Purcasing a home - older or newer?? (condos, appliances)

[andreaspercheron]

Hi, (apparently I can't spell today, LOL the title is PURCHASING a home....)

There is a good possibility we will be moving down and as some of you know, I've been pretty active on this forum (and others within CD). I was always told by my architect friend to never buy a home newer than 10 years old. I have been reading ALL of the posts about foundations cracking, chinese drywall, etc...

If you are in FL and you are about to buy a home, which homes would you lean towards? Older than 10 years or newer?

I understand on the west side of GGE those are the older homes and I've found several that are very desirable. In the mix there were a couple that were built in 2005 / 2003 time frame.

Any thoughts, advice, comments? Thanks in advance!

[121804]

We are no longer in SWFL, but when we were living there & thinking of buying (which was just over 2 years ago)...we were completely for new. One of the biggest reason was due to the change in building codes over the past few years & the way roofing & struture can withstand a certain windspeed.

We also knew that a very forceful hurricane could destroy even the strongest of homes but that a more moderate home...well, the better built the home, the better its chances in not taking on major damage.

SWFL is the bulls eye of the housing crash. There is such an extreme inventory of new homes/condos that it would seem to make sense to look new.

Now, "new" could mean 2-5years. That's how I take new to mean. We live in the midwest, so old here is 50+ years while new is usually about 10 or younger. 10 years in SWFL terms is old.

I would stay clear of phased developments that are half completed. I would focus on completed developments with a good number of occupied homes. I would also look in newer communities.

One of the crazy things I noticed in SWFL was the mix of rundown homes next door to $500k homes. It seemed to be very prevalent.

I know that GGE has these types of areas. You just have to be very patient, very smart, and question EVERYTHING not once, not twice, but many times.

A good realtor would help, also.

If anything, time is on your side. With the economy in its current state, things are still not picking up that much.

But there are good deals out there & people are buying them.

Good luck.

[andreaspercheron]

Originally Posted by 121804

We are no longer in SWFL, but when we were living there & thinking of buying (which was just over 2 years ago)...we were completely for new. One of the biggest reason was due to the change in building codes over the past few years & the way roofing & struture can withstand a certain windspeed.

We also knew that a very forceful hurricane could destroy even the strongest of homes but that a more moderate home...well, the better built the home, the better its chances in not taking on major damage.

SWFL is the bulls eye of the housing crash. There is such an extreme inventory of new homes/condos that it would seem to make sense to look new.

Now, "new" could mean 2-5years. That's how I take new to mean. We live in the midwest, so old here is 50+ years while new is usually about 10 or younger. 10 years in SWFL terms is old.

I would stay clear of phased developments that are half completed. I would focus on completed developments with a good number of occupied homes. I would also look in newer communities.

One of the crazy things I noticed in SWFL was the mix of rundown homes next door to $500k homes. It seemed to be very prevalent.

I know that GGE has these types of areas. You just have to be very patient, very smart, and question EVERYTHING not once, not twice, but many times.

A good realtor would help, also.

If anything, time is on your side. With the economy in its current state, things are still not picking up that much.

But there are good deals out there & people are buying them.

Good luck.

Thanks for that. I appreciate it!

[Compression]

I think whatever you purchase, it needs to be inspected thouroughly. And frankly, with such a large outlay of capital, I might be inclined to have inspections done by at least two, maybe three different inspectors.

I've noticed that with marine surveyors(boat inspectors, if you will)they use the same disclaimer that home inspectors do. "This represents the inspectors opinion, and is true and complete to the best of their knowledge". Yet three different inspectors will find a few common problems, and many different others. The "inspection" is only as good as the eyes doing the inspecting, in other words.

New vs Old....well, I witnessed many new homes being built with glaring defects during the boom, speed was the primary concern at that time. OTOH, I rode out Hurricane Charley at a friend's house, that was six months old at the time. The eye wall passed about 9 miles to the northwest of us. We were in an area of the storm for a couple hours that experienced several 150mph+ wind gusts, and heard several tornadoes rattle past....His house didnt even have a shingle out of place after the storm. Several neighboring houses that were in the 5-10 year old range at the time had moderate to severe roof damage, soffit work needed, and some other things needed. The duplex I resided in at the time had all of the shingle stripped from the roof, but no structural damage, it was built in 1972, and was another eight miles further south from the eyewall.

I guess it may all have to do with the actual sub contractor doing certain parts of the construction, as well as codes, etc. In the end, the best anyone can do is have the home inspected, getting several opinions, and hope the home is never put to the ultimate test.
Storms aside, and IMHO, I think the better quality of home, built when the contractors had a bit more time to devote to their craft, and quality were those built in the '99-'03 range. Thats where you would benefit from the codes and a time when contractors were still competing a bit with each other to build a good product with a good reputation. By '03 it was getting to the point where the only competitive point to consider was who could get it built the fastest.

Interesting thing when I went to the post office this morning. There was a truck with a contractor's trailer parked out front.....the name of the business...."Competent contracting, Inc." The name speaks volumes as to what many around these parts think about contractors in general.....

[121804]

I wanted to add that with the new regs that contractors have to follow comes new financial issues for contractors.

One thing we noticed over & over & over WAY too many times was the absolute crappy work done on the interior/exterior of the homes in order to cut costs to pay for the more/better, etc material that was needed for the structure.

Do your research on the big builders down in the area. They contract, then subcontract then subcontract & so on.

If you've ever had to remodel or have a major repair in your home, you understand how you have to be there for everything. Well, you don't have the luxury with the big builders b/c so much was mass built & built VERY QUICKLY to meet the demand that never happened...

Yachtcare made an excellent point...invest in a few inspections. Do your research on the inspectors.

And the whole thing with punch lists & walk throughs in new homes...there is only so many flaws & so much cheap stuff (light fixtures/plumbing fixtures/laminate/windows/carpeting/appliances/garage doors) that I will tolerate. You may buy a "new" structure but have to spend $50k in updating or repairing all the cheap crap they put in it to get it to sell at the lowest price to the company. It may sound initially feasible to have to repaint all the beige walls, but that will cost money & take time. It all adds up. Very quickly.

Again, there is so much in the area that you will not be at lost in finding something new at a decent price.

The more research you do, the better off you will be.