At what age is a house most likely to become a "money pit"?

[KurtNYC]

I was watching a video on home inspections and it got me thinking that virtually no house should go up in value unless the owner has maintained it 100% or added something (yet most home owners assume that their house value is, or should, be going up).

It seems like the older a house gets the more likely it is to start ringing up major repair bills -- roof, foundation, mold. Little issues can become major -- a small crack lets in water, over time the water does the damage.

In my area there are a lot of homes from the 1800s. In some cases if you buy one and it is a total turkey you may not be allowed to tear it down. It may be landmarked and repairs may cost more than the house is going to be worth after the repairs.

But I am wondering if anyone has experiences with houses from the 1950s, 1970s, etc where the house just isn't worth the cost of repairs and if so, was it deferred maintenance (repairs not done timely) or original flaws (cheap materials, shoddy construction) that ultimately lead to the money pit?

[liberal N proud]

1. The minute you sign the mortgage papers

There are always things to fix or upgrade.

From the day you get the keys, you start pouring money in, it usually begins with paint and escalates from there.

[onehandle]

2. We considered buying a house that was over 100 years old a few years ago.

Looked great. Maintained and upgraded.

Then we got it inspected. The inspector came by our home to drop off the report.

His first words to me at the door were, 'Run away...'

[magical thyme]

3. houses go up in value in part because money declines in value...

due to specific monetary policies based on the premise on ongoing growth. The Feds continuously increase the money supply through lending to enable growth, which can be paid back with interest only because of the ongoing increase in the money supply. Or something along those lines.

Houses also go up in value because as resources become more scarce, new houses become more expensive to build.

Antiques can be great buys because they were built better than modern tract houses. Note the phrase "can be" because not all were built as well.

My 150+ year old house sits on a fieldstone foundation that doesn't flood and that may well still be in place in another 150 years. It looks scary sometimes in extra cold winters, when the frost heaves cause the walls to bend, but by summer the walls are back in place. The hand-hewn beams in the basement are in fine condition. Eventually it will need a new roof...that will the big expense here. Hopefully I'll be gone by then.

With climate change, we are now getting massive, monsoon-type rains. During the absolute worst downpour to date (15" in 24 hours) I found tiny stream of water coming in the front of the basement. It wended its way around the tops of a couple boulders and exited out the back of the basement. IOW, the basement was specifically designed to allow water to run through and out the back.

[KurtNYC]

6. I am concerned about the new normal -- heavy rains and hurricane remnants

since many houses in this area weren't built for that or may be in flood plains.

Nice to know that some houses stand the test of time, and I love fieldstone anything -- fireplaces, walls, foundations.

[haele]

9. ^^^Here^^^ It all depends on the builder,

the foundations and the materials.

in 1995, I bought a built in 1986 "pre-owned" California ranch style house that had been built and lived in by the original owner - a small construction contractor company VP - who had originally planned to keep the house "forever", but six kids, including two sets of twins sort of made the house too small. One would think that meant the house would be well-built, unlike a cookie-cutter "thrown up in three months" tract house, right?
Okay, I bought it knowing about the electrical problems - overloaded circuits, poor junction box installation - the wiring was just "thrown in there". This was the one thing I knew about up front with my inspection, and I accepted that because I was a marine electrician, could easily see the problem and knew how to fix it. (Got them to knock the price down 2K so I could fix it myself to code). While the drywall, paint, flooring, cabinents, and siding job was nice, no obvious leaks or mold, and the shingling on the roof was still good for another ten years or so, but oye...there were some underlying serious problems with that house that still needed to be attended to when I sold it seven years later.
See, unfortuantly for me, the guy was also a tweeker, who built the house with his tweeker buddies. It looked really, really good during a two hour inspection.
I think they built it on the cheap from leftover materials off their sites. Green/untreated wood in the framing that began to rot after a particularly wet year. Plywood for the roof was really siding plywood; not sufficient for the roof load. Hidden cracks in the slab under the carpeting; floor wasn't quite level in some places, which didn't seem bad in the first place, but should have been a warning sign.
Plumbing - oye, some of the fittings didn't exactly fit (and those were all behind the wallboard), and there wasthe wrong type of glue was used in the PVC plumbing in the 3/4 bath (which burst in several places three years after I bought it - including under the slab, of course), wrong type main pipe from the street meter to the house with insufficient gradeing and fill (which burst five years after I bought it because next-door had some heavy equipment in as part of his remodel).
Lots of problems found after the fact, but I'm pretty sure that even Mike Holmes would not have found some of the issues on a regular inspection until they started to go wrong.
I am somwhat knowlegable about what makes a sturdy house in a perephery manner (Dad used to do his own home repairs, so we had a bunch of second-hand building code books around the house), and we were able to maintain a 75 year old 2-story simple frame house with full basement up in Seattle with very little expense while I was growing up.

In short, it cost far more to make the structural fixes on that 1985 ranch-style house than it did for us to upgrade and maintain the 1911 house, no matter what the dollar valuation difference between two/three decades were.

