The Beltline and West End Property Values? (Atlanta: new home, neighborhood)

[Atlwarrior]

Still loving historic West End it will be two years in June. I'm so glad I did not move outside the perimeter and purchased a glorified cookie cutter and be stuck in traffic for two hours daily.

However if you purchase a home on the Westside, make sure the contractors pull the proper permits and do all the work throughly before closing.

[OuiOui]

This may be a silly question, but when buying an older home in West End or similar historic neighborhoods, is asbestos an issue? Is it something that is tested for during inspection?
I mention this because the building where I work contained asbestos for about 50 years. It was just removed last year as part of a major renovation/abatement.. I called it "The Purge".

Is this a valid concern to have when looking for historic homes in West End?

[Clayton white guy]

Correct me if I am wrong, but was not most of the housing stock in the West End built prior to asbestos being such a popular building product (1890's - 1920's)? I would think you would have more to fear from lead paint. Anyone know more?

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by OuiOui

This may be a silly question, but when buying an older home in West End or similar historic neighborhoods, is asbestos an issue? Is it something that is tested for during inspection?
I mention this because the building where I work contained asbestos for about 50 years. It was just removed last year as part of a major renovation/abatement.. I called it "The Purge".

Is this a valid concern to have when looking for historic homes in West End?

Most older homes in any neighborhood have asbestos containing material in them. This is coming from working in the housing and property management industry.

They do not test for asbestos during an inspection or lead based paint. You should just assume, unless it is disclosed that the home as been abated, that asbestos and lead are present in any older home.

Asbestos in and of itself is not dangerous unless it is disturbed. So if you are looking to do major renovations, then you should get it tested. You can send it off to a company out west to test for you at $30-$40 a sample. I had this done on my home in Ohio (house built in 1892) because I am scraping off some old textured from my walls and it will "disturb" the walls. Luckily no asbestos was in the samples. Asbestos is also usually found in old insulation and that would have to be tested and abated if ACM (asbestos containing material) is there.

If you are buying a completely renovated home, like they removed walls and floor materials (tiles are where asbestos is usually found and in some walls old drywall compound had asbestos ) then they more than likely had a test performed and had it removed by a certified company. But you never know for sure if corners were cut. As long as you don't disturb it though, then you shouldn't have a problem.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

Correct me if I am wrong, but was not most of the housing stock in the West End built prior to asbestos being such a popular building product (1890's - 1920's)? I would think you would have more to fear from lead paint. Anyone know more?

Many homes had renovations occur in the 50s, 60s, and 70s where ACM was put into the home, especially those old ugly 1970s era vinyl floors, many of them had asbestos containing material in the bonding agent. Also, insulation as I mentioned above is known to have asbestos along with texture compounds/mud and drywall mud in certain eras.

If the house was undisturbed and had no renovations in 100 years, then you don't have to worry about it, but every house has had something added within a 100 year period in most instances.

My Ohio house has about 3 layers of flooring material in the kitchen. We are planning a major kitchen rehab but to cut cost, I am just going to tile over the vinyl floors to contain the potential ACM. With lead, you can get home lead tests at Lowes or Home Depot but if you have painted baseboards and/or window sills you should expect there to be lead based paint, which IMO is more of a concern versus asbestos is you have kids. Lead can also affect fertility in adults and children older than 6.

[LynnHarris]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

I agree with this. I also lived in West End and am an AUC graduate. I rented a place in West End for about 3 years and I desperately wanted to buy in the area but unfortunately, our savings and situation to buy fell into place during the time where a lot of scam artist were in West End trying to make money off the housing boom prior to the crash in 2008-2009.

We ended up buying in the Vine City/English Avenue neighborhood due to them practically giving away houses (we got about $40K down payment assistance from the Atlanta Development Authority - now Invest Atlanta) to purchase in that neighborhood after trying to buy about 3 seperate homes in West End where banks and brokers and owners kept giving us the run around and trying to make us agree to terms (like saying we HAD to get a renovation loan package to buy a particular house) that we would not agree to. We actually had to switch mortgage officers 3 times because they were trying to steer us into bad/unwanted products. At that time, I had just left an 8 year career working in the banking industry (glad I got out before the crash) and luckily I am very knowledgeable about banking products and especially what is a good fit for me and my family and it was constant fighting in West End trying to get the houses we wanted. FWIW, we looked on Oak St, Lucille, and on Grady Pl and went through similar issues after hiring/firing different bankers. The bank who owned our home in English Avenue actually gave us $10K to fix up the house, which we got on top of the nearly $40K downpayment assistance because they had issues selling homes in that area and since we are from the Midwest where there are real gangs and my husband and I both grew up in sketchy areas, we decided to move over there as we aren't afraid of bad neighborhoods. I still wish we could have purchased in West End as it is my favorite Atlanta neighborhood, but we actually found that contrary to what people believe Vine City and English Ave actually have a good core group of involved residents and there was a great sense of community there and lots of ways to help improve the area.

Great post...thanks for sharing.

[OuiOui]

Wow, so glad I asked. Very informative posts, residinghere! This is definitely something I need to keep in mind, especially the lead paint issue, since I do have a little one and would like to have another child in a couple years.
I know some of the renovated homes in West End have been completely gutted, but I actually prefer the ones that have retained its original/historic character. Hopefully we can meet safely in the middle.

Again, thanks for the info! I'd rep you if I could, but CD hasn't allowed me to rep anyone at all lately..... :/

[residinghere2007]

Yes, lead is a much more serious contaminate IMO than asbestos. Most people don't develop any serious complications from asbestos as long as they have not worked in the construction or some mechanical fields where they handled asbestos containing material. It takes a LONG time to develop health complications from it and as long as it is left alone, you don't have a problem.

But lead is much more of a hazard due to the effects it can have on young children especially. That said, if you educate yourself, you can easily lower the risk of lead exposure and poisoning.

[Egatsby]

Long time lurker first time poster. I actually read a long thread about the westend in here before I made my purchase back in Feb. I bought a home on Oak so and I am very happy with my purchase. I love the neighborhood it has character. I got 20k from the city to move in and it appraised for 30k more than what I paid for it

[jsvh]

Sounds awesome Egatsby. That area has so much momentum starting to move its way.