Reply to Tell me about living in a historic (old) home

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Tell me about living in a historic (old) home "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The term historic house is almost meaningless, it just means anything above a certain age (let's assume anything built before the 1960). It can be a 18th century farmhouse, it can be a grand 1880s Queen Anne rowhouse, it can be a 1920s stone tudor or colonial, or a 1940 brick box.

What's important is how the house has been maintained over the years. Not every historic house is an estate sale. Not every house is a money pit. Many have been beautifully updated and are in better shape than any new build. I can walk into any older house and immediately know what kind of maintenance will be required and it comes down to how the house was built and the care it's had over the years. I understand not everyone is capable of doing this and I had the virtue of growing up in older houses in older neighborhoods and seen just about everything you can see in an older house. If there is a rule of thumb, the more expensive the neighborhood, the better shape the house will be in due to likely history of better remodels and maintenance (flip side is the higher expectations for the said updates).

If you are someone who breaks out in sweat at the notion of old lead paint and 1940s asbestos tiles, then old houses aren't for you. Even though entire generations grew up with lead paint and asbestos tiles and are just fine and dandy.

[/quote]

This is OP.  The house is designated my the state/municipality as a historic residence, hence the post title, but I understand your point.

My husband is worried about the money pit potential, but our current house was built in the 1940s - either before or since we bought, it’s had asbestos remediation, lead remediation, updated HVAC etc.  So I think understanding the long term history of the property will be key.

Thanks all for these helpful and thoughtful responses.  I am kind of already in love with it and we look later today. Have a good day [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics