Buying an old house regret

[Anonymous]

The first year after you buy a new build is spent getting warranty issues fixed. We had to get a leak in the bathroom fixed, our brand new microwave/convection oven repaired, a couple of missing window screens installed and a few other miscl things. Plus we had to do things like clear, sod and fence the backyard, put blinds on the windows, install closet organizers and shelf paper, put shelves in the garage...etc.

The older home we used to own had to be maintained but was in pretty good shape. We had redone bathrooms, kitchen, put on new roof/siding/windows, etc.

The joys of home ownership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
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.

I agree with OP. Avoid old houses if you can. Maintenance costs will eat all your savings. People always underestimate the cost of maintenance.
A friend of mine bought a house for $500k and sold it for $1.2M 20 years later. You would think that this is a $700k gain there.
Not so fast. They realized that they spent more than $300k to maintain and renovate this house over the years. Now you are looking at only $400k.
Buy a new house and you won't have that problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
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.

I agree with OP. Avoid old houses if you can. Maintenance costs will eat all your savings. People always underestimate the cost of maintenance.
A friend of mine bought a house for $500k and sold it for $1.2M 20 years later. You would think that this is a $700k gain there.
Not so fast. They realized that they spent more than $300k to maintain and renovate this house over the years. Now you are looking at only $400k.
Buy a new house and you won't have that problem.

People also spend 30k on a car and don’t see a dime of it back. A house is primarily consumption not an investment. As for your friends, they would have paid the 300k upfront if they had bought new.

[Anonymous]

I don't think OP is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New homes have a host of issues too. The grass isn't greener. As a colleague used to say to me, the grass is brown everywhere. I think you need a vacation.

Actually, the grass is greener. We bought a 5800 sq fr home from a reputable builder and it’s been awesome! The builder took care of any problems that popped up in the first year. All we had to do is hire a gardener, pool guy and cleaner. All the appliances are brand new and thus still under warranty if there is an issue.

Karma is coming for you soon.

As an FYI, you misunderstand the concept of karma. Karma is not revenge. Educate yourself about religious and spiritual concepts, even if they aren't your own.

Thank you, Your Holiness. (Or is that Your Holier-Than-Thou-Ness?)

You misunderstand the concept of Holier-Than-Thou. A holier-Than-Thou attitude would require a demonstrated moral superiority, for which the comment about misunderstanding karma does not have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
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.

I agree with OP. Avoid old houses if you can. Maintenance costs will eat all your savings. People always underestimate the cost of maintenance.
A friend of mine bought a house for $500k and sold it for $1.2M 20 years later. You would think that this is a $700k gain there.
Not so fast. They realized that they spent more than $300k to maintain and renovate this house over the years. Now you are looking at only $400k.
Buy a new house and you won't have that problem.

New houses also have plenty of maintenance issues. They don't come free either.

And plenty of variations in market factors affect old/new. Older houses closer into DC have outperformed newer houses in the outer suburbs when it comes to housing appreciations.

[Anonymous]

I will never buy an older house from before 1999. Everything before then is too old and I have to deal with repairs. No thank you.

[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 is nothing. A new build comes with nothing, no fence, no landscaping, not a drape or curtain or a bush or shrub. Above is lets see, fridge/oven big deal. Mold repair and patch roof around $100 bucks worth of materials and hubby can do one one weekend. A water heater is peanuts at home depot. Your are talking around 6k worth of work, meanwhile landscaping and fence on new construction could be 20K.

[Anonymous]

Newer homes have some issues too. Take Avenil. Wonderful community but trapped in early 1990s and a time bomb for new owner as everything major in a house has a 30-40 years life expectancy. New homes depreciate a lot as next owner does not get new home and next owner gets time bomb where 100 percent of house goes at once.

My 1975 house, has had kitchen and all five bathrooms redone since new and new windows and roof and new HVAC. All that work done since 2005. Prior owner did majority of work. I did windows and floors.

Which make my 1975 house a "newer" house then a house build in 2004.

Actually a much better house as 2004 house everything is turning 16 years old and next owner has a time bomb of repairs as builder grade crap at year 20 starts to fall apart

[Anonymous]

1954 here, I don't really like the style of my house but it's well built. Not a fan of new, cheap, fast construction.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else wonder what "old house" the OP refers to that doesn't already have wood floors?

Our house #1 = 1964 ranch with no wood floors (not an 'old house," merely old)

Our house #2 = 1919 dutch colonial with all original wood floors. Truly and old house

[Anonymous]

We've owned two homes - a 1960's split foyer and now a 3500+ sqft new build. We have had to put time and money into both of them. Maintenance is a part of home ownership.

If you don't want to deal with maintenance issues then you should rent and let the landlord take care of that stuff for you.

