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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (62944)	11/13/1999 12:53:00 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 108807

I may not be the right person to opine on the matter, but my husband would tell you not to buy a house with problems like that. Wait, here he comes ~ I just asked him, he says "forget it."

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (62944)	11/13/1999 9:02:00 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

The next Angela's Ashes? Get the 1st edition while you still can: salon.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (62944)	11/13/1999 11:46:00 AM
From: pezz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Sometime around the spring of 1996 I was considering buying a house in the valley. Cul-de-sac, nice area ,earthquake damaged. Banks would not lend on it. The homeowner had arranged financing for a $55k premium over the cash price and about 2% higher than the going rate. Needless to say since it was still a buyers market he was desperate.He had just retired and couldn't move away until it was sold. Careful examination convinced me that the damage was mostly superficial .Some sweat on my part and maybe $15k would have brought it up to snuff. I believe I could have gotten it for even cheaper than the cash price [$170k] had I waved $150k in front of his face. I had just made a killing in the market and had plenty of money to wave! But noooooo I was well on my way to being a millionaire. I couldn't even take a part of my dough out of the market. Diversify? What's that? So I lost my shirt [well most of it] in the market. That house is probably worth $400k today. <<I really shouldn't be buying an older home at all with all the maintenance involved since I have no idea what to do...>> Usually the major problems consist of needing a new roof,plumbing re pipeing refinishing hardwood floors and out of date and or deteriorated windows. Often there is a paint buildup from many coats that must be taken down to the bare wood before repainting...This can be time consuming and more expensive than one might think.In some cases of older fixers [if the price is cheap enough] since most people never find the floor plan that they want in an existing home they can remodel and get what they want at a reasonable overall cost.However in my experience often the remodeling process goes over budget so care must be taken. << some of the nicest areas have houses that were built to last 30 years or so and now its been 50...>>I have torn down many an older home to the studs and rarely find one [in good areas] that is not structurally sound. Assuming that a 30 or 50 year old home had been built to code and there had been no long standing water problems most are as sound from a structural stand point as when they were built.Of course each case must be carefully checked out. There are companies that do just this for quite a reasonable fee considering the cost of the property involved.