Making a smart move to your next home

HACKENSACK, N.J.

most people do a little research on communities when they're looking for a home to buy.

Melinda Edmundson was practically a private eye.

"It's a big deal," said Edmundson, who was selling her home in West Orange, N.J. For the past five years, she and her husband, Michael, were looking at New Jersey properties in five neighborhoods.

"I wanted to make sure the neighborhood I live in is going to be what I expect it to be," she said.

Edmundson looked at each town's Web site, scrolling through events and services.

As she drove by one listing, she noticed a neighbor's home with a large number of cars parked in the driveway.

"I wanted to know what was going on there," said Edmundson, who wondered if it was a rooming house. She used a reverse address directory Web site (like phonenumber. com) and typed in the address.

"I found out that there were a lot of people with the same last name at the house, so it was obviously just members of the same family, which is fine," she said.

Another one of her sleuthing scoops came in Cedar Grove, N.J. The listing looked good and Edmundson liked the fact that the property abutted a nature preserve. She decided to use the Web site zillow.com to get an aerial view ( maps.google.com provides a similar free service, called Street View).

"I kept scanning out and just a short distance away was a huge sewer treatment plant with these huge vats," she said. "Would we have seen that if we had gone around and drove around the neighborhood? I don't know."

Not everyone is as thorough as Edmundson, who eventually bought in July, in Clifton, N.J. But researching a community is an important part of the home-buying process, real estate agents say.

"The Internet is so full of information," said Mary Davis, broker and owner of a River Edge, N.J., agency. "People are pretty savvy now — they have a lot of information when they walk in the door."

Davis and other agents say there are a few basic areas that buyers usually research: neighborhood feel, schools, crime and transportation.

neighborhood feel

If you want to get an idea of what a neighborhood is like, there is no substitute for visiting, said Realtor Manuel Couto, of the Rosa Agency in Kearny, N.J.

"Drive the neighborhood during the day, drive it at night and on the weekend," Couto said. "Walk the streets, talk to neighbors. If you don't like it, you won't like the house."

Realtor Susan Fain, a New Jersey sales consultant for Coldwell Banker Allendale, said she finds that buyers often are searching for a particular vibe, whether that's a quiet cul-de-sac or a walkable downtown. "It's just the feeling," she said.

The census has a wealth of information on communities, listed under American Fact Finder at factfinder.census.gov. Punch in a town or a ZIP code and you can find breakdowns by income, marital status, race and educational background. You can see what percentage of homes are occupied by renters vs. owners and how long it takes people in that community to get to work.

When looking at a specific property, you can find tax information and the assessed value of the home through the county tax appraiser's office. For Pinellas, the Web site is pcpao.org; Hillsborough, hcpafl.org; Pasco, appraiser.pascogov.com; Hernando, co.hernando.fl.us/PA; and Citrus, pa.citrus.fl.us.

Couto said potential buyers also can get property tax information from their real estate agent, who usually can provide several years of tax payments for a particular property.

transportation

A neighborhood's proximity to life's necessities — work, grocery stores, entertainment, schools — and how to get to those places also comes into play when people choose a place to settle.

With no subway or rail system linking Tampa Bay area communities, most residents get around by private car or bus. Pinellas County is served by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, online at psta.net. The site offers details about schedules and fares, plus information about transportation services for people who cannot use the regular PSTA buses. In Hillsborough, similar information can be found through the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority site at hartline.org. For Pasco information, go to pascocountyfl.net and search for "pcpt" to reach the Pasco County Public Transportation department page. Hernando information is at hernandobus.com, and Citrus information is at citruscountyfl.org (search "transportation").

schools

One of the first steps in examining a town's schools is to check their online rating.

To find out about Florida's public schools, start with the state's accountability Web site, schoolgrades.fldoe.org. This site compares schools from elementary to high school statewide, detailing various aspects of student achievement. It also shows the letter grade awarded by the state for the past 10 years, the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch and the percentage of minority students. The Adequate Yearly Progress report, also on this site, shows the percentage of students on track to be proficient in key subject areas. The education department home page, fldoe.org, offers links to more information, including graduation rates and state-supported initiatives like Bright Futures.

County Web sites (pcsb.org in Pinellas; sdhc.k12.fl.us in Hillsborough; pasco.k12.fl.us in Pasco; hernandoschools.org in Hernando; and www.citrus.k12.fl.us in Citrus) provide overviews and links to school Web sites.

GreatSchools.net offers a broad look at schools in a particular community. Clicking on the site's "Choose the Right School" link takes you to a page that outlines things to consider as you choose a school and a geographical search that can be filtered by public, private or charter school.

But real estate agents and school officials say there is no substitute for visiting a school.

"If I'm going to move into an area, I want to get a firsthand feeling of what it's like," says superintendant Raymond Bandlow of Fort Lee, N.J. "You don't have to ask an expert to walk in and get a feeling. Is it a warm place? Is it a welcoming place? All these things are important.

"Parents have a good understanding of what their children need and how they thrive, and that makes sense."

crime

One of the easiest ways to get an idea for crime in an area is to turn to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report. Go to www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm and click on 2007, the most recent year for which total data is available. On that page there is a frequently asked question marked "How many crimes came to the attention of law enforcement in my city in 2007?" Click on that, and then go to your state, where the list of municipalities will come up.

But numbers don't always tell the whole story. Realtor Couto recalled an incident where a client fell in love with a corner property in Kearny, N.J. But he heard rumors that cars frequently skidded into it.

"I told him to call the police department," Couto said. The buyer did, and found out the rumors were unfounded.

When it comes to crime, Edmundson, the avid researcher, said she looked at each neighborhood and checked it against her state police sex offender registry. In Florida, that registry can be reached through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement site, www.fdle.state.fl.us. Click on "Sexual Offender Database."

Edmundson admitted that research in general can be an imperfect science.

"People come and go; things could change," she said. But just doing all of the research she did over her house-hunting experience made her feel more comfortable.

"We lived in West Orange for 19 years and we wanted to make sure that our next 19 years are just as happy."