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I live in an old house in Florida right now. Built in 1949. Copper wiring, etc. Never had a problem with it though. It's built great.
Have no fear of older homes, and I think I will get more house (and land) for my money if I buy older in Wake County.
Here's my question, and I know I'll get differing opinions on this...how old is old? In a lot of the posts, people talk about how older homes seem to be built better, but how much older are we talking? Early 90s? Mid 80s? 70s? On the same vein, how new does something have to be to be considered new or newer construction?
I know what you mean...I see people around here talk about houses built in the early 90s as "older" and I'm like, "If that's older, then my place built in 1940 must be positively prehistoric!" LOL
Personally, any house that's younger than *I* am, is not old.
Fortunately the Triangle has plenty of really great older homes to choose from, so I hope you find exactly what you're looking for.
I know what you mean...I see people around here talk about houses built in the early 90s as "older" and I'm like, "If that's older, then my place built in 1940 must be positively prehistoric!" LOL
Personally, any house that's younger than *I* am, is not old.
Fortunately the Triangle has plenty of really great older homes to choose from, so I hope you find exactly what you're looking for.
Thanks Rob. You're one of my favorite posters. I check the threads five days a week, typically more than once a day, and I always seem to agree with your advice/views.
Are there any areas that seem to have the most old real estate? I saw some great older houses in Garner and Clayton. I don't mind being 30 minutes from Raleigh if it means staying out of the "cookie cutter" zone.
My Dad lives in a little town in North Georgia. He's got 23 acres (of woods no less) and a pretty big house. Bought it back in the 80s. He's 45 minutes from the nearest decent sized city (Athens). At the time, I thought he was crazy. Now that I'm older, I think he's a genius (but I would never tell him that).
Are there any areas that seem to have the most old real estate? I saw some great older houses in Garner and Clayton. I don't mind being 30 minutes from Raleigh if it means staying out of the "cookie cutter" zone.
Well, actually, my experience here is that most of those older homes are actually in the cities themselves, although some small towns like Garner will have them in their older cores.
Whether you're talking a big city like Raleigh & Durham or a small town like Garner or Hillsborough, the easiest way to find the older homes is to find the very center of the downtown and work your ways outwards. The outer edges of any given city or town is most likely new neighborhoods, while the older centers are the historic and older neighborhoods.
I live in an old house in Florida right now. Built in 1949. Copper wiring, etc. Never had a problem with it though. It's built great.
Have no fear of older homes, and I think I will get more house (and land) for my money if I buy older in Wake County.
Here's my question, and I know I'll get differing opinions on this...how old is old? In a lot of the posts, people talk about how older homes seem to be built better, but how much older are we talking? Early 90s? Mid 80s? 70s? On the same vein, how new does something have to be to be considered new or newer construction?
I have to agree with raleighrob on this one people tend to believe that "older" means 1990, and those homes certainly do not have the excellent construction and interesting detail of what are truly older homes. Granted some of those homes may have uneven floors, but that is the appeal!
The triangle (except inside the beltline, chapel hill, carrboro, etc) is relatively new. There were only about 2000 residents in cary in the 1980's, so you are not going to find many older homes in that area. Search them out, and you can find them!!!!
I have found that people think that anything over 10 yrs old is old! Others think that homes from the 1980's and back are old. I have worked with people who only wanted homes built in the 1960's and we found them.
Unfortunately we do not have many old homes in the country with land. (I have a client looking just for that situation at this time and there are very few!) If you like the character of old(er) homes, you would be searching in town. Clayton has some good prices on older homes in town (1930's to 1950's). Garner has some nice smaller ranches from the 1960's. Fuquay Varina has older homes from 1940's to 1970's. So, depending on what your definition of old is, you might find what you want!
If you are in a position to spend over $300,000, you can buy some neat old homes actually in Raleigh. You might have to fix them up, but you can find them!
I live in an old house in Florida right now. Built in 1949. Copper wiring, etc. Never had a problem with it though. It's built great.
Have no fear of older homes, and I think I will get more house (and land) for my money if I buy older in Wake County.
Here's my question, and I know I'll get differing opinions on this...how old is old? In a lot of the posts, people talk about how older homes seem to be built better, but how much older are we talking? Early 90s? Mid 80s? 70s? On the same vein, how new does something have to be to be considered new or newer construction?
Copper wiring! You're living the high tech world, baby! 1949 is new to me. Old is cloth wiring and anything before 1930. I currently live in a 1916 Craftsman... but the cloth wiring fire hazard has been upgraded. Oh, the plumbing use to be on the outside of our house too. It's been moved inside.
It cracks me up that a house built in the early 90s in Raleigh is old. LOL!
I have to agree with what everyone is saying here. When researching the Raleigh area before our move for several months, I was surprised to find an "old" home could be built in 1990 or 1980!
The truly historical old homes are $$$$$, even some fixer-uppers. As much as I would LOVE to buy an "old" home ( & that's before 1940 for us!! ), they just don't exist in the target area we are looking (Cary/Apex). As mentioned above you'll only find large groups of them in only a few older cities/towns.
We have resigned to buying a new home in a "historical" looking sub or buying an "old" Cary/Apex house (which would probably end up being between 1960-1970) & doing major renovations--which we did on our last 1901 home. Right now we are leaning toward the latter, basically because of the larger lots.
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LOL
Oh, the plumbing use to be on the outside of our house too. 
