Lack of broadband turning off homebuyers
Filed under: Real Estate, Technology
The Boston Globe recently reported that a lack of high speed Internet connections are keeping many rural homes from selling. With more than 55% of the nation currently using broadband and many people, including myself, placing it up there with breathing on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's no wonder broadband is a deal breaker. Even though close to 90% of the nation is wired up for broadband, many rural homes still lack a decent Internet connection. And apparently many home buyers aren't willing to settle for a slower connection.
While real estate brokers have seen deals called off after potential buyers learned that there was no high speed connection, I've taken a more proactive approach. If my wife and I see a rural house we like, I'll call up the local cable office or go online to a DSL provider to see if the address is able to get a high speed connection. Just last week I saw a nice looking house on the edge of town, but before I could even share it with my wife I found out it was incapable of getting broadband from any provider which made sharing it unnecessary.
However, not all homeowners are dissuaded by the lack of a traditional high speed connection. A close friend recently purchased a house and upon finding out that he was just outside the range for broadband, chose to use a data card from Verizon for Internet access. While this is more costly than a broadband connection from the cable company, to him, the ability to have a fast connection is well worth it!
Since the only homes not able to access high-speed internet connections are those located in the areas which are the hardest to get broadband to, I don't see this problem going away anytime soon. My only advice to sellers stuck in areas without a high speed connection is that, when possible, to front the cost and lobbying efforts to get lines run to the house. Also for sellers in rural environments who do have high speed Internet connections; I highly recommend advertising that the same way you would central air!
via Boston Gal's Open Wallet
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-10-2008 @ 5:50PM
WildKAT said...
I live in the mountains of Northern California. Until 3 years ago we had no broadband service and I can say that dial up is absolute torture when compared to high speed internet contactivity. Recently I was without Broadband for 11 days due to a break of the plastic cover over the signal generator. I had to use dial up and it was just unbearable. Yet, I learned that not 20 miles from where I live there is a community who has not gotten even land line phone service as of 2008. The phone company was just installing it as of last month. Can you believe it?
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11-12-2008 @ 11:10AM
joncdodge said...
Have you seen this story?
2012: The Year The Internet Ends
http://www.curiousread.com/2008/06/2012-year-internet-ends.html
We need to take action!
11-11-2008 @ 4:07PM
Kari said...
I find this totally unbelievable. People care more about something that can be added easilly and cheaply than with the layout of the rooms, the features of the kitchen, the number of cars they can put in the garage? Give me a break! They're rather deal with not enough bedrooms or a dismal leaky basement, just so they could have broadband? Are they crazy?
Right now, I have dial up. If I had broadband, and were to sell my house, I'd cancel in the day I left -- I'm not paying for some loser's service -- they can get their own.
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11-11-2008 @ 4:08PM
Josh Smith said...
It's not easy to add to most rural homes that are too far out to get broadband. The signal is either too weak or there isn't cable run to these locations.
As far as paying for someone's service that's ludicrous, paying to lay cable the however falls under the same category of repainting your home or fixing a leaky basement.
11-11-2008 @ 4:23PM
Joey said...
The broadband I had from my cable company was so FD up...that I told them to shove it...went to Verizon got an air card and now i have a broadband connection anywhere there is cell service available...Cost is the same $49.99 per month...
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11-11-2008 @ 5:10PM
Val said...
Kari I think you missed the point of the article, it isn't that people haven't had broadband installed in the house they live in it is that it isn't even available to them to have it. Who would be dumb enough to move out of a house and leave internet services intake up and running for the next guy geeeee I have broadband at home but for what I use the internet for half the time I just dial up it's cheaper. No big deal. Oh well, if someone thinks they can't live without it in a great house then thats someone elses good luck. Ok ok ok ok I am getting off my soap box now. LOL
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
Val said...
LOL my dial up is cheaper then my broad band and my Broadband is have the cost of Joeys 49.99 wow I feel lucky
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
jude said...
Hughes net sattelite works well
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
lildoxielvr1 said...
There are areas where high speed Internet is simply not available for any price. There are no providers in the area. I can see how this would impact a home sale. Years ago, when we were looking to purchase our current home, the owner only had broadcast TV. My husband had me call to make sure cable TV was available in the area. We had cable at our apartment and he did not want to give it up.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
RNB said...
