pooks

So, I almost bought a house! Didn't go through with it because of what I thought was a terrible inspection. A little detail: it was a 1960s brick ranch in Charlotte NC sold 'as is' but that appeared to be well maintained and cared for.


The inspection identified, amongst other things, that the garage was subject to 'abnormal settling' (further inspection by a structural engineer advised), plus evidence of termites and carpenter ants (in the garage only). Plus, a questionable roof (further inspection by a roofer advised), dangerous electrical panel that needed replacing completely, plus various plug sockets not grounded or installed upside down. Lots of modifications required to the 'nearly new' water heater, and on and on and on. Repairs mounting up into the $1,000s, which I thought was just too much.


My realtor, however, said that this was 'fairly typical' for a house of this age and I'd probably get a similar report if I tried to buy any 'older home'...


So, is it typical?! I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts....

robin1234

Assuming that the garage is a detached building, those problems sound limited.

As for the problems in the house itself, those sound fairly limited and normal. Water heaters last ten to fifteen years and are inexpensive to buy and instal. Electrical upgrades sound fairly typical and certainly need doing every ten or twenty years. What kind of roof is it? They generally need replacing every so often, twenty years at most. Cost may be ten to twenty thousand.

So, if the price is right on this house vs. other similar ones, is it worth budgeting twenty or thirty thousand over the first few years... .?

Sheepdip

Sounds pretty typical to me and are typically items for negotiation (but not in your case perhaps for an 'as is') property. If the sale price hasn't taken those items into consideration I would still negotiate. I just changed the water heater on our house (10 years old) and was $350.

Pulaski

I agree with the above advice entirely and would add that the home inspector probably thought he was doing you a favour by giving you the ammunition to negotiate repairs or a discount.

The only further inspection I would ask for is an inspection by a pest company for the termites and ants. But in any case termites and ants are fairly common and houses don't fall down just because a few insects have colonized them (chronic infestation can be more serious). And unless the garage looks like it is wonky, it ain't about to fall over either - that's one of the advantages of timber frame construction, the frame is flexible and can easily accommodate a little settling.

The only caveat I would make is that some houses in Charlotte are being sold for the development potential of the land they sit on, which might be more than the house is worth, so it is possible that the seller doesn't expect the house to be repaired, and/or repairing the house might not make economic sense.

Oh, and saying that some sockets are upside down is just daft, that is very common and takes about 60s/socket to fix.

Welcome back BTW, I hope all is well with you?

rpjs

Sounds similar to our house - fixing insects is easy and pretty cheap. Replacing panels is not unusual - was the panel a Federal Electric? They were pretty much ubiquitous in older houses until they got implicated for a bunch of fires, so definitely should be replaced. We were told our water heater is on its way out and should be replaced but it's still hanging in there (touch wood) two-and-a-half years later. We're planning on replacing it and the furnace with a combi.

The upside-down sockets thing is odd. Are the sockets in question controlled from (a) wall switch(es)? In that case isn't it conventional to put such sockets in upside-down?

robin1234

We've been in our house for nineteen years and have replaced the water heater twice now, fourteen years between the replacements. Seems about right.

Pulaski

Assuming the original water heater lasted more than five years, our water heater is at 18 years, pushing 19. Ditto both upstairs and downstairs heating/AC systems.

hungryhorace

To put his in perspective; I paid around $2000 to have a new 50gallon heater installed last year (State Water Heater).

Pulaski

Why? ..... How much for the W/H, and how much labour? ..... And how much tax?

rpjs

Does sound a bit high. We've been quoted a grand all in for a new (regular) heater and that's in eyewateringly expensive Westchester county.

Pulaski

Top of the line "hybrid" State W/H runs, apparently $850, and assuming that Massachusetts takes $150 one way or another, that still leaves $1,000 for the plumber!

pooks

Ha, well it seems like the only person who thinks the inspection was a big deal is me!! Interesting.... out of curiosity what WOULD it take to make you back out of a deal??


I'm still happy with my decision, we did go through how much it would cost to replace/fix each problem and it was quite a lot in that the house wasn't by any means cheap or a bargain - it just didn't make financial sense to put more money into it and the seller had already been a pain to deal with in that the house was empty and had been for sale several months (unusual in the Charlotte region) and yet he was still acting as if asking for any sort of reduction was ridiculous.


The upside down plugs thing wasn't really a big deal, but did make me think that the whole electrical system had been installed by some sort of shoddy person - a lot of the outlets weren't grounded and potentially dangerous.


Of course I realize that things thing like heaters, the roof etc all need replacing over time, but the thought of doing it all at once wasn't appealing... Seems like I had a pretty charmed life in the UK - four different houses and the worst thing we had to do was replace the central heating in one.

Nutmegger

What people have said is that they would use the report as the jumping off point for negotiations. Even with an as is place you could try to play the safety card re the electrical problems.

pooks

I know what people have said!! Even if the seller had reduced the price accordingly (which I doubt he would have) I didn't really want to have to move in to a place where I would have to potentially replace the roof, shore up the garage, eradicate the bugs, overhaul the electrical system and sort out the water heater, along with a laundry list of other little problems. It would have cost too much and wasn't how I wanted to spend my time in the future. Obviously my tolerance for such problems is very low. I'm impressed that anyone could move into a 'new' place and deal with all those things right off the bat, but it seems I am weak and pathetic

lansbury

To me the warning flag is the abnormal settling on the garage. Job to say without further details but I would be very cautious unless it was something minor. If there was plenty of houses on the market I would probably have walked away as well.