KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
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join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
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| reply to Waterbug
Re: Know when to run!
said by Waterbug  :said by horsemouth :You may want to ask your lawyer next time. The inspector did not "lie" in his report. He made statements that were open to interpretation. Unfortunately, we didn't read between the lines. I think he was smart enough to skirt legal liability. That's the thing about home inspectors. They aren't liable for anything. Max liability is the amount of the fee. So if you paid him $300 and he screwed up badly, congrats, you can get your $300 back.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
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1 edit | reply to nunya
xx) Home warranties aren't really worth a flip.
They sound good when the seller mentions the home has a warranty, but the reality is the Warranty companies make actually claiming against the warranty (especially if it's a big repair) a real PITA or flat out deny to pay the repairs.
xx.2) French drains and the like. Find out from the seller where they are. Where they go. AND IF THEY WORK! Oh and ask the seller where your main water shut off is. 
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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nunya
SEE ROCK CITY 475 MILES
Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
clubs:
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| reply to nunya
9) Broadband. If it is important to you, and you don't want to deal with satellite, make damn sure that BB service is available. Look at how many people come to this site and complain that they can't get Cable or DSL service at their new McMansion (which was Farmer Brown's back 40 six months ago). Check before you put that earnest money down. |
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bilbo4fun
Premium
join:2002-02-18
Camden, SC | reply to nunya
Check for nearby train tracks. Bought a nice place in the country. Closed on it and sitting on back deck heard the train. Never knew a train track was nearby. |
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ttiiggy
Premium
join:2001-03-27
| The trains don't bother me unless I am out that side of the house and an energetic engineer is laying on the horns.
I don't hardly notice them at all if I am in the house.
The tracks are ~600 away. Just get used to it. |
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i1me2ao
Premium
join:2001-03-03
TEXAS | till his ex wife moves in neighborhood.. |
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slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
Brook Park, OH
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to nunya
- Federal Pacific Stab-Lok breaker panels. They're bad news- do a Google search to find out why. If the home you're looking at has one of these, get it replaced. It's gotta go. Even if you are dead set on leaving it be, you might not be able to get replacement breakers. My dad's 1976 mobile home has one of these  .
- Knob-and-tube wiring. You might have trouble getting and/or keeping your homeowner's insurance if the home has any of this old-fashioned wiring anywhere. But at least K&T is copper  . K&T wiring usually has no ground conductor- surge protectors won't do their job properly if you get an electrical surge. K&T wiring is usually found in home built prior to the 60's (at least here in the Cleveland, OH area anyways).
- When looking at an older (pre-70's) home that has a breaker panel, open (or have an electrician or home inspector open) the breaker panel to make sure that the service wires coming in are rated for 100 amp service or better. I have an electrician coming out Tuesday to replace with 100 amp wires the 60 amp service wires going into my breaker panel. |
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slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
Brook Park, OH
·AT&T Midwest
1 edit | reply to bilbo4fun
said by bilbo4fun :Check for nearby train tracks. Bought a nice place in the country. Closed on it and sitting on back deck heard the train. Never knew a train track was nearby. I can deal with trains as long as they don't blow their horns. The last place I lived at was maybe only 200-300 feet from a busy railroad. Before my city implemented "quiet zones" (meaning that the engineer is not allowed to blow the horn when going through an area designated as a "quiet zone"), the train horn would drown out the TV sound when I left my front door open.
But the train noise wasn't too bad after the quiet zones went into effect earlier this year.
EDIT: Corrected grammar error. |
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JimmySask
join:2004-06-24
Regina, SK
1 edit | reply to nunya
Anything that looks like recent work, take a closer look. Our experiences in house hunting suggest that a lot of what we saw was done to cover something. For example - Fresh drywall in the basement, covering large cracks in a cinder block foundation, which were actually visible from outside. Example #2: Completely refinished basement. Paying attention while walking on the floor, I could find the cracks from the heaved concrete.
Walls bowed inward for any reason. Telltale sign to look closer at structure.
Check circuit breaker loading in key areas. For example - if you turn one off, how many plugs actually go out in the kitchen? We discovered after the fact that our fridge and all available kitchen plugs are on one circuit. Not happy about it, but thankfully will be an easy fix in my home. With the high draw devices in the kitchen, you could end up forever popping breakers.
Check your water pressure. Single shower on - happy? Now try running the kitchen sink, and a bathroom sink? Does the pressure drop drastically?
If it gets to the point of wanting to buy, more investigation is warranted. Take a page from Mike Holmes - check for permits for any recent work, to suggest if it was actually inspected.