We live out in the country and even though we don't get broad band out there. It is possible to get an internet hook up via satellite.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
rebecca said...
If you live in the middle of nowhere you also have to option of high speed satellite, that is what my family uses and it is far faster than the broadband at my university.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:16PM
Alternatives said...
My wife and I own a rural vacation/retirement home to which the phone company cannot provide access to high-speed internet (We checked). However, there are cable TV lines - not currently active - that the previous owner brought to the house. We don't yet spend enough time there to justify subscribing to cable on a year-'round basis, but I'm pretty sure that when we do, we'll find that the local cable company offers some kind of high-speed internet, as well. I hope so, anyway; otherwise we'll be stuck with dial-up forever. To be truthful, though, we can get by at our average connection speed of about 36000bps for e-mail and most of the internet-related operations that we do (but forget watching videos of any kind). However, after reading the above article, I'll look into this "data card" that was mentioned, as well. Thank you.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
DAVE said...
TO THOSE OF YOU USING DIAL UP AND HAVE NEVER USED BROAD BAND I CAN TELL YOU ONCE YOU SWITCH YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK TO DIAL UP ......
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
warning said...
Well,Im 10 miles outside of my town but there are people out here though I live back in the woods....there is a small neighborhood up the road with 3 or 4 streets of homes all around....normal houses...Im 2 miles from a highschool and thats the one I went to.......there is no broadband here at all.I built this home 8 years ago but there still is no broadband.....and there is no excuss..Japan is 30 times faster than america in the first place,our dsl isnt even considered high speed in Japan.....what a shame.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
Bam said...
The house pictured with the article is an inappropriate example.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:18PM
Lee said...
I have had both broadband and dialup. I am on dial up right now and I am quite happy with it. I saw very little advantage to broadband for the use that I have for the internet.
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11-11-2008 @ 8:17PM
Linja said...
We have DSL now, but we spent a summer in an area of Virginia where no broadband was available. The dial-up was terrible because the phone lines in the area were old and needed upgrading. I could enter a URL, go to the kitchen or bathroom, and the page would STILL be loading when I got back. And this was straight HTML pages, no video. Every page took about 3 minutes to appear. Oh, and I had graphics turned OFF!
We looked into satellite but it required a $2k investment plus a 2-year contract. I wound up driving 20 minutes each way to a town that had a library with broadband service when I needed to use the web. Saved up my blog entries and work-related internet tasks on my laptop for several days at a time and took it to the library with me. Inconvenient but more bearable than dial-up over inadequate lines. (Yes, I talked to the phone company but they couldn't help me because it was a major infrastructure problem there.)
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11-11-2008 @ 8:18PM
sam said...
for those who think dial up is okay...until recently I was connecting on dial up at the blinding speed of 9600 baud. TRY and do even casual surfing or email at that speed....IF you can stay connected on ancient phone lines. I work on line and the second high speed was available...just this year..I jumped on it. Satellite is no solution at all. It goes out every time it rains or snows. Download is fast...upload is painfully slow. "over use" band width...their decision not yours..a.nd they will bump you off line (without warning) and you are stuck with dial up until the next month's service starts. Satellite will not work in a VPN environment..or if it does it is slower than dial up. No solution at all. In rural aeas without high speed, you typically can't get wireless access either. Leave the city at your peril if high speed is important to you.
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11-11-2008 @ 9:49PM
Norma said...
I live in a rural area about 5 miles from town. Phone company will not bring DSL out so I have wireless internet. I have a radio receiver on my roof and get a signal from a tower about 8 miles from where I live. I am not a gamer but I have speeds fast enough to watch videos and it runs about $29 a month.
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11-12-2008 @ 8:45AM
charles miller said...
I understand the need for broadband and the convenience of this service to potential home-buyers. But these are the same people who want, want and want-- expanded and upgraded kitchens, new appliances, upgraded bathrooms, new roofs, new siding, and all for the lowest price possible. But the point is that rural america doesn't have all these goodies and maybe that is a good thing for the here and now generation. If you want all of the convenience of suburbia then stay there. Leaving the cell phone turned off, disconnecting the cable, and turning off the computer may result in an improved quality of life. Kids don't need to be glued to the TV and fixed to the computer 24-7. Maybe it is a good thing to leave this stuff behind in our rtural communities.
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