Buying an old house regret

[Anonymous]

Also contractors love to rip off young couples first home with dual income and don’t know how to do repairs.

Literally when I listed house for sale the nonsense quotes I got for repairs. One young couple got a 20,000 quote on a so called roof and foundation issue. I called two guys and told them since house empty I was flipping It and needed a fix on a tight budget for cash. Guy threw out $3,700. Buy booked for three weeks. I ended up spending 20 hours on the weekend with $300 in materials did it myself only cause wanted to move house.

It passed inspection. So what was crack in foundation. I had oil heat, someone pulled the pipe where oil came into house and did bad patch job. I fixed that easy. Roof issue. Black tar around deck railings needed to be re tarred. Needed some new flashing nailing in and a part off gutter.

A older house is a money pit if you call contractors. My favorite I had water flood in kitchen. Insulation behind cabinets wet got a 32k estimate, rip out cabinets, pull Sheetrock, replace cabinets.

I then realized it is external wall and vinyl siding. I bought a five dollar tool removed siding, pulled off plywood. Then removed wet insulation, mold spayed. Let it dry out a bit. Put new insulation in and put back up board and siding. $100 bucks if insulation.

[Anonymous]

We live in a 2012 build house built by EYA. In the past 12 months we and our insurance has paid over $20k in repairs from (1) a leaking dishwasher damaging the floors under our kitchen and therefore nearly everything in the kitchen and room below it and (2) new a/c compressor and (3) leaks in the roof causing framing wood and drywall to mold.

All houses have problems and major costs of ownership are ubiquitous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid 1.5 for my older house, did some work, made updates and expanded slightly (but you would never know it) but kept the best of the classic parts and it’s been great to live in. My 4 kids love the space and the charm. AND someone just offered us $4 million for it! Old for me please - yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Woah! Did someone knock on your door, did they send a letter? Tell us how they made the offer!

A high end agent is a friend of a friend and noted they have a client who would kill for our house to our common friend. We were told and said, make an offer (mostly out of interest) and they did!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like many on here, we thought the 6,000 sft new build craftman were gaudy and too large, boy did I turn out to be wrong.

I just had our number two and my son is now 3 year old. Even with a nanny, DH and I are absolutely exhausted on the weekend from running repairs and meeting contractors for all sorts of work that needed to be done all over the place. We had our fridge and oven break over the course of the same month, our fridge installation had some issues because the waterlines were setup poorly in the house. Overtime, we found moldy spots in the carpeting and had to just live with it because putting hardwood floors is an investment we would never get our money back on. There were multiple leak on the roof that had to be patched. Our water heater had some issues despite being just 5 years old and our AC system had shorts, which we found was possibly due to the way the wiring is done in the house. If I had to do it all over again, I would just bite the costs and live in a new/new-ish build.

I am really on the verge of losing it even with a nanny. I feel like even having a full butler won't make up for the headache of owning these old homes. My husband tried to convince me to go for a new build but I wanted to budget some cushion for our retirement and vacation. Boy do I regret it now.

If you have young kids, i repeat, do not, ever buy an old house. You are better off renting in an apartment with repair on 24/7 standby or even a new townhouse. If you can stretch it, just buy a new build, the peace of mind of things working at least for the next 10 years is worth your sanity.

This post brought to you by your friendly local developer who builds crappy (not to mention, gaudy) new houses whose buyers end up bringing in decent tradespeople to fix all the junk the builder put in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like many on here, we thought the 6,000 sft new build craftman were gaudy and too large, boy did I turn out to be wrong.

I just had our number two and my son is now 3 year old. Even with a nanny, DH and I are absolutely exhausted on the weekend from running repairs and meeting contractors for all sorts of work that needed to be done all over the place. We had our fridge and oven break over the course of the same month, our fridge installation had some issues because the waterlines were setup poorly in the house. Overtime, we found moldy spots in the carpeting and had to just live with it because putting hardwood floors is an investment we would never get our money back on. There were multiple leak on the roof that had to be patched. Our water heater had some issues despite being just 5 years old and our AC system had shorts, which we found was possibly due to the way the wiring is done in the house. If I had to do it all over again, I would just bite the costs and live in a new/new-ish build.

I am really on the verge of losing it even with a nanny. I feel like even having a full butler won't make up for the headache of owning these old homes. My husband tried to convince me to go for a new build but I wanted to budget some cushion for our retirement and vacation. Boy do I regret it now.

If you have young kids, i repeat, do not, ever buy an old house. You are better off renting in an apartment with repair on 24/7 standby or even a new townhouse. If you can stretch it, just buy a new build, the peace of mind of things working at least for the next 10 years is worth your sanity.