Rule of thumb - do your homework and get an idea of common problems with the style and era of house you are thinking of buying. Figure out what you can fix and what you can live with beforehand. Get a good inspection, with the issues identified, price them out, and figure you're probably going to have an additional 25% - 40% more in additional costs to fix problems couldn't be caught in a non-destructive buyer's inspection. Don't assume that a "well-maintained" house was maintained, or that a new house won't have many problems.

And don't get fooled with "how nice it looks"; you're probably going to be fixing/replacing the cosmetics (flooring, cabinents, fixtures, paint) within 5/10 years anyway. It's the bones you need to be looking at.

Haele

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. The best answer is, it varies.

Victorians are well known for their high maintenance cost. This is often due the higher preponderance of natural wood used in exterior trim, finish and decorative features. Many owners also have an affinity for authentic materials rather than newer materials that demand little or no maintaining.

Brick structures are limited to having the bricks pointed which is needed less often that exterior paint on natural wood. This exercise may be more costly than painting and requires additional skills.

Frame structures with vinyl siding and newer materials are probably lower overall in required exterior maintenance. Maybe an occasional power washing.

Interior upkeep often depends on the how heavy the property is used. (Family size, pets...)

Any RE agent will tell you the first factor in value is location. Location determines the basic demand for and supply of houses. The other factors of size, bedrooms, features and condition determine the rest and will affect the percentage of buyers interested and the time it spends on the market.

All of this can go out the window if construction defects are found. Termite damage, cheap materials or a sinkhole on the property can render a house worthless or less.

[KurtNYC]

7. One house I am looking at is old, has been added to and may be in questionable condition

but the location is great -- a 6 acre farm but walkable into a small town with a revived main street, and, depending on your definition of walkable, you could walk to the Hudson River also (about 2 miles).

3000 Square feet of house but it was built around 1800 and then added to. This house fixed or a new one on this property would take the value up 2 or 3 fold but I am NOT the guy to get it there. I don't have the money and/or I am not a contractor. Mostly I am looking for small farm in this area because I want to work the land. My best candidate would be something similar to this 6 acre deal but with a house of about 1200 SF or so. I just don't want to be on the hook to heat and maintain 3000 SF.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

10. What are your constraints?

Hudson Valley is rather competitive. East or West of the river? Does distance from the City matter? How many acres do you really need? Are you looking specifically for an older house?

[KurtNYC]

13. I want 2 to 10 acres, preferrably soil that could get certified for organic veg

Budget is around $200K. House can be anything that doesn't need $100K poured in right away. I have a separate budget for the farming and will need more gear (small Kubota, fencing, etc) and soil amendments. I am shopping east of the river and 95 miles north of NYC but open to the right farm nearly anywhere since I can take my regular income with me. I may need to find an old dairy farm since the apple orchards tend to be loaded with arsenic and lead.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

14. PMing with a few thoughts

Best of luck.

[sammytko]

19. It helps if you have some skills

My other half is great with electric and plumbing. His father was an electrician.

I was in the Air Force and worked on projects that involved installing comm equipment. Ran electric, used all sorts of power tools.

Best to stay with something smaller and in good condition. Save your money for repairs. Something always goes wrong. Might not be a house defect, but something like a tree falling on your house.

Make sure you have good insurance and maybe even a warranty.

[KurtNYC]

20. I take that to heart as good advice

"Best to stay with something smaller and in good condition. Save your money for repairs. Something always goes wrong. "

[hack89]

5. A micro-second. nt

[whistler162]

15. Ayup!

[Major Nikon]

8. Any more it seems like about 15 years

Appliances, HVAC, water heater, roof, etc. all seem to last about that long.

[Populist_Prole]

11. The "new" wore off of mine at around 15 years

Items began needing repair or replacement, not counting cleaning/painting, let alone upgrades. Now it's pretty much one thing after another. The main point is not to let too many things go at once, so stay on top of things. Much less costly in the long run.

[cliffordu]

12. The minute I move into it.

Why do you ask?

[hunter]

16. Fix the roof and everything is cool if you say nothing about the old leaky oil tank, asbestos...

... neighborhood coal mines, sinkholes and landslides.

Anything else can be fixed with isocyanate foam and a few trips to Home Depot, Menards, or Lowes.

A long time ago I worked for a student housing slumlord contractor.

Nothing scares me. Kilz, flexible spackle, and off-white paint covers a multitude of sins.

No, I would never do that again

But I was hungry.

[sammytko]

17. It's more location than the house itself that makes it valuable

You'll see some dumpy looking houses on hgtv go for 100s of thousands of dollars in the right locale. Of course, then it is worthwhile to fix them up.

I live in a house built in 1929. It was the third most expensive house in town according to the 1930s census, but time and deferred maintenance took its toll.

But I've always wanted to live here, so I took the plunge. It's a money pit, but you gotta live somewhere. Last mortgage payment will be sent in next month!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

18. Land.

"Buy land, they don't make it anymore" - Mark Twain.