
Crime Maps
offer precisely this sort of nuanced information, allowing you to view your town
and neighborhood’s crime rate in heat map format showing the relative violent
and non-violent crimes that have taken place recently in different parts of
town. It also provides information on crime trends, in terms of the frequency of
criminal activity taking place at various hours of the day, and the most
dangerous intersections in your town or area. SpotCrime.com
offers another angle on nuanced crime data, breaking down crime types with
easy-to-scan icons and providing data for communities all over the
country.
4.
What anti-crime features does - or can - the home have?
Review your disclosures and talk with the sellers (through your agent, of
course) about what anti-crime features the home currently has. This will allow
you to prepare for any upgrades, downgrades or changes you’ll want to make. For
example, if a home has security bars that were installed 3 decades ago, you
might want to have them brought up to code with a fire release bar, or removed
altogether. Or, perhaps the sellers currently have the home wired for an alarm
that can be armed, disarmed and video monitored remotely - if you want to
continue that service, you’ll need to get that information and make the account
change when you take over the other utilties and home services.
On
the other hand, the home might not have any anti-crime features. So, if there
is a particular alarm or monitoring system you like, it is smart to check in
with that provider before close of escrow to find out whether they can provide
services to the new addres and, if so, what it will cost and take to equip the
home and start service up at closing.
5.
What does the neighborhood do to fight crime - and how can I help? Neighborhoods across the country fight and prevent
crime the grassroots way, by maintaining strong connections between the home
owners and neighbors who all have in common the desire to live and raise their
families in a safe, secure, thriving place. Don’t hesitate to ask your home’s
seller and/or any neighbors you talk to about whether there are any neighborhood
associations, neighborhood watch groups, email lists, social networks, regular
meetings, block parties or other community connections in which you can actively
participate. ALL: Did you ever omit to
ask a crime-related question about a home - and later come to regret it? Do
tell. ALL: Follow Tara and Trulia on Facebook!
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