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1970. The only issues have been stuff the previous owners did, and it's all fairly cosmetic (knock on wood). It has aluminum wiring so we will have to have an electrician install any new lighting, and the master bath sewer pipe drains uphill slightly.
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1951. The plumbing was all redone before the previous owner put the house on the market. We do have a mix of knob-and-tube and Romex wiring, but we had an electrician check it out and he said it's all in good shape and doesn't need to be replaced. We've had a couple little issues (ancient garage door opener broke, a small part on the furnace had to be replaced) but overall we've been lucky...so far...
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1955, we have no major issues except our plumbing is pretty old and we had to get a small part of it replaced because of a bad clog. Our oil tank is also original, but so far no problems.
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Our house was built in 1910, we live in a downtown district of a suburb of Portland Ore. I would have an inspector that is very experienced with old homes be the one to look at it for you. I mirror other responders our biggest issues are poorly done work by people who had no business doing renovations. We are in the middle of remodeling 2 of our 3 bathrooms- if you want to check it out my IG is @murrayphotography. I expect to spend about 20% of the purchase price to renovate the house to my liking. So far we have had 1000 sq ft of carpet pulled and hardwoods finished, 2 bathroom renos, and cosmetic work painting and molding all upstairs. What I have left is a kitchen remodel (now on hold with our kind of surprise pregnancy) and the whole house needs to be painted. We have been here for 2 1/2 years. My husband fell in love with the house and I could not tell him no, I'm glad I listened to him, we are so happy here. Some plumbing and electric has been redone, but not all. The house is built very well, and it is so unique and has tons of charm. I recommend putting quite of money aside if possible. If it works with your budget do it! Ours is a showpiece and we are so happy.
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We just bought a house built in 1927. The last owner was a widow and she let a bit of stuff go. We have to replace the deck this summer. Eventually we'd like to renovate the kitchen and one bathroom. When we first moved in, we immediately had to upgrade some plumbing and get a new electrical box, about 6k in expenses. Not great but not terrible. I'd definitely set extra money aside when purchasing an older home. Despite the extra expenses, I absolutely love the charm and character of old homes. Plus, ours is very solidly built so I trust that with upkeep and proper renovations, it will be a good investment.
@Amurray: Beautiful home!!
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2006. Basically for the same reasons you're thinking - my DH works a ton and was terrified of buying a house that was more likely to need improvements in the near future.
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So glad I asked, these answers are so helpful. I'm glad most of you have only had positive experiences. Where I currently live, the majority of homes are less than 35 years old since that is when the area really grew. So difficult to switch housing markets.
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@queensbee, good call on the investment mention. In 2 1/2 years, our value has continued to rise. Although we plan on hanging on to the house for 10+ years, it feels like a solid investment that we could easily sell at any point. Our 1970s home that we still own and have renters in, I do not have the same confidence in its resale value.
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1976. No issues!
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@Amurray: gorgeous!!!
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Ours was built in 1930. We had electrical knob and tube and romex wiring replaced as part of our negotiations when purchasing the house. We will need to replace the furnace soon, but that isn't original!
I love the charm and history, even if it's a bit more work.
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@Amurray: beautiful home!
Ours is 1947. It's pretty solid but we have run into some plumbing and basement issues. Nothing too major though. We love older homes and hope to purchase our next house in the same neighborhood. The houses range from the 1880's-1950's.
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1868. It has its quirks, but for the most part it has held up really well (I mean REALLY well....it was abandoned and squatted in for a time in the 70s/80s). It still has its original floors, and mouldings, and the kitchen was replaced before we moved in. It's not my dream kitchen by any means, but it's perfectly functional and not ugly or anything (well...except for the wallpaper....so. much. wallpaper). Like others have mentioned, the only things wrong with the house are things that previous owners did themselves. The basement was always SO COLD....well....recently we found out the the old coal chute was sealed with literally just a piece of drywall. No insulation, nothing. Literally just a piece of drywall between the outside of the house and the inside.
The one big project that will have to be tackled at some point is the outside. The exterior is made of adobe & horsehair bricks, and they are really starting to deteriorate. We've talked with an antique brick restorer, and it is like $5-$10 PER BRICK to fix because he has to chisel each one out, flip it, and put it back. Not exactly an easy job. The other option would be to just stucco the outside, which would still be historically accurate. At any rate none of that is getting done anytime soon, so I've put it off for future me to worry about.
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We're currently living in a home built in 1983. The AC & water heater are relatively new (in the last few years). Everything has been great. Solid construction, no issues.
