Hello! My husband and I are looking to buy a home. I have what you might call “grandma style” and love older homes that have not been flipped to oblivion and have most of their original charm.
We found a house we absolutely loved with beautiful original hardwood floors, all brick exterior, brick fireplace, and built in wood shelving. I was so in love. We put in our offer and have inspectors come and….rat infestation, termite damage, rotting wood in several places in the attic, plumbing installed incorrectly (during a flip), rotting wood in detached garage, roof problems, and much more; all where you couldn’t see it upon scrutiny during a walking tour.
I cried on the phone with the realtor and we pulled our offer. Now I’ve found another grandma-esque home for sale that doesn’t seem to have major issues that are obvious, but of course I learned my lesson. I’m so scared to put any more offers in anywhere that’s not basically a brand new house, which I DONT want. We are absolutely willing to do a bit of work on the house, but a ton of major issues like that will just not work for us. Any words of advice or encouragement are appreciated! We are first time home buyers!
Our dream home had a disaster of an inspection report, now I’m scared to put in more offers elsewhere
byu/negative87mm inRealEstate
Posted by negative87mm
16 Comments
When shopping for older character homes, shop well below your budget, and just plan on spending money on renovations. A below-budget purchase price will take away the sting of spending thousands on repairs.
The most common advice is to never fall in love with a home until AFTER you’ve closed on it.
Easy to say, not always easy to do!
I will note:
– the issues you highlight were a lot (oof!), but not every home will be that bad. Won’t know until you try. On the flip (no pun intended) side, homes with lots of issues means lots of negotiation / deal making can happen, if you’re comfortable taking on the work to repair it.
– new construction does avoid some issues but comes with a lot of others; having owned both, 10/10 I’d not buy new construction (or really anything built in the last decade by a national builder), quality has really deteriorated.
Your inspector did a great job finding issues, and preventing you from entering a deal you’re not comfortable with.
Write a list of “these issues would be ok / we would negotiate because we’d be ok doing this work” and “these issues are deal breakers / we would walk away”, and use it as your filter when you find houses you like – and refer to it when a deal doesn’t pan out, because you know the lines you will stick to.
You’ll have to try a few more times: but you will absolutely find the home that works for you.
The process is frustrating but that just means that home wasn’t right for you and the right one is still out there. Something similar happened to us, and we took a two week break from tours to clear our minds and then found a much better house. All that to say, take a mini break to clear the anxiety and view it as a step closer to finding the home for you.
This is the nature of the beast with “charming” homes. Maintenance has been deferred or outright ignored, and issues fester.
You’re going to have to figure out how much your current budget can support your grandma dreams. Make a list of major maintenance issues that you could potentially accept, and come up with a budget that you could reasonably afford in the first year, and another for the first two years. Then see if you can find rough estimates for what those issues would cost to deal with in your area.
The problem is that your desire likely does not match your budget. Everyone has new build fatigue and wants these perfectly maintained older homes with “charm” but modern updates to things like roof, plumbing and electrical. Those houses do not exist on the market for very long, and they’re going for a premium.
Now is not the time to focus on things like personal style. This economy dictates you get a roof over your head that you can afford. It sucks but it’s true. You may have to prep yourself for a newer build
I would try to not be discouraged. It sounds like your inspector did you a great service so keep searching and keep using them for future inspections until you find the right one. There are lots of good, solid, older homes out there. Nothing’s going to be perfect and assume some fixes will be needed but what you experienced with the first house isn’t the norm based on my experience.
Put in offers with inspection contingencies! Then all you’re “out” is the cost of inspection if it doesn’t work out.
Just consider it part of the cost of purchasing an older home, so it doesn’t feel like you’re wasting money. You aren’t, you’re just essentially paying a bit of an extra finder’s fee for the *right* granny house.
Based on only my personal experience, unless an old home was previously owned by financially stable owners, it will have tons of expensive issues to deal with.
Did you get a quote for how much it would cost to fix those items? And did you run it by the sellers to see if they would be willing to offer some credits?
In 2020 (the pandemic) my kids called me saying “we need help with childcare, the kids will be home schooling online. And oh, BTW, we found you a house to rent.” It was in the neighborhood, tiny and 100 years old. The moment I walked in I wanted to buy it. A year later the furnace went out, my landlord put in a new one. She sold me the house two years ago. I had a cement floor put into the garage. The garage door is rotting, I’ll replace it next year. The basement windows were rotting and I had them replaced. With a really old home I’d put aside $5-10,000/yr for maintenance and repair. But don’t be afraid of an old home if that’s what you want.
Grandma homes are usually owned by, wait for it….grandmas. I live in a senior community and worked as an agent. Generally speaking, seniors do not pour a bunch of money into home maintenance. Many live on a fixed income and have neither the money or energy to do home projects.
My best friend’s brother was a home inspector and bragged incessantly about the homes he “failed.” His word. I know there’s no pass/fail on inspections. My sister’s neighbor was also an inspector and had a license plate that said “Dealbrkr.”
I had my own home inspected and there were multiple things flagged as issues that were not. I called in a carpenter, pest expert, structural engineer, and roofer to follow up. These were just some of the issues and what I was told by the various experts:
-evidence of bug infestation (a misplaced drill had caused damage in one spot underneath the floor in the basement)
– roof flashing placed wrong around the chimney (two professional roofers confirmed it was correct)
– water had seeped into the joists in the basement (they were discolored because when the house was built in 1930 the joists were first used when the foundation was poured and then reused in the structure. I learned this from a structural engineer I hired after the inspection.)
-the old coal chute had black mold (it was stained from (surprise!) coal.
I’m sure that there are many reputable home inspectors, but one thing I always keep in mind is that inspectors can be sued by the buyers but not the sellers, so I believe they are motivated to err on the side of the buyers. Unfortunately, the two inspectors I know of have demonstrated some delight in reporting issues whether real, exaggerated, or otherwise.
EDIT: fixed bullets
You really lucked out with your inspector!
If you like those style homes you’re going to need to pay for it. I bought a house I liked and put a 100k into it. Just because it has issues doesn’t mean you have to pass on it
Don’t even look at a flip! Look at cheaper ones that have not been redone and budget for the repairs/improvements that you want. That way it will be done correctly instead of as cheaply as possible. Talk to your agent about how to go about financing this. Find one that will pass conventional financing but is dated and needs work like HVAC, Roof etc.
We have tons of older mid century and century homes here. Many of which are totally fine and have normal inspection results. There are obviously some horrific ones as well. Your experience was just one home among many. There are plenty of gems but you can only find them by looking. You can’t dig one hole then be upset you didn’t strike gold 🙂 There ARE well maintained older homes that also haven’t been updated and painted so much that the charm is gone. They are just a little harder to find.
I’m a seller with a home currently under contract that was last updated in the 70s as best I can tell, and even has the original 1950s toilets. I bought it because I actually prefer older-style homes and never had any intentions of updating it. Now I have potential new owners and I have no idea if they plan on updating or not. I just know they’re a family and not flippers. In any case, hang in there and hopefully you’ll find the home of your dreams that doesn’t have too many issues.