Marcie Berson

Theresa, the best way to find out the safety of a particular neighborhood is to contact the local Police department or talk to some of the people who are living in the neighborhood. Real Estate agents are prohibited by law from telling their clients or the general public whether a neighborhood is good, bad, safe or not safe compared to any other neighborhood. As far as resale value, most of Stamford has good appreciation over time. Whether or not the house you're interested in with have good resale value will depend on many factors such as it's location (close to transportation, shopping, etc.), it's appropriateness for the neighborhood (is it similar to the other houses on the street), any improvements you make to the house and the overall improvement of the neighborhood over time. If you're working with a Real Estate agent, ask him or her to provide you with an idea of how the properties in the area have gained in value over the past few years to help you determine the possible potential for the house you're interested in purchasing. Good luck! - Mon Nov 10 2008, 09:00

If the property is listed with a Real Estate agent, then you need to work with the agent. If it isn't, then as Natasa said below you will need to get written permission from the owner of the property to speak directly with their mortgage bank. The easiest way to do it is to ask the owner to call the bank and ask them what information they need to grant a third party access to their account information. Sometimes it's a form that needs to be filled out, sometimes a written letter is sufficient. Then once that information is sent back to the bank, you can contact the bank directly. You'll want to talk to someone in the bank's loss mitigation department to find out if they are willing to consider a short sale and what price they would consider. Be aware that it will take a lot of time and patience to deal directly with the bank and there's no guarantee that they will let you buy the property for a short sale price. However, it is worth the effort if this is a house that you really want to buy and the seller really needs to sell. A bank would usually rather take a loss on a mortgage than own the property. Good luck! - Wed Nov 5 2008, 08:25

This house is listed for rent at the $20,000 per month price, which is not unusual for a house of this size in Greenwich, Connecticut. You will find houses priced lower than normal in Greenwich, as with most of the other towns in the area. If you're curious to see what's for sale in the area, feel free to stop by my website at the link below. Enjoy your searching. - Wed Nov 5 2008, 06:55

It sounds like you have done your homework and Dan (below) has provided you with some excellent guidance on where to get started with the financing side, as well as things to look out for in the buying processs. If you would like to start monitoring the Fairfield County market to see what properties are available in your target range, I would be happy to provide you with a free account on my ListingBook MLS search service. Just send me an email at Marcie@BersonTeam.com or visit my website at the link below to register for the service. My husband and I have personally owned a number of multi-family properties as investments and I've also helped clients to purchase multi-family properties as owner-occupied investments. So I can share with you my personal experience as an investor and landlord to help you make the best decision for you. It would be my pleasure to help you and your fiancee find the right home for you. - Mon Oct 27 2008, 08:35

All land records data is compiled by town in Connecticut (we do not have County government). So if you are trying to find houses that are on the verge of foreclosure, then you will need to check the land records in each town. Some towns make their land records available online, you can check on the individual town's websites. If you are looking for homes that were already foreclosed on and are now for sale by the bank, I would be happy to help you out by sending you the listings from the Multiple Listing Service for the town(s) or type of property that interest you. Feel free to email me at Marcie@BersonTeam.com or call me at 203-952-4899. - Fri Oct 10 2008, 07:24