questions to ask seller/realtor of house built in 1880s

[mfglickman]

[QUOTE=Manahmanah;8203095]
This one is a vacation residence so I may not get accurate energy bills. A an airflow audit is a fantastic idea.

It’s really strange, the house doesn’t at all look like it was built in the 1880s. It has vinyl crank windows and ugly vinyl siding and more modern wood floors, not the wide plank I would expect to see in a house of this age. This is all from pictures I haven’t seen it yet… will see this weekend. Either the pictures shown are of an expansion that happened in the 60s/70s (ish?) Or the house had a major renovation at that time.

There is ugly vinyl flooring stuck over wood… I have fixed this before already when someone put tarpaper over a beautiful wood floor. A lot of quality time with a blow torch and and a tile scraper, some patching and sanding we were back in business.

There are so many great suggestions already and thank you to everyone who took the time to drop in with some advice!! More tips are certainly welcome, this is my first home purchase. I’m no stranger to renovations though, I lived in a house that was constantly under renovations growing up and helped my brother restore his early 1900s house as well, so I do have a good idea of what I might be getting into…[/QUOTE]

I’ve owned 6 old houses, the youngest being 1910 and the oldest is our current one, 1758. I must say we have had much more trouble with the additions and “improvements” added by owners over the years (vinyl crank windows you mentioned, bad plumbing jobs etc.). The original structures did their settling in their first 25 years or so of existence and are largely going nowhere at this point. Floors sloping toward the central chimney? Generally normal and happened well over 100 years ago.

Best advice, hire an independent inspector. The realtor may have a sheet filled out by the homeowner to list any improvements they have done such as new furnace in 2011 etc. but for the most part this stuff is unknown, and a good inspector can help you figure out where there are issues and where things are perhaps old, but still very functional.

It’s great you have an electrician in the family. We have upgraded electrical services but never ripped out horsehair plaster walls (which I’m certain housed some knob and tube wires). We have replaced water access pipes that were lead (city water and the town paid for half). We have done new roofs, new kitchens, and refinished floors. We have covered small amounts of unstable lead paint and had damaged asbestos removed from two basements - do your research here because in most cases these things are not dangerous unless they are in poor condition or disturbed. We have added insulation, but refused to spray foam over the dry-laid foundation of our pre-Revolutionary home (beware the energy audit people who will rip the historic heart out of your home to “seal the envelope” - these houses were meant to breathe some; seal them up too tight and you may find yourself with more trouble than you expected - mold and CO come to mind).

Old houses are, well, old. They’re used and lived in and things won’t be showroom perfect. But they are a piece of history and if you care for them well they will be there for generations to come.

Around here (Northeast) we put in an offer to purchase contingent on an inspection, meaning if the inspection reveals anything that you’re not comfortable with, you can negotiate the price or walk away.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do!

[allpurpose]

All the advice you’ve gotten (especially mfglickman’s) is fabulous. I won’t reiterate what you already have read, but some other things to be aware of in an old house is EVERYTHING is out of plumb and there isn’t a straight line in the place. Windows won’t fit, pictures won’t hang right, the floor will dip and sway, the doors will hang high or scrape the floor, etc., etc., etc. Seems obvious, but when you’re trying to move in and set up your home, these details will bother you. Just know it’s part of the charm of owning your own antique home!

[Frog_Pond]

You’ve gotten great info, here – I have one, tiny experience to add.

I bought an old house last year – half of it is from the late 1700’s, the other half from 1920’s. It was a seasonal/weekend house for one woman for the last thirty years. We hired a great inspector, and learned a ton about the house from both him and the lovely seller. The one thing that all of our due diligence failed to capture was that the house, and all of its systems, had had very light use for a long time. When we moved in, we brought three adults, living here full time – not as retirees, but as people with jobs, who showered a lot, ran the dishwasher a lot, and so on. Things that had seemed ok started to break under the increased traffic. A few stair treads cracked, a showerhead fell off from corrosion, two solid oak doors cracked – yes, we ARE a herd of elephants, apparently! – and the bathroom sink faucets both crapped out.

