My furnace is 40 years old and still going strong. We have a service contract on it so it's inspected 2x a year. We've owned the house for 8 years and it's never needed repair. We're in a very well insulated townhouse, so it doesn't get a ton of use. Our water heater was practically new when we bought and that died with an expensive flood. With a lot of these systems, you never know. Check comps. The seller likely factored it into the price and if not then bid a little lower in case you need repair.

Anonymous wrote:Use comps to guide your decision. A new roof and HVAC will set you back <30K.

this.
fair value is what ever price the seller is willing to accept and using comps are rational starting point... but not guaranteed.

When I bought two years ago (house with older roof and ancient HVAC) it was more of a buyer's market but those items still weren't taken into consideration when looking at comps. Nothing specific was found wrong at inspection so I wasn't able to ask for a lower price. But like a previous poster said abut their AC - my ancient HVAC is humming along just fine. I do have savings in case it blows though!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the time that is factored into the price of the house being older. For example, compare the price of any older home to that of a new one. New is about 1/3 more expensive, at least where I live (closer in) So you are already getting a price break b/c the home is "older" Then to ask for more of a price break for this or that will not go over well with Sellers. Usually the exception is the roof -- if it is very old. The inspection will always say HVAC is 10 years old -- replace it, but many people never do (nor do they get anything off the price for it)

Interesting perspective, I didn't think of it that way before in terms of old vs. new. I always assumed the new house prices were that way because they had better insulation, double paned windows, things like that. The part that makes it difficult for me is that some of the houses have newer systems and some don't. So, you could have two nearly identical houses side by side and one will have X thousand dollars of expenses in the next few years and the other won't and it's hard for me to rationalize that they should be priced the same. Again, this is mostly tract housing so each house really is very similar to the next.

In a seller's market, they will be priced similarly, but probably not in a buyer's market. Unfortunately, you are buying in a seller's market. Even so, you may be able to get some concessions at inspection, but only for things that require immediate attention.

Keep in mind, it's always a gamble. A well built older system might have fewer problems, even in the short run, than a cheap, new system.

Anonymous wrote:Most of the time that is factored into the price of the house being older. For example, compare the price of any older home to that of a new one. New is about 1/3 more expensive, at least where I live (closer in) So you are already getting a price break b/c the home is "older" Then to ask for more of a price break for this or that will not go over well with Sellers. Usually the exception is the roof -- if it is very old. The inspection will always say HVAC is 10 years old -- replace it, but many people never do (nor do they get anything off the price for it)

Interesting perspective, I didn't think of it that way before in terms of old vs. new. I always assumed the new house prices were that way because they had better insulation, double paned windows, things like that. The part that makes it difficult for me is that some of the houses have newer systems and some don't. So, you could have two nearly identical houses side by side and one will have X thousand dollars of expenses in the next few years and the other won't and it's hard for me to rationalize that they should be priced the same. Again, this is mostly tract housing so each house really is very similar to the next.

Not all shingles are created equal. Some last longer than others do. Also how many layers of shingles are on the roof impacts the longevity of the roof. So there is more to it than age.

Our own roof is a little over 10 years old but I would say that I would expect it to last at minimum of 10 more years because of the quality of shingle that we installed.

Most of the time that is factored into the price of the house being older. For example, compare the price of any older home to that of a new one. New is about 1/3 more expensive, at least where I live (closer in) So you are already getting a price break b/c the home is "older" Then to ask for more of a price break for this or that will not go over well with Sellers. Usually the exception is the roof -- if it is very old. The inspection will always say HVAC is 10 years old -- replace it, but many people never do (nor do they get anything off the price for it)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for the thoughts. Makes sense on the HVAC, still not sure on the roof. I mean, the only way you know the roof needs to be replaced other than age is when it leaks and by that point you've already got some damage no?

A roofing inspector can give you a pretty good idea of the roof's condition. A small leak doesn't cause lasting or expensive damage. I had one friend who had to replace her roof as part of an inspection when selling but it wasn't leaking. More common is the inspector pointing out small repairs on the roof or telling you it will need to be replaced within the next five years.

Generally, however, these types of costs are just part of owning a house and things you need to be prepared for. Unless something doesn't work at inspection, it will be your problem and some of your problems will be expensive. That's why some people stay renters.

Interesting, thank you. I'm looking at another house that mentions a new roof in 2012 in the listing. I was adding a little bit of value to the house for that but it seems I should not be doing so. It just seems odd to me because most of the housing I'm looking at is tract housing so it's very easy to compare one house to another. I guess if the market doesn't assign any value to these things I'm better off going with a house with newer systems so I won't have to worry about several high dollar expenses in the next few years.

Home warranty is an interesting idea although on other threads the common consensus seemed to be that these weren't a good value.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for the thoughts. Makes sense on the HVAC, still not sure on the roof. I mean, the only way you know the roof needs to be replaced other than age is when it leaks and by that point you've already got some damage no?

A roofing inspector can give you a pretty good idea of the roof's condition. A small leak doesn't cause lasting or expensive damage. I had one friend who had to replace her roof as part of an inspection when selling but it wasn't leaking. More common is the inspector pointing out small repairs on the roof or telling you it will need to be replaced within the next five years.

Generally, however, these types of costs are just part of owning a house and things you need to be prepared for. Unless something doesn't work at inspection, it will be your problem and some of your problems will be expensive. That's why some people stay renters.