Buying an old home ~1920s

amother

Lemon

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 2:12 pm

ok you can laugh away at what I said. that the inspector wasnt good and the roof was a shoddy job. no way is everything looking all in that way. I was the owner of that house. and no the inspector didnt come when the previous owner wanted. come on if you have some common sense you would realize that without having to comment. op you can drop what I said to you. you can take it as you wish. but I am not lying. and this is my experience. I did mention its possible I had a lemon. which is what it was. op you definitely take a risk when you take an old house like this. just pray that things go as you would like. speak to a knowledgeable contractor that is honest with you.

(hard to find honest contractors) but anyway. unless you have knowledge in the building business and know of someone who is in it and will be honest then you take a risk. either way you take a risk. I wouldnt go for something this old. if you shell it out and put in new plumbing and electric you can do alot of good for yourself. and oh btw all engineers go up to check the roof. in fact I had the most reputable roofer in the area I was living do the roofing job. roofs are notorious for causing issues. that is also in new houses. why would you go for something that is old that has years of use already? op again do what your gut tells you to.

and btw the roof had a ten year warranty and it was a fairly new warranty when I got it. I can go on and on about it. I dont even know why I am going on for this long. I guess I have given enough for now.

33055

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 2:24 pm

I suggest you get an engineer for the inspection and a contractor experienced in renovations. Ask to see work.

I owned old houses. One was from the early 1800s - no documentation until a mortgage in 1840, so we didn't know the exact date. I also owned a house built in1870. It was insulated with horse hair. Nothing unexpected showed up in either renovation. But we were fully prepared.

The houses were charming.

reality mom

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 2:30 pm

A Victorian house is so beautiful! The mouldings, layout etc. And the wrap around porch with the hanging lanterns Smile

However, if all I had was 150k I wouldn't go near it. Especially for the square footage you are describing. Itll cost a minimum of $250k to get it to your liking. If all you had to do was move sheetrock and change floors you'd be fine. But chances are a house that old needs new plumbing and electric. And thats the near equivalent of a gut-job. Ive been through construction. Its so expensive!

doctorima

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 2:44 pm

reality mom wrote:

A Victorian house is so beautiful! The mouldings, layout etc. And the wrap around porch with the hanging lanterns Smile

Take it from somebody named Reality Mom! Smile

studying_torah

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 3:22 pm

Don't forget that old houses aren't always up to code and won't pass inspection unless you fix them.
The foundation, windows, insulation could all have issues too.
I have no idea if 150k is enough or not, but I do know that construction adds up fast, and you also never know what's lurking behind walls and under floors , especially if the house wasn't well maintained.
On the other hand, I moved into a "newer" home, that was not well maintained and our inspector missed a lot of issues. The cental a/c, some mold issues, leaks in the kitchen, which also added up.
Bottom line, a well maintained home is better than a poorly maintained one.

Lilibet

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 6:58 pm

A great deal depends on how well the house was built, this can matter more than the date of construction. Cheaply/lightly built houses can be not worth the cost of fixing them up. In general, however, houses from the 20's were well built. I liven happily in one for years, my present home was built in 1906 - both have been solid as a rock and more then repaid the cost of updating wiring, etc.

Homes lightly built built in the 20s for working class customers are often not worth fixing up. Cheap wood, beams, foundations really do wear out. "Upscale" houses from the 20s tend to be far more solidly built than houses built in the 40s and since.

After you talk to contractors, you'll know whether you can afford it. But remember that some tings (leaky roofs) have to be done right away, others (modernizing a kitchen) can be spread over time.

Whether it's "worth" fixing up (that is, whether you can make the money back when/if you sell) depends entirely on whether the real estate market, Sinking money into a house is placing a bet on the market.

Absolutely bring in a contractor, better yet, get estimates from 2 or 3 reputable contractors.

MagentaYenta

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 7:06 pm

Lilibet made a great point about the era when the home was built. I always stayed away from houses made during the war years or depression. During the war years skilled trade people were scarce, along with quality building materials. During the depression folks did build houses on the cheap unless they were wealthy.

amother

Amber

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 7:28 pm

We just purchased a home from the 1920s and are doing a major remodel - new foundation, adding a story, rewiring, new windows, redoing kitchen and three bathrooms - completely gutting the existing bathrooms and adding one.

Our project comes out to around $450k. House was pretty well maintained, nothing was rotting or anything, roof is pretty recent. But we are re-wiring completely because there is knob and tube still in there and there's no way I'm putting my kids in there. Electrical is coming to about $22k, BTW, for a 2300 sq ft house - but that all depends on your local market, also we are adding a lot of fixtures, including in the new story.