So, even with a solid inspection and a seller and realtor who are good people, we still ended up doing more repairs than anticipated. Be careful about old, not-in-frequent-use homes – they may be more fragile than they first appear!

[HungarianHippo]

I’d ask what are zoning rules with regard to remodels-- what conditions will the county slap on the project? In my county, they require that a house be brought up to code if you’re doing any remodel. Makes a medium sized project a Big Project pretty quickly (meanswhile, two miles east of us, that county has much more permissive approach to old houses and building permits. Rule book has one entry: Just make shur its standin’.

Another old homeowner here. Meaning the house is old. (I am getting there too, but I digress.) Look closely at placement of outlets in the various rooms. People used to modern homes take for granted that there will be an outlet fairly close to whatever use they intend for that outlet. The wonders of electric codes.
So as you walk through and envision how you’d furnish the house and orient the rooms this or that way, be aware that you’re at the mercy of where the outlets are. Often there’s only one in a room. Yes you can add outlets but with old plaster walls, you’ll probably end up with external chase wiring to do it. None of this insurmountable, but you just have to accept there are compromises (that people who are used to living in square sheetrock boxes sometimes have a hard time making).

[Manahmanah]

I have to do some thinking on this one.

The septic straight up needs to be replaced per the realtor, a 35k job. The well pump is in the basement for some reason… I saw uninsulated pipes going into the crawlspsce. The house has been closed.up in the winter for over 20 years. I would seriously worry about those bursting in the winter. Laminate flooring over what appears.to be wide plank underneath but is seriously warped (like 2-3" dips) worse than I’ve ever seen before. I’m scared to see what is under the laminate. House is pretty big and has electric baseboard heating. FIL the electrician had to go out of town so couldn’t go with us but from what I see the wiring around the breaker box looks really amateur so god knows what it looks like behind walls.

It looks like it would need at least 100k worth of work, at least.

[AKB]

My daughter bought an 1890’s house 5 years ago and loves it. The previous owners had done a lot of updating, and the house did not look that old. The realtor got a wonderful home inspector who specializes in old homes. One piece of advice from him was that she should not expect to be able to remove any walls to enlarge the kitchen. The kitchen walls are made of logs and are very thick. If she were to cut into them, the structure of the house might be damaged.

The inspector made a list of repairs that needed to be done, and discussed approximate prices. My daughter knew that $30,000 would have to go into the house immediately, but then everything should be in good shape. The staircase from the kitchen to the bedrooms is very narrow, so furniture could not be moved in that way. The previous owners had put in an outdoor staircase, but it was in such bad shape that it was unsafe and needed immediate replacement. The barn was full of trash. The old silo was full of corn and rats. Otherwise, the place was in good shape with updated plumbing, electrical, 1 good heat pump (but another in need of replacement), and a new septic field. Think hard about your budget, and if it is worthwhile to buy a place that needs a lot of work.

[Romany]

Consider everything about the property that is unique and worth owning, such as the views, the location (convenient for your life), the surroundings, the land, barns, fencing, etc, then make a brutal budget for everything it needs: paint, windows, floors, walls, wiring, plumbing, kitchen, landscaping, well, septic, etc. Think about what has to be done right away, and what will need tacking in the next 2-10 years. Then balance what it needs with what it offers.

[clanter]

might want an environmental review done to see if there are any hidden EPA problems such as buried fuel oil tanks or disposed junk sites that contain hazarded materials.

We had friends who were able to back out of a ranch purchase after it was determined it was going cost about $100K to clean up several trash sites that contained hazardous material (discarded weed killer cans and chemicals)

[JanM]

Make sure when updates were done. It would not be a good thing to purchase a house, and then have to correct all of the previous updates. Electrical wiring, electrical boxes, plumbing, water and sewer lines, or septic systems can all be done to code at the time, and not be legal or safe now.