[Anonymous]

I bought a 100+ yr-old Tudor in a very nice DMV neighborhood that is a short walk to Metro and nice grocery stores, restaurants, and shops. The roof was only about 3 years old, the windows had been replaced with good quality double panes, bricks had been repointed. Unlike just about any new construction, I have brick on every side of my house. Not a inch of vinyl siding on it. I have lots of shade trees that are probably at least 50 years old, a gorgeous front and back yard with expensive hard-scaping and plantings. Large deck in very good condition. Huge driveway with new concrete that was done about 3 years before I bought the house. I have nice wooden privacy fencing all around my rear and side yard. Basketball hoop above the separate garage for the kids. Inside the garage are all those hooks and shelves for storage, so I didn't have to buy and install all of that. I have lights that run throughout the backyard deck and garden area just off the ground for that fancy landscape lighting effect. The fireplace had been converted to gas so I just click a remote control switch and I have a fire whenever I feel like it.

I bought a new range and dishwasher before the older ones gave out, and kept the new-ish stainless fridge. Gorgeous hardwood floors throughout the house (no gross cheap carpet in bedrooms) were freshly finished when I bought it. HVAC is only about 3 years old. Besides the two appliances I replaced, which actually weren't broken, I haven't done any other repairs in the 2+ years I've lived here. I did choose to paint some rooms since I felt all the neutral colors were boring. And I replaced several light fixtures to match my personal style. I just did those one at a time as I found the perfect ones. There was no rush since they weren't broken. My electric box was updated at some point so it's got capacity for all the modern electronics we use. Most of my closets already had ample cabinets and hooks installed for efficient storage and the bedrooms have nice wood built ins. Lots of my electric plugs have the USB chargers in them. The lights have dimmers and the outside porch lights all have those dawn to dusk sensors.

My house is almost sound proof. The brick, combined with plaster walls, is great insulation and keeps out noise. Besides the amazing location, there's the Wow! factor when people walk into my house and see the beautiful curved stair railing and the high end trims and solid wood doors. All the little details like those tiny windows with diamond shaped inserts, the real shutters, the wrought iron instead of cheap aluminum exterior railings, and the perfectly trimmed cherry and magnolia trees that took decades to mature are what make my house that has stood for over a century so appealing.

I don't believe that only 100+ yr-old Tudors are attractive. I once lived in an Eichler house in Palo Alto and I absolutely loved that sort of layout and the large windows. I think those were built in the 1970s. If I were to build a new house today, I'd have the architect use an Eichler as the starting point for my design. However, I don't think I'd build one here where the winters are so cold and the summers so hot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought a 100+ yr-old Tudor in a very nice DMV neighborhood that is a short walk to Metro and nice grocery stores, restaurants, and shops. The roof was only about 3 years old, the windows had been replaced with good quality double panes, bricks had been repointed. Unlike just about any new construction, I have brick on every side of my house. Not a inch of vinyl siding on it. I have lots of shade trees that are probably at least 50 years old, a gorgeous front and back yard with expensive hard-scaping and plantings. Large deck in very good condition. Huge driveway with new concrete that was done about 3 years before I bought the house. I have nice wooden privacy fencing all around my rear and side yard. Basketball hoop above the separate garage for the kids. Inside the garage are all those hooks and shelves for storage, so I didn't have to buy and install all of that. I have lights that run throughout the backyard deck and garden area just off the ground for that fancy landscape lighting effect. The fireplace had been converted to gas so I just click a remote control switch and I have a fire whenever I feel like it.

I bought a new range and dishwasher before the older ones gave out, and kept the new-ish stainless fridge. Gorgeous hardwood floors throughout the house (no gross cheap carpet in bedrooms) were freshly finished when I bought it. HVAC is only about 3 years old. Besides the two appliances I replaced, which actually weren't broken, I haven't done any other repairs in the 2+ years I've lived here. I did choose to paint some rooms since I felt all the neutral colors were boring. And I replaced several light fixtures to match my personal style. I just did those one at a time as I found the perfect ones. There was no rush since they weren't broken. My electric box was updated at some point so it's got capacity for all the modern electronics we use. Most of my closets already had ample cabinets and hooks installed for efficient storage and the bedrooms have nice wood built ins. Lots of my electric plugs have the USB chargers in them. The lights have dimmers and the outside porch lights all have those dawn to dusk sensors.

My house is almost sound proof. The brick, combined with plaster walls, is great insulation and keeps out noise. Besides the amazing location, there's the Wow! factor when people walk into my house and see the beautiful curved stair railing and the high end trims and solid wood doors. All the little details like those tiny windows with diamond shaped inserts, the real shutters, the wrought iron instead of cheap aluminum exterior railings, and the perfectly trimmed cherry and magnolia trees that took decades to mature are what make my house that has stood for over a century so appealing.

I don't believe that only 100+ yr-old Tudors are attractive. I once lived in an Eichler house in Palo Alto and I absolutely loved that sort of layout and the large windows. I think those were built in the 1970s. If I were to build a new house today, I'd have the architect use an Eichler as the starting point for my design. However, I don't think I'd build one here where the winters are so cold and the summers so hot.

I have all of that and more in my McCraftsman built in 2018, and it was all designed into the house. I also have sound dampening insulation in every room.

[Anonymous]

I've had the opposite experience with my 120-year-old home. It was well maintained by previous owners and various systems were updated over the years. We did have to invest in a few things when we first got the place like replacing old AC units or appliances, but that's mostly to be expected. Overall it's been a pleasure living here compared to the McCraftsman we had previously that had all kinds of problems because the builder had cut corners wherever possible. The old house though was built to last.