NONE of these things have ANYTHING to do with being in an old house. If you were to say the foundation is cracked or the beams are sagging dramatically or something, then sure, but roofs, carpet, and systems are all things that get updated all the time.

[Anonymous]

We were lucky and bought our 5800 sq ft new house when the market was slow. It has more than doubled in value and we had very little to worry about for 15 years, a godsend because life was extremely busy otherwise. It is almost 20 years now and we are starting consider to replacing the HVAC (upper a/c only), pool heater, water heater, and will be painting the whole house. That’s really it, except for the usual pool and gardening maintenance. Buy from a reputable builder and you may also get a similar experience.

[Anonymous]

We’ve spent a lot on our 100 yr old home. Are there regrets....yes! However we love our location and we forget we have a fully furnished attic with two rooms. We are not rich and we are constantly upgrading... for example we had a $700 a month heating oil bill and our water heater just blew...so we spent $14k on a HE gas boiler that should pay for itself in 5 yrs. unfortunately we just put in 3 mini splits for the same price. Knowing what I know now, we would have gotten central air/heat for the same price. Today, the roof is leaking and we need a re-pipe. We don’t expect to get our money back, but we are comfortable. My last house I upgraded so much that everything was new when we sold and I took a loss. The same will happen, but I consider this place home...so yeah I’m going under the crawl space this weekend to insulate the floors....yeah I’m doing repairs all the time, but I’ll hit a point where these old bones will have new clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is probably a grass is greener. And after you’ve lived on one patch of grass for a while, you’re just in the mood for the different grass. We’ve lived in a 1920s row house for 18 years and are selling and moving to a 2006 cookie cutter new(ish) build. I know I will miss the beautiful solid wood doors, the heavy brass door knobs, the lovely woodwork, and the thick brick walls. But I will be happy if I never again have to hear “you’re going to have to have that custom-made because that isn’t a standard size”. We just had a washing machine returned to Lowes because it wouldn’t fit in our basement door.

We are old house people, or so I thought – history buffs, costume fans, and so on. But I’m getting old and cranky and I just want things to work and be straightforward, or at least be readily repairable if they don’t work. Old houses are wonderful but they are complex relationship and I’m going to be happy for a change for a while. Won’t be surprised if someday we retire to an older building, but right now, I’m going to delight in our soulless new construction. I hope the next owner will delight in all of the nice details that I enjoyed for so long.

We did something similar only to find out the 15 to 20 year mark is when many systems need to be replaced—hvac, roof, appliances, floors need to be redone, etc. . . But you won’t need custom replacements.

PP here — good point! AC and floors are brand new, but furnace, roof, and appliances will need replacing some day. But that stuff is all straightforward and there is nothing challenging about putting it into a recent build. Every single thing we’ve had to do to our current old house was non-standard in someway that ended up being more expensive. And I’m not scared of replacing an asphalt roof after staring down the barrel of major repairs on a slate roof...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also contractors love to rip off young couples first home with dual income and don’t know how to do repairs.

Literally when I listed house for sale the nonsense quotes I got for repairs. One young couple got a 20,000 quote on a so called roof and foundation issue. I called two guys and told them since house empty I was flipping It and needed a fix on a tight budget for cash. Guy threw out $3,700. Buy booked for three weeks. I ended up spending 20 hours on the weekend with $300 in materials did it myself only cause wanted to move house.

It passed inspection. So what was crack in foundation. I had oil heat, someone pulled the pipe where oil came into house and did bad patch job. I fixed that easy. Roof issue. Black tar around deck railings needed to be re tarred. Needed some new flashing nailing in and a part off gutter.

A older house is a money pit if you call contractors. My favorite I had water flood in kitchen. Insulation behind cabinets wet got a 32k estimate, rip out cabinets, pull Sheetrock, replace cabinets.

I then realized it is external wall and vinyl siding. I bought a five dollar tool removed siding, pulled off plywood. Then removed wet insulation, mold spayed. Let it dry out a bit. Put new insulation in and put back up board and siding. $100 bucks if insulation.

The difference here is that you understand how a house is constructed. You venture out of the lightbulb and xmas aisles at Home Depot. Most young home owners do not know that you can buy compound to patch foundation, that you can buy waterproofing, what the flashing does or how it is secured to the roof. Fixing the insulation from the outside makes perfect sense if you understand your home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also contractors love to rip off young couples first home with dual income and don’t know how to do repairs.