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I do whatever my Rice Krispies tell me too.... |
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Loco
Premium
join:2002-11-09
So Cal | reply to nunya
R-U-N ! |
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xbell
@cgocable.net
| reply to nunya
said by nunya :9) Broadband. Good one. Several times when hooking up a second phone line for dial up customers advise they never would have bought if they knew broadband was not available. |
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scooper
join:2000-07-11
Youngsville, NC | +1 - Terrestrial broadband is my #2 priority (right after no HOA). Line of sight for DBS is fairly high for me as well. |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
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| reply to JimmySask
Can I get an Amen. This happened to me. Fresh drywall. Fresh paint in places. New Paneling. Drylock all over the floor.
It practically screams "covering up" now that I think about it. They were clever though. They put down rugs. They put computers and electronics in the basement, chairs, etc.
Can you say "staged". Because there's no way that stuff actually lived down there considering the way water runs in!
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs:
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| reply to quatrix
said by quatrix :My wife has been watching a lot of HGTV, and half the time when someone walks into a potential new home they say "oh, we definitely have to redo this carpet/tile/paint/whatever". When did everyone become so stuck-up and wasteful? so true. it's almost hilarious, especially when the conversation comes to "i like granite but not this granite. may have to replace" and the like.
it has to do with entitlement. people think they must have and deserve whatever it is they want. short-term thinking vs long term. now zoom out: credit crunch, housing bubble, debt crisis. |
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Zen6
@rr.com | True. |
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kieranmullen
Premium
join:2005-12-12
Portland, OR
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| reply to fcisler
If it was that bad why not just replace the carpet? Carpet is usually the first things to be replaced. When someone is selling a house they usually buy the cheap stuff that doesnt wear well. Also I never understood the concept of carpet in the eating areas and hallways.
We keep our carpets clean, take shoes off at front door (something my wife never did but my mother always taught us to do.) and plan to have it professionally cleaned every few years. After it is done for we will replace with hardwood floors.
said by fcisler
Filthy! My house was DISGUSTING! I happened to have several friends in damage restoration, though....but it was hell to clean. He said it was on his top 10 list of dirtiest carpets he's ever cleaned.
[/BQUOTE :--
KieranMullen »360oregon.com
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nevtxjustin
join:2006-04-18
Dallas, TX
| reply to xbell
said by xbell :10. Any sign that an electrician has attempted any of the communication wiring in the home.  Or any CAT5 cable spliced with wire nuts. |
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netboy34
join:2001-08-29
Kennesaw, GA
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by nevtxjustin :said by xbell :10. Any sign that an electrician has attempted any of the communication wiring in the home. Or any CAT5 cable spliced with wire nuts. And for that reason alone I redid all the communication wiring in my home. |
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MsTerra
Completely Ridiculous
Premium
join:2002-08-20
Cambridge, MA
| reply to bilbo4fun
said by bilbo4fun :Check for nearby train tracks. Bought a nice place in the country. Closed on it and sitting on back deck heard the train. Never knew a train track was nearby. The house I bought in June is maybe a quarter mile from a railroad crossing. I hear the train whistle at regular times daily, but it's far enough away that it's kind of a pleasant sound, and I like it.
That just goes to show how important the neighborhood is in the equation - and of course there's that expression that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, and location.
This is a really good thread, and I wish I had something I could add, but so far nothing has bitten us in the butt. When we were house-hunting, the main things we were looking out for were "flips" and recent work that might be covering up something. We were looking for an older home (the one we got is ~140 years old) and were prepared for the imperfections ("character") that come with this type of property.
IMHO, "what to run away from" is highly subjective. The important thing is to understand how your resources, aptitude and ambition match up with properties. A "run, don't walk" property to a busy professional might be a great deal for someone who's handy and enjoys working around the house. When we were looking, there was one place from which we literally ran - years of water damage from a leaky roof combined with generations of live-in vermin gave the third floor of a single-family on a decent-sized lot (bargain-priced at $419K) such a hideous stench that we knew it was not worth considering. We later learned that the property had garnered multiple bids above ask and finally sold for $480K cash.
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"Strive to change the world in such a way that there's no further need to be a dissident." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Read my blog! The Joy of Jello Project |
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xbell
@cgocable.net
| reply to nevtxjustin
said by nevtxjustin : Or any CAT5 cable spliced with wire nuts. While there are some good ones out there like the OP that is all too common.
Another hint is they like to split pairs to find the red/green in cat 3 or cat 5. |
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