Before buying this house we rented a 1954 bungalow. Super cute, lots of character... money pit. It had some cosmetic upgrades (kitchen and baths), but everything else was just not good. I feel bad for our landlord. The electric really needs to be replaced, needs a new roof, needs new windows, etc. I used to want to buy a mid-century bungalow, but that changed my mind for sure.
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The original part of our house was built in the early 1900s. We completely renovated it 5 years ago though. Old houses are fun if you have DIY skills and a decent savings account.
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1890. I'm happy to answer any questions. We love our home! The bones are great and it was remodeled 2005-2009.
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1947. It has its pros and cons.
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Late 60s. We just bought it last fall but we have had no issues at all and the home inspector thought it was in excellent shape.
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1947. We haven't run into too many issues, other than things caused by the previous owner, who really thought he was handy (and he really really wasn't).
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1880s. It's an apartment.
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@bushelandapeck: wow!! How cool!
Ours was built in 1930 with the second floor added on in the 80s (according to neighbors). No major issues so far, but we haven't tackled any major renovations that involved knocking down walls or anything yet. Just updated both bathrooms and some other cosmetic stuff.
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2011, but our old house we just sold recently was built in 1982 and it had all sorts of problems. It was still rocking the original a/c unit, the house insulation was terrible so it got effing hot in the summer and flipping cold in the winter no matter how we adjusted the thermostat, the lining for house ducts had eroded away over time, windows were single pane which didn't help with the house insulation and condensation was building up, etc.
We started taking steps to rectify some of those issues but each one cost $$$ so we had to save up and tackle each project, then something else would break and we had to focus our attention and money on that instead of the original plan.
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1999
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1965. We just bought it and are moving in now, sooo... I'll let you know. Haha. The inspector seemed to think it is in pretty good shape. There have been some "renovations" that are getting pretty dated and horrible (pink sponge painting in the bathroom?!?!). But we are lucky that the previous 2 owners did MAJOR upgrades within the past 6 years: new roof, new AC, new water heater, new carpet upstairs new glass shower doors, new granite counters in kitchen.
I can tell some of the "old house" stuff we are going to have to fix eventually is going to be $$. For example, I think the windows are still original (we are in FL, so don't have to worry about heating). The inspector said they are really solid, but they are just old looking and that will be crazy expensive to replace. And the downstairs floor (terrazzo) needs some work which will be expensive, but it will be gorgeous once it's all fixed up.
I also think the washer/dryer are older than me
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I don't know exactly. Sometime in the 60s, which was a good era for houses in our area.
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1939. It is SOLID brick and has very good bones and tons of character. We have run across some minor electrical when replacing a fixture and the plumbing isn't great. If we didn't have a kid with another on the way, I would stay there forever (it's too small). I do love older houses.
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@MrsADS: What part of Flordia? We are going to be moving to the panhandle (FWB).
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2004.
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@rawrasaur south Florida. Like a 12 hour drive from the panhandle. LOL. I think up there, it is pretty much like the rest of the south (Georgia, Alabama, etc). South Florida is like a different country. I would MUCH rather live in the Panhandle!
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@MrsADS: Ahh, man I was hoping for some insight into the area
Yeah, everyone is always says oh you can just go to Disney anytime and I'm like...yeah... after a 10 hour drive.
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2001. We get most of the new home joys but not as many new home problems. So far in the 5 years here- garage door electics needed a repair, garbage disposal died, and fridge died. We had some storm damage from a huge thunderstorm, but that was the same for everywhere.
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1915. I loooove our house.
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1917. Aside from the small closets in the kids rooms, I love it!
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This is so surprising to me! Almost all of the homes where I live have been built within the last 30 years. We actually live in an "older" home, as it was built in the 80s. So interesting to hear about how different it is in other parts of the country.
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Ours was built in 1929 but was completely renovated before we moved in. We haven't had any issues so far in almost 2 years, but my husband also got a really thorough home inspection.
My previous house was built in 1974, and I never had any major issues with it either in the 6 years I lived there.
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2008
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@Mrs. Lion: haha! Yeah, it's definitely really different depending on where you are. Ours is 80's too and people around here consider that to be "newer"!
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2004. Older homes aren't our style.
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1997 and that's probably as old as we'll go... DH is terrified of poorly cared for older homes even though he's super handy!
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ours was built in 1934 and is solid as a rock. the only problems we ran into were those done by the previous owner. we knew we were in trouble when we found his "wiring 1-2-3" book when we moved in. we have since replaced all of the wiring and plumbing (more as a result of sandy-flooding than his shoddy work) and couldn't be happier with it.
where we live, its nice that it has a little more character than the cookie-cutter houses that have been springing up since the 80s - there are entire blocks that all have exactly the same house over and over
Yeah, everyone is always says oh you can just go to Disney anytime and I'm like...yeah... after a 10 hour drive.
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