Literally when I listed house for sale the nonsense quotes I got for repairs. One young couple got a 20,000 quote on a so called roof and foundation issue. I called two guys and told them since house empty I was flipping It and needed a fix on a tight budget for cash. Guy threw out $3,700. Buy booked for three weeks. I ended up spending 20 hours on the weekend with $300 in materials did it myself only cause wanted to move house.

It passed inspection. So what was crack in foundation. I had oil heat, someone pulled the pipe where oil came into house and did bad patch job. I fixed that easy. Roof issue. Black tar around deck railings needed to be re tarred. Needed some new flashing nailing in and a part off gutter.

A older house is a money pit if you call contractors. My favorite I had water flood in kitchen. Insulation behind cabinets wet got a 32k estimate, rip out cabinets, pull Sheetrock, replace cabinets.

I then realized it is external wall and vinyl siding. I bought a five dollar tool removed siding, pulled off plywood. Then removed wet insulation, mold spayed. Let it dry out a bit. Put new insulation in and put back up board and siding. $100 bucks if insulation.

The difference here is that you understand how a house is constructed. You venture out of the lightbulb and xmas aisles at Home Depot. Most young home owners do not know that you can buy compound to patch foundation, that you can buy waterproofing, what the flashing does or how it is secured to the roof. Fixing the insulation from the outside makes perfect sense if you understand your home.

This isn't just about knowing how your house is constructed, and being familiar with home depot. Most people simply don't have the time to do all the necessary work. It's easy to do a couple projects where you can get your hands on the supplies and tools. I spend almost every weekend working on my house. But I still need multiple contractors to take on larger projects like ductwork, HVAC, floors, windows, exterior painting, etc.

[Anonymous]

My house is 100+ years old. I have made friends with some of the residents of new builds in the neighborhood. They have all had problems, some way worse than what we and other neighbors on the old homes have. The dangerous drywall from China that gets black mold was the biggest health scare for them. A lot of other stuff is getting damaged because the building materials just weren't as good.

Op, I think the problem is that home ownership is expensive.

[Anonymous]

Regarding newer houses, my parents built their house in the early 1980s and throughout the 18 years I lived there, there was almost no maintenance required. Even the stained siding only required a single staining about 14 years in.

I'm not aware of any other maintenance items. We never had a plumber or electrician in the house.

[Anonymous]

We bought an older house. We knew it needed some TLC and were happy to do it and have those items new. We painted (inside and out), new roof, new tile in the kitchen, new drywall in the master bedroom ,new deck, and replaced driveway. I think our home looks and feels nicer than a new build

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like many on here, we thought the 6,000 sft new build craftman were gaudy and too large, boy did I turn out to be wrong.

I just had our number two and my son is now 3 year old. Even with a nanny, DH and I are absolutely exhausted on the weekend from running repairs and meeting contractors for all sorts of work that needed to be done all over the place. We had our fridge and oven break over the course of the same month, our fridge installation had some issues because the waterlines were setup poorly in the house. Overtime, we found moldy spots in the carpeting and had to just live with it because putting hardwood floors is an investment we would never get our money back on. There were multiple leak on the roof that had to be patched. Our water heater had some issues despite being just 5 years old and our AC system had shorts, which we found was possibly due to the way the wiring is done in the house. If I had to do it all over again, I would just bite the costs and live in a new/new-ish build.

I am really on the verge of losing it even with a nanny. I feel like even having a full butler won't make up for the headache of owning these old homes. My husband tried to convince me to go for a new build but I wanted to budget some cushion for our retirement and vacation. Boy do I regret it now.

If you have young kids, i repeat, do not, ever buy an old house. You are better off renting in an apartment with repair on 24/7 standby or even a new townhouse. If you can stretch it, just buy a new build, the peace of mind of things working at least for the next 10 years is worth your sanity.

None of this relates to the house. My house was way worse of a fixer upper. Difference is I have no Nanny, my wife is stay at home which helps with the contractors schedules and I am handy and do most repairs myself. I bought my fixer upper when wife was nine months pregant and she had another one 21 months later.

Work you described above for me would be something done very easily, call Lowes get new water heater, Fridge and oven. Pull carpet up over some beers, spray mold and order new carpet, hop on roof with some black tar and old paint brush.

My house had alluminum wiring, foundation issues, main electric line issues, flooding issues, mold, needed new kitchen and two new bathrooms, new front and rear doors and all new paint and a new roof. Was easy in sense I had no money at the time. I fixed what I could on weekends. I painted whole house on a Pizza/Beer party with relatives and friends over. Trouble with a two income family with a Nanny no one wants to help you.

