[blparent] Advice: buying a house

[Jennifer Jackson]

Gabe, read my response to Jan. If this is still not clear let me know and I
will try to get back to you. For now I have children to parent.

Jennifer
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Gabe Vega Via Iphone4S
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 8:45 AM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Cc: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] Advice: buying a house

And how is this parenting related? Or blindness related for that matter?

Gabe Vega 
Sent from my iPhone
(623) 565-9357

On May 9, 2012, at 6:29 AM, "Jaquiss, Robert" <RJaquiss at nfb.org> wrote:

> Hello:
> 
>     Over the years, I have bought and sold four houses and one mobile
home. It is fairly typical for a real estate agent to drive his/her
customers to see a property. My advice is to pick out the bus routes that
work for you and tell the agent to look for houses near the routes. You
might get a friend to drive the bus route and try and spot for sale signs.
> 
>     As for the mechanics of buying a house, I would advise having a
trusted sighted person look over the property. Hopefully, you have a
trustworthy agent, but some agents are more conscientious than others. A
very thorough building inspection is very important. My wife and I bought a
house and the inspection missed some major flaws resulting in us having to
spend thousands of dollars to correct them. Its very wise to get insurance
such as American Home Shield. This type of policy can insure against roof
leaks, appliance break downs, plumbing problems etc. When my wife and I
bought a house in Louisiana, we had AHS and it was a good thing since a heat
pump failed a week after we moved in and it had to be replaced. When you
make an offer, you can add a clause such as, "The house needs to meet the
approval of xxx." This is a good backup in case you miss something and need
to back out of an offer. My last piece of advice is to take your time and
don't get rushed into a decision.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Robert
> 
> 
> Robert Jaquiss
> Access Technology Specialist
> National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute
> 200 E. Wells Street at Jernigan Place
> Baltimore, MD 21230
> Phone: (410) 659-9314, Ext.2422
> Email: rjaquiss at nfb.org
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of jan wright
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 7:53 AM
> To: blparent
> Subject: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
> 
> Hi All,
> First, I want to thank everyone who responded to my questions about
bottles and johnny jumper things.
> We have a pretty consistent group of parents and child care providers who
--- may not always agree, but give wonderful advice for each season of our
lives. And, we are as diverse as any other parent group:
> from spiritual to not; from crunchy to progressive (those might not be
opposites, but you understand what I mean); from babies to adult children;
from stay-at-home parents  to working parents; ... etc.
> 
> So, I thought that I might post here about our "house buying" and ask for
any tips and advice. I have done research, but, there isn't much from a
blind person's prospective. Maybe there doesn't need to be:
> because maybe it is not any different from sighted people buying a house.
But, I did have a couple of questions:
> 1. How did you choose your realtor? We have one of these, already, but
wonder if we  shouldn't have looked farther. DH's boss said that his realtor
would transport him to and from the prospective houses. Is that normal??? We
find that this is one of the most difficult things to do because paratransit
takes so long, we can only see one house per day.
> 2. Public transportation is not very good here in Indy. People from other
cities have commented on how fragmented it is. And, there aren't many
sidewalks in residential areas or down busy streets and ... ... a good
shoulder is hard to find. [ARe those words to a country song?????]  (smile)
But, we are trying to find a house that is close to a bus stop --- and a bus
stop that would take DH to work and us downtown. Sometimes we find a house
close to a bus stop, but the wrong bus stops there.
> 
> Any other advice????
> 
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