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We are looking to buy a small single family or multi family home this summer. What would heating cost average on an older home in 1200-1400 square feet cost? Electricity? Oil? We plan on buy in the Lakes Region or up towards Conway. Thanks for your input!
It's very hard to generalize like that given that older houses here have variable amounts of insulation and heating sources, and there are also different electric suppliers in different towns. Ask the realtor for utility bills for the past 2 years on the houses you're interested in. That will be better information.
Best to read up on ice dams on roof. Many homes in NH are not properly ventilated in roofs. If any signs of water leaks from ceiling - this is quite expensive to repair.
Do check the basement as the perimeter drains around foundation can cause leaks.
I'd stay away from any home that showed signs of water in basement. Way too costly to fix once water ever gets in.
Then there are septic systems and well water to consider.
Thanks for your replies, I was thinking worst case scenario. I'm thinking we should probably just build. Then, we might avoid all those issues.
Well, it would also likely cost you MUCH more (on a per-square-foot basis) to build new than to buy old (or older) ... so if you're looking for cost savings, that's not the way.
Probably the cheapest heating source is natural gas, but most parts of NH don't have it. If you have a choice of several houses and some are in an area with natural gas while others aren't, I would go with the place(s) that have natural gas. (Alas, we have none in my area of the state.)
Electric heat is insanely expensive because NH's electric rates are very high. This past winter my oil furnace died in late January, but I wasn't too worried as it was my secondary source of heat anyway. Then in March my pellet insert (my main source of heat) died too. I had to use space heaters in several rooms until it got fixed. That took a week and a half, and my electric bill was >$150 more than usual.
Right now oil is relatively cheap (around $2/gallon where I live, even cheaper in some places in NH), but you never know ... a few years ago it got close to $4/gallon in the middle of winter. I had switched to pellets by that winter and I was very glad I did. But pellet prices are weird too -- e.g., even when oil went to about half its highest price in the past 5 years, pellets stayed the same or went UP. I'd bought a lot when they were cheaper, so I've done OK using them, but overall oil has been much cheaper this year.
Some people use propane for heat, but where I live, that is typically quite a bit more expensive than oil. I will be getting a propane heater to use as a back-up for when power goes out (which is very rare in my neighborhood), but I won't be using it very much.
Anyway, hope this helps! Good luck with your decision.
Building won't help you avoid water problems, whether basement or ice dams. That's because you don't know whether the builder did anything to reduce the risk in advance.
Ice dams result from a variety of conditions, some of which can be managed by proper roof design, such as metal panels on the bottom of the roof (which we have), minimal overhang (eves to some), roof pitch and so forth.
Build or buy? as others said, build is much more costly, and you still don't know what you'll get. And much new construction is loaded with defects, such as green framing lumber. Yet there can be advantages too, such as energy efficiency if you're willing to pay. At least with resale, you have an opportunity to discover problems in advance of purchase.
Dual heating sources are a must in my opinion. Oil-wood, oil-gas(propane),gas-wood, electric and all others.
The cost for heating in the winter depends on a lot of variables. Newer systems are a lot more efficient than older ones.We have oil forced air, augmented with a propane insert. With only 1100 or 1200 square feet our cost are very reasonable. It will take a while to figure out the best balance of usage. The combination of both makes our heating cost a lot lower than my neighbors. Good luck I hope this helps.
Building or buying
You will need time and money
It is expensive to build. The trade off is new everything.
it is expensive to buy and renovate. The trade off is new everything.
In my experience:
Septic plan/ new field
Roof
Kitchen
Auxiliary heating
plumbing
electrical work
new oil tank
It is a little nicer than we could have afforded to build.
It's very hard to generalize like that given that older houses here have variable amounts of insulation and heating sources, and there are also different electric suppliers in different towns. Ask the realtor for utility bills for the past 2 years on the houses you're interested in. That will be better information.
This. Get disclosures for the properties you are interested in. If you are serious about a property, have them dig deeper and gather more information for you.
Building won't help you avoid water problems, whether basement or ice dams. That's because you don't know whether the builder did anything to reduce the risk in advance.
If building, you really have to do your homework and read up about such. Then find a reputable builder. And many builders "sub" out much of the work. So ask about that. Who is actually doing the building.
The builder is not the excavator. So ask for triple the amount of perimeter drains. The concrete company does the foundation. Ask to speak with that person and find out what material and how the foundation is sealed - and who is responsible for the sealing of foundation.
There is much much more about building a new home. And that is why it is more expensive then purchasing a used home.
Read up on "spec" homes. For the most part a "spec" home was a home built by a contractor/builder to sell to anyone. These homes usually are constructed to the bare minimum of building codes. A custom built home is usually built for a specific customer and usually (not always) built better and with more amenities.
I have had a house that was built in the 1890's with a stone foundation - that never ever leaked. I have seen new homes with leaking foundations/basements.
Thanks for the info! We have bought and sold homes in many different areas, but never in the Northeast. So I will take any info I can get. We have bought both pre-owned homes and new. Like everyone said there are pros and cons to both. We bought our current home new and thank goodness it has a warranty!! We already had to have the foundation fixed. It was a pain, but at least we didn't have to pay for it.
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