My take is they knew there was no internet but it was not disclosed as to what the issue was. Only later did they find that part out..and then...It was only after closing on the house in July 2019 that they learned the bad news.
Which is it?Cohn told us the sellers disclosed in documents before the sale that Internet wasn't connected at the home
This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
I wonder why we never see these sorts of articles about people getting electricity or water at their houses, even in remote rural areas. Maybe the government should look into what happened there and figure out how to fix these crazy internet stories.
/S (in case you can't feel my eyes rolling through your screen)
When I was purchasing a home, I checked that the house could get FTTH before I even made an offer. Sounds like they didn't do their due diligence before the purchase.
It literally says that in the article, house's all around had it, middle of Seattle, light rail near by, schools 90 second walk away etc not some small rural town etc he assumed, as many probably would.
This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
Noted upthread, the seller's paperwork disclosed that there was no Internet available.
This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
Noted upthread, the seller's paperwork disclosed that there was no Internet available.
Pay for your neighbor 's internet if they let you run an Ethernet cable to your house?
Or simply pay for another modem on the same cable drop, and pay the neighbors $10 a month to host it.
You can do that (have two modems in the same dwelling on the same cable drop?)? I didn't know that was something you can get.
We have two drops to our house. One is 'mine' the other was put in by my wife's company for her WFH office.
This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
But it can be connected. For a price.This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
Noted upthread, the seller's paperwork disclosed that there was no Internet available.
Not quite. The disclosure said internet wasn't connected, not that it couldn't be connected. Kinda scummy.
I wonder why we never see these sorts of articles about people getting electricity or water at their houses, even in remote rural areas. Maybe the government should look into what happened there and figure out how to fix these crazy internet stories.
/S (in case you can't feel my eyes rolling through your screen)
It seems like the issue is straight forward. It's not Comcast's fault that they would need to do underground work, tear up the road, and then restore the road to serve one customer. They won't ever see any return on the costs of that. Something that might help is asking the city to run overhead poles to his house and then Comcast can use that and it would probably greatly reduce the cost, but I'd doubt they'd do it for the same reason Comcast won't take up an 80,000 dollar project so one couple can get high-speed.
I would think they would do directional boring. It usually costs about $15 per foot for longer jobs. It would be much better than tearing up the road. I have had a lot of experience with installing fiber/cable for new businesses. Comcast is clearly up-charging for this cable run, as it should have run under $5k.
There's something missing in this story and it's the age of the house.
Given Comcast ran cable on poles in the 70s and 80s tells me the neighborhood was wired up entirely at this time. As technology switched to fiber, the coaxial lines were removed (along with the poles, it seems), and the residents continued receiving service.
Would Starlink help in this situation?
edit: apologies I see it was in fact addressed - missed that bit at the end of the article.
This seems like a lack of due diligence on behalf of the real estate agent and the home buyer. The last two homes I bought, I made sure I knew exactly what my internet options would be and even pre-qualified the service before finalizing the sale. I'd suggest anyone who views internet as important to their job or entertainment to include that as part of the home buying process.
Noted upthread, the seller's paperwork disclosed that there was no Internet available.
Not quite. The disclosure said internet wasn't connected, not that it couldn't be connected. Kinda scummy.
They have to tunnel under a 3 lane road.150 usd a foot, I mean dang, I got a shovel, couple days work, 27k.....I'd probably get out of bed early for that kinda scratch!
My hookup cost was 100 usd but I had to drill the hole in my concrete wall.
When Zachary Cohn and his wife bought a house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, they didn't expect any trouble getting home Internet service.
What's not clear from my reading is whether Comcast told them service was available at that address before they bought the house. Buying a house without checking if service is available at that address is like buying a house without checking if it has city water or a well, i.e., moronic.
Isn't $27,000 to hook up internet in Seattle about average?
It’s gotten to the point where if I move, I will preinstall internet service before signing. Hard to trust availability websites, disclosures, etc.
My local estimate is $CAD 5k for replacing the sewer line, pretty much what you got. That’s just what it costs to dig up a bunch of space including the city street.When Zachary Cohn and his wife bought a house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, they didn't expect any trouble getting home Internet service.
Well, no on ever expects the Spanish Inquisition, either.
But: $27k for a <200 foot run? That's absurd. I would press for a detailed accounting, and offer to run the trench myself. For comparison, a drain replacement on my property required excavating, removing, and replacing a 110 foot drain line, plus interconnects to the municipal sewer and to my house, and that cost under $4k - which I also thought was excessive, but several bids came in right around that same amount. And cable runs don't have to be 4 feet deep, like drain lines here in the north; the final run from pole to my house for Comcast is barely covered with dirt, thanks to loads of tree roots that make trenching a chore, and it's been fine that way for well over 10 years.
All that said: these days, I would explicitly ask if Internet connectivity was available before buying a house. It might even be considered a known defect if it wasn't, and the sellers would be on the hook (again, in my state) to disclose it or pay for remediation.
So, Comcast absolutely sucks here and ought to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. But caveat emptor is still sound advice.
How far away are their neighbours? Why can't they share wifi?
Why is this all about massive underground construction when you could just run a CAT6 wire from an adjacent house and bury it 1ft underground if you think it's unsightly?
My local estimate is $CAD 5k for replacing the sewer line, pretty much what you got. That’s just what it costs to dig up a bunch of space including the city street.When Zachary Cohn and his wife bought a house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, they didn't expect any trouble getting home Internet service.
Well, no on ever expects the Spanish Inquisition, either.
But: $27k for a <200 foot run? That's absurd. I would press for a detailed accounting, and offer to run the trench myself. For comparison, a drain replacement on my property required excavating, removing, and replacing a 110 foot drain line, plus interconnects to the municipal sewer and to my house, and that cost under $4k - which I also thought was excessive, but several bids came in right around that same amount. And cable runs don't have to be 4 feet deep, like drain lines here in the north; the final run from pole to my house for Comcast is barely covered with dirt, thanks to loads of tree roots that make trenching a chore, and it's been fine that way for well over 10 years.
All that said: these days, I would explicitly ask if Internet connectivity was available before buying a house. It might even be considered a known defect if it wasn't, and the sellers would be on the hook (again, in my state) to disclose it or pay for remediation.
So, Comcast absolutely sucks here and ought to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. But caveat emptor is still sound advice.
To cross an arterial they need to block traffic on an arterial. That’s not cheap; I believe comcast when they say $80k. If it was a local road it would be cheaper.