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Nervous about this house, large, old ... advice?
I recently posted a question about short sales-- somehow we may have another shot, long story short. And now comes the questions my husband and I area asking ourselves.
This post is a little ramble and looking for advice from personal experiences and any words of wisdom.
I think the scariest is the oil heat and the fact the house in question is large and old. It has crappy windows and we'd be replacing at least 5 of them right away, but the house definitely either has newspaper in the walls or nothing! Really just nothing! So bye bye expensive oil heat... shoot right out the windows and walls...
The house is 2,000 square feet too, my husband says it could cost over $2,500 a winter but honestly I thought I've heard more! His parent's house is similar and they also have oil so that is where his number came from. Both houses are colonials.
And the whole heat setup is old, but we COULD hook up gas. We would just do that upon replacing the oil shebang.
It's just nerve racking because it's money pissing in the wind, you know? I know no matter what it is expensive to heat a home, but we could save a lot by using gas and insulating, but that is expensive. Gas is doable but who knows when we'd do insulation because as its an old house already I'm sure plenty of other stuff would pop up! We have also had the house in question inspected, it's got "good bones" as they say, the foundation is solid as a rock, the size is fantastic... I suppose I'm just looking for reasons to say that house is worth both freezing and pissing away money (I could think of many more [positives] mentioned but I am scared still of the negatives!)
We also worry about electrical that is unseen because they wired something incorrectly in the electrical box that we will be having to have repaired/upgraded accordingly. That's another worry is what may lie beyond the walls.. . >_>
It doesn't even have a water heater. My husband says I will not enjoy 5 minute showers. I just feel like if we get that house this winter will not be fun. And I worry like I said, about other things popping up ON TOP of spending so much over the winter ... but I really don't know what those other things could even be. Thank you for reading!
Re: Nervous about this house, large, old ... advice?
Don't.
Please, dear God, as someone who bought a similar sounding fixer as a flip, don't. It took $40k before I finally gave up and took a brutal loss. Every project unearthed more projects and there was just no end in sight. It didn't matter that the house had been a bargain and had looked ok - there was so much wrong with every.single.system in the home that it was an incredible money pit.
I firmly believe now that that house should have been demo'd. Unless this house has significant architectural or historical value, it may also be worth demo'ing. Not everything old is valuable. And I love old stuff, but it's true.
Oil heat: environmental headache to remove, costly as heck
No insulation: hello, taking house down to the studs, removing all plaster, installing insulation and drywall, painting
Old windows: cha-ching again
Old wiring: it'd better not be knob & tube or you won't be able to insure the house. I've seen plenty of houses on tv where the owners on fixed the visible parts and it was all knob & tube behind the scenes, making an even bigger, costlier mess of the system.
If you and your DH are prepared to do a total-gut reno and make reno'ing your full-time job for 2 years or so, buy this house. Don't otherwise.
ETA - To balance this with non-scare tactics, arrange to get a couple general contractors in the house to give you reno quotes. Then my post won't matter bc they'll have scared the bejeezus out of you all by themselves
My Pinterest
The Googlesites Paint Bio
Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
We plan on having someone drill 4" holes at the top of our walls every so many feet, filling with blown-in, patching and re-painting.
What is really weird is there's these weird holes patched up on a few walls... like double the size of a quarter. Now I'm wondering if it's already got a little insulation work done?
Thanks for replies we are still thinking heavily on this, so far it is now leaning more towards no but just wanting to exhaust all possibilities before the final answer
If these are on the outside walls then it's probably insulated. I'm not sure how old the house is that you are looking at but we bought a house from the 40's. I just love the character. It's been a lot of work, mostly cosmetic but still costly. We didn't want new construction or really most homes in subdivisions. The electrical in our house was updated for the most part but we do not have any wall insulation that we know of. We're getting a quote for the spray in insulation (when they drill into the mortar from the outside, not the inside) and will do the attic insulation on our own. I don't even know how a house doesn't have a water heater. Have you talked to someone about installing one? I don't know what kind of work that would involve from a plumbing perspective but a water heater is pretty important in my book!
We looked at one older home, it was lovely, had a ton of character had so much more space then we thought we could afford and fell in our priceline.
And then we had a contractor come in and give us just a rough estimate for ripping out an oil tank, updating the air conditioning, fixing windows, updating the roof and a multitude of other things and it just wasn't worth it.
If I was independently wealthy, had the time and patience to live in a home that would be under heavy construction for some time, and was really our forever home we might have taken the plunge but frankly it just didn't seem worth it to us.
October 13, 2012
We sold an 1860, 3600 sq ft, beautiful old house earlier this year. We owned it for 4.5 years, and I really regret buying it in the first place. It was a total money pit and dh and I estimate that it cost us 12-15K a year just in unexpected repairs and necessary upgrades. We had to fix some wiring issues, plumbing issues, roof issues, yard/drain issues, porch issues, etc, etc. This list was not for fun things or cool projects - it was just to do the minimum to keep the house liveable.
Oh, and when we sold it, we knew (as did our buyers) that the house has at least $30K more worth of coming repairs. The furnace might or might not last another winter. The whole roof needs fixing (again), the boiler is on its last legs, the electrical system needs more repairs. Like our buyers we were charmed by the character and great 'feel' of our house.
Never again. My advice to you would be: RUN FAR AWAY
I live in an 86 year old house. Our house has whatever insulation originally placed or done by previous owners, b/c we haven't done any. We have oil heat and radiators too but we live in the Northeast and that is very common. Not sure where you are.
We put in a new oil burner, and I'm sure that helps, but we maybe filled our oil tank 3x last year? The price of both oil and gas fluctuate. One "pro" for oil is that once you buy it, you own it and can use it as quickly or slowly as you want. With gas, even if you don't use it at all, you still get a bill with fees every month. Another pro for oil (and I don't know if it's true of gas) is that most suppliers offer price caps or guarantees for the season.
So, I wouldn't be scared of oil heat automatically. I think the age/quality of the burner matters and your other issues (old windows) would seem to me a bigger deal breaker. Replacing windows is $$$$.I'm in a similar situation - we placed an offer on a 1902 house - forclosure - that is 3500 sq ft. Here is what we are planning on doing:
1) We are going through our state's HUD to get lead abatement and new windows. We qualify for a program that is 1/2 grant, and 1/2 loan that is forgiven if we live in the house for 5 years. There is federal money - check with your local HUD program.
2) We are getting a 203K loan. You can borrow more than the sale price of the house, and use the extra money for home improvement (new roof, updated heating system, appliances, remodeling, additions, etc)
3) We aren't moving into it until the spring. We are planning on closing sometime in October/November. We are lucky enough to have another place to stay while all the construction is going on. The only reason we are doing this is because we have infant twins. If DH and I didn't have kids, we would move in right away and start work on the house.
I grew up in an old house, and I see the potential of this one. Now, that being said, we're walking into with with some updates already done. The roof is new, the oil tank, well pump, hot water heater, and boiler were all replaced in 2008 by the previous owners. The electrical box also was updated, and all the wiring.
We're also planning on putting a pellet stove, or a wood burning stove in this house to help with the heating cost.
It's in a great area with good school systems and on 7 acres of land. We know it's going to be tons of work, but we're planning on raising the kids here.