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If you have house A and house B and house A needs a new roof it will sell for less than house B.
LOL! And you think I paid for what that house B price & not house A??? Maybe I paid for house C price???
Comparable data (hence I use & abuse Zillow & its sister sites to the max... and even most agents who wants to make that profit will not like me too much)... I beat that even of course. I did not came from a country that do hard core barter for nothing. Be it God's will, or luck... still consider myself... very very lucky indeed.
LOL! And you think I paid for what that house B price & not house A??? Maybe I paid for house C price???
Comparable data (hence I use & abuse Zillow & its sister sites to the max... and even most agents who wants to make that profit will not like me too much)... I beat that even of course. I did not came from a country that do hard core barter for nothing. Be it God's will, or luck... still consider myself... very very lucky indeed.
You aren't the only person who negotiated the price of your house.
True.
But I am not that "desperate" seller (who needs to move on) either who have everything paid off pre-80s & still be profiting from the deal.
Just that lucky 3rd buyer (who happens by his sweet spot of z art of lowballin') jump into that deal of the century when the other 2 gave the seller that runaround & drag too long to close b/c their finance is not in order, or being "wishy washy"....
BTW... even flippers (seen them work as my BIL is one) would have thought that a great deal.... even if only that location.
Hmm...this has the beginnings of a fighting thread. I adore older homes but one has to think about demographics. Some live in parts of the country that don't have stellar architecture. Or if they do, those older homes can be located in some pretty bad neighborhoods. I personally wouldn't want to worry about getting shot or robbed for the sake of saying, "I live in a quality built home from such and such time."
I have lived in 5 houses. The oldest house I owned was built in 1921. It was a charmer. Large moldings, plaster walls, hardwood floors and tons of character. It was by far the least comfortable home I ever lived in. The rooms were oddly shaped, nothing was "standard" so a small fix job ended up being extremely expensive. Remodeling had the same issues. Everything had to be custom made. Odd quirks like the "workers kitchen" was impossible to cook in. The cute slated roof bathroom where my 6 foot tall husband occasionally would crack his on while in the shower. Furniture placement was a nightmare because furniture of today is much larger. No matter how hard we tried we could never heat or cool the place properly. We had huge utility bills for a 800 sft house. Our home was built years before all the 1950 ranchers were built so our lot was lower than everyone else's. We had constant drainage issues in the yard. The vintage garage that was probably built not too long after the house, had no rat wall so we had plenty of critters moving in. When we finally realized the garage was no longer salvageable we tore it down to find a nest of rats under the concrete. We went to great lengths to restore the home to its original glory. When it was time to sell, the market fell and the neighborhood was really terrible. No one saw its charm because of the location.
The rest of the homes I owned were built between 1940-1950. These homes were cookie cutter in its day. Blocks and blocks of homes of similar layouts and construction. The only difference was over the years owners had changed some of the details to suit a growing family or personal taste. I had hardwood floors, plaster walls which were nice (unless you had to do something behind the walls). I do not miss galvanized plumbing. I don't miss having one bathroom either as most of these homes had one bath. It was the norm. I didn't mind these homes as each had their own character and style. My current home is about 16 yrs old now. Its by far my favorite home. Yes it has vinyl siding, only one room has hardwood floors and it does not have all the fine details of a home built in the 1800's. I am adding details as we go along. Even back when there were people that were rich and poor. A custom built home is going to have a lot more detail, charm and quality just like it would today.
My father a die hard that refused to leave the city of Detroit owned an amazing solid Four Square. This was a custom built home in its day. Room sizes were grand, 3 baths, formal living room, dining room, a kitchen to die for, amazing details such as marble in the entry, an inlaid wood design in the foyer, large open staircase...I could go on an on. He finally relented and moved after the neighborhood became too dangerous. After several calls to realtors only one finally came out. The house was valued around 8,000.
So in reality there are many variables regarding whether or not someone wants an older home.
End result of an investment... is that you want great returns from it.
If you aren't selling or cannot sell it for the profit... its still all moot point.
About the wallet.
I think that what you are forgetting is that the cheap stuff has already been replaced in the 50 year old houses. They were also built with cheap stuff but that cheap stuff is gone now because it didn't last 50 years. So they may appear to be built better than their contemporary counterparts, they are not.
Were they? I'm thinking about my mom's "very old" 1955 house; the only things she's replaced are usual stuff: furnace, water heater, faucets, etc. and maybe a screen door or two that got banged up from us kids. The house is rock solid and the plaster walls won't disintegrate should they get wet, unlike cheap drywall in modern homes.
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In my area building codes were substantially revised after Hurricane Andrew. I would not buy anything in south Florida built before 1996 because anything built before that is at substantial risk of blowing away in the next hurricane.
Good for you. I don't have to worry about hurricanes.
Were they? I'm thinking about my mom's "very old" 1955 house; the only things she's replaced are usual stuff: furnace, water heater, faucets, etc. and maybe a screen door or two that got banged up from us kids. The house is rock solid and the plaster walls won't disintegrate should they get wet, unlike cheap drywall in modern homes.
Good for you. I don't have to worry about hurricanes.
My parents old house was built in 1968. That makes it 44 years old. Your mother's house is 57 years old which is not 40-50 years old. I am specifically talking about 40-50 year old tract houses. They were NOT well built. In fact, they had significantly more problems than houses built after 2000.
Before they sold it the oil burner, roof, screens and windows had all been replaced. The house had come with cheap cedar shingles on the front and cheaper asbestos tiles on the sides/back. Those had been replaced long ago. The aluminum foil garage door that came with the house had been upgraded to a nice wood door. The kitchen and bathrooms, although small had been updated. If you looked at the house you would never have guessed it was the cheapest possible new house you could buy in 1968 because all the pieces had been upgraded. Not because my parents were wealthy, but because the house was such a piece of $%^@ that it had to be upgraded.
That house had aluminum wiring which was a hazard. It has been replaced. If you took a shower and someone flushed the toilet the person in the shower got scalded.
We lived in an old condo in CT that had plaster walls. I would never want a house with plaster walls ever again. The plaster was a PITA. Replacing a little bit of wet drywall is no big deal.
Lots of reasons but I think the major ones are location, condition of the house, and conveniences. Around here if you want a historic old house, you basically have two areas to choose from. One is a very, very nice neighborhood with huge, great old houses but they are out of the price range of the average person. The other area is run-down and has some crime and poverty and is pretty undesireable. So if those are not options, you're basically looking at cookie cutter from past decades, or you're looking at cookie cutter from 2012.
With the new house you get bigger rooms and modern conveniences and some years to save up money for major repairs. Most people aren't "old house snobs" and don't care about big wood moulding or plaster walls or original details so why put effort and money into the house? And it's generally easier to do your own repairs on modern stuff as it doesn't take specialized knowledge or custom parts to fix things. Just my opinion.
It's all about priorities, I guess. Some people care more about number and size of rooms. Others care more about finish/materials. And others care more about location. (and there are many other factors, as well)
If the number and size of rooms are important to you, you're probably unwilling to settle for something existing. If the quality of finish/materials are important to you, and you don't have the money to afford them in new construction, (imagine how expensive a real brick house, with a slate roof, and lots of hardwood woodwork would cost today!) you might be more willing to settle for a plan that isn't "perfect."
you might be more willing to settle for a plan that isn't "perfect."
No house is perfect!
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