So far, we have ripped into all the walls we are going to rip into and have gotten ZERO surprises. BUT we had a complete inspection done prior - we had a general inspection, a structural engineer for the foundation, and a roof inspection. We would have had surprises if we hadn't had the inspections.

We did all of that before putting in our bid, and we also had two contractors walk through to give a ballpark estimate of what they thought it would cost. They both turned out about right.

Also - we did inspections on a few houses before making an offer - or before signing the contract. Turned out to be money VERY well spent. WE avoided buying a few major-problem houses, or making an offer that was too high given the condition of the home as revealed by the inspection.

ETA - My guess is that $150k is not enough to do what you want to - especially if you want to add a story! Structural work is very expensive, and houses back then were likely not built to support a second story up to current code. Again, it all depends on your local market

amother

Mauve

Mon, Dec 05 2016, 8:11 pm

Thanks for all the details. I really appreciate everyone taking their time.

The home has a second story (its a cape colonial) one side of the second story is squared and the other very steeply sloped, I was more thinking of squaring off that side - but I do agree it would increase the expense tremendously.

I know the electric isn't knob and tube because we checked that ourselves in the areas where it was exposed. We would need the inspection to confirm it in the rest of the house.

for 450K we could build a 3000 sq ft home, so if that would be the cost we would just demolish (if we had the money for that).

The home from what we saw looked well made and solid with intricate wood floors, columns, wood beams in the ceilings, tons of built-ins: bookcases, butler pantries, china closets, very detailed oriented. The kitchen isn't so typical from the 1920 homes, its not tiny or squeezed in the back so there is what to work with. The home also has a lot of bathrooms (that need work).

I'm really hoping they don't accept our verbal offer anyways or come back way out of our range.

(BTW does anyone know why all the bedrooms would be connected by doors - I found that to be so interesting and was wondering why it was designed that way).

Ruchel

Tue, Dec 06 2016, 6:19 am

We are looking into a 1905 apartment. It's gorgeous - but it has its chisronos too. The ground is historical and I wouldn't be redoing it, which means it would stay kinda uneven. The very interesting façade dating back to when r'l this part of France was under German rule will attract tourist attention and may end up in Pokemon go lol. etc etc

Raisin

Tue, Dec 06 2016, 6:24 am

Ruchel wrote:

You are moving from Paris?

petiteruchy

Tue, Dec 06 2016, 2:32 pm

Our home is about that old. I'm not sure I would do it again. I think we got a lemon, or at least paid too much. We knew we had to redo the roof but other things have come up nearly every month since we moved in. And sadly it's not problems original to the house, necessarily, but a result of the house being owned by an old lady for many years, then sold to someone who wanted to fix it up but ran out of money. We got a house inspector who was very well regarded but they couldn't see a lot of the things we're dealing with. On the plus side we don't seem to have any long term water damage or major foundation issues, but the house is not really worth pouring a ton of money into...

Anyway, if I was to do it over (which I might, I'm considering selling this house in a few years rather than put up with even more problems) I'd only buy a house if an inspector and a contractor I know well can walk through with me, and I'm going to be much much pickier about the previous owners... no more houses owned by old couples who haven't had the energy, money or urgency to take of problems or do reasonable updates, or people who seem like they were just trying to flip it. I know you can't know everything ahead of time though and some things are just up to luck.

amother

Plum

Tue, Dec 06 2016, 3:26 pm

On our second 1920's house. The first was near the beach and more of a cottage type, perhaps only meant as a summer home originally. It is still holding up quite nicely. Yes, the roof went at one point and we put in a new electric box, but these things come up with any home other than a new construction. The house even survived Hurricane Sandy pretty nicely with water filling the basement almost until the first floor but BH stopped before reaching the first floor saving us having to redo the kitchen. Once the place dried out, the physical structure was unchanged and the water damage to appliances in the basement (boilers, water heaters, etc) was no different had everything been brand new.
Our current home is BH a solid, beautifully built Dutch colonial with so much character and little details people don't want to bother with or pay for when building these days. The walls are plaster, not sheet rock. The ceilings are 12 feet high, etc. We have updated a bit each year as the budget allows. So far, we replaced the windows, boiler, hot water heater, toilets, 2-3 pipes that were leaky, washer/dryer, oven (and I made $200 from the gorgeous collectors item double oven that I sold when we upgraded- one half broke and it wasn't worth getting this vintage oven repaired when I could get a new self cleaning Shabbos mode double for less!), and carpeting. We put in central air conditioning. This is over the last 5 years slowly, as we have the funds. We were warned that the electric box needs to be redone and were quoted $1,000-2,000, but we haven't tackled that project yet. Anyway, my point is that I really love my house and don't get scared away from horror stories. If the previous owners took good care of maintaining it and your inspector doesn't have major reservations, go for it.