The old home was great as it allowed my wife to stay home as it was cheaper. I sold the home and some shit just never got fixed. My rotted out rear porch is still rotted out. My flat roof still leaks sometimes, my lights flash if too much plugged in. The siding still looks like 1989. Someone bought it and they will fix what they can and pass it on. New construction was around 160K more than house I sold. Buyer will throw 10-15k patch it up and enjoy his 10-15 years. Just chill, or even better fire Nanny and stay home. You have a cheap house why work.

I’d like to hear your wife’s version of the story. I’m guessing if she was watching the kids all during the week while you worked, and all during the weekend while you had a few and played on house projects, and there was always something that needed to be worked on on the house, and it was never done - she might have a different perspective.

I’m also curious why you moved from that house if it was so great and what kind of house you moved to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like many on here, we thought the 6,000 sft new build craftman were gaudy and too large, boy did I turn out to be wrong.

I just had our number two and my son is now 3 year old. Even with a nanny, DH and I are absolutely exhausted on the weekend from running repairs and meeting contractors for all sorts of work that needed to be done all over the place. We had our fridge and oven break over the course of the same month, our fridge installation had some issues because the waterlines were setup poorly in the house. Overtime, we found moldy spots in the carpeting and had to just live with it because putting hardwood floors is an investment we would never get our money back on. There were multiple leak on the roof that had to be patched. Our water heater had some issues despite being just 5 years old and our AC system had shorts, which we found was possibly due to the way the wiring is done in the house. If I had to do it all over again, I would just bite the costs and live in a new/new-ish build.

I am really on the verge of losing it even with a nanny. I feel like even having a full butler won't make up for the headache of owning these old homes. My husband tried to convince me to go for a new build but I wanted to budget some cushion for our retirement and vacation. Boy do I regret it now.

If you have young kids, i repeat, do not, ever buy an old house. You are better off renting in an apartment with repair on 24/7 standby or even a new townhouse. If you can stretch it, just buy a new build, the peace of mind of things working at least for the next 10 years is worth your sanity.

None of this relates to the house. My house was way worse of a fixer upper. Difference is I have no Nanny, my wife is stay at home which helps with the contractors schedules and I am handy and do most repairs myself. I bought my fixer upper when wife was nine months pregant and she had another one 21 months later.

Work you described above for me would be something done very easily, call Lowes get new water heater, Fridge and oven. Pull carpet up over some beers, spray mold and order new carpet, hop on roof with some black tar and old paint brush.

My house had alluminum wiring, foundation issues, main electric line issues, flooding issues, mold, needed new kitchen and two new bathrooms, new front and rear doors and all new paint and a new roof. Was easy in sense I had no money at the time. I fixed what I could on weekends. I painted whole house on a Pizza/Beer party with relatives and friends over. Trouble with a two income family with a Nanny no one wants to help you.

The old home was great as it allowed my wife to stay home as it was cheaper. I sold the home and some shit just never got fixed. My rotted out rear porch is still rotted out. My flat roof still leaks sometimes, my lights flash if too much plugged in. The siding still looks like 1989. Someone bought it and they will fix what they can and pass it on. New construction was around 160K more than house I sold. Buyer will throw 10-15k patch it up and enjoy his 10-15 years. Just chill, or even better fire Nanny and stay home. You have a cheap house why work.

I’d like to hear your wife’s version of the story. I’m guessing if she was watching the kids all during the week while you worked, and all during the weekend while you had a few and played on house projects, and there was always something that needed to be worked on on the house, and it was never done - she might have a different perspective.

I’m also curious why you moved from that house if it was so great and what kind of house you moved to.

My wife was one who wanted a fixer upper in a second tier neighborhood. She did not want to work after baby was born. I am not a home improvement nut. I am a git it done quick and cheap guy. I grew up fixing things on a budget with almost no tools.

My wife managed big stuff, new fence, new driveway. New kitchen and new bathroom over the life of house.

My I am handiman, painter, minor electrical and plumber. And no I did not leave out kids. I recall a trip Lowe’s get a new vanity and facet kids room, took kids and wife. Had lunch I shoved that sucker in Sunday morning.

I was a plumbers assistant and part time house painter in HS. I have zero artistic skills. I once had a first birthday party kids with 40 people in house and my electric panel had issue. I ran to Ace pulled power, took apart box found the issue with defective breaker, replaced and put box together. Like ten minutes. Did I do a root cause analysts? No. I am not putter person.

Plus when I sold home 20 years later by doing stuff over time everything in house was fairly new. Heck I did a foundation repair with my car jack and pressure treated lumber and a brace. That was funny as did it so quick I returned some extra wood and guy at lumber yard said I did it fastest ever even quicker the pros. I go really. Yep he goes they would not stick their head on a crawl space and start jacking that quick do you know how much a kitchen extension weighs?