# Buying an older house



## jayinwww (Apr 17, 2009)

Covered up basement window.
















The shoe mud room that is off the back deck and is considered outside of the house with just wood and siding.
















































Basement you can see the dirt sticks out from the wall.

So i'm looking at buying my first house. It was build in 1915, and has a dirt basement as you can see. The attack floor is all insulated, the deck and the back shoe room look to be a bit in rough shape. 

The basement is a dirt floor but i do not see any signs of water or flooding. It was raining all day when i was there and is spring time.

Two basement windows have been covered up as you can see, has new furnace and water heater. The main inside of the two bedroom house has all been redone with changed newer windows, only the doors inside the house are of the old style. The roof shingles have been redone with no leaks i can see around the roof area

I do plan to get a house inspector to look at foundation and basement, i also wonder what else i can ask of the home inspector to look at. If anyone can help me out with that it would be great.

150$ for heating gas and electricity 
500$ year property tax
400$ year house insurance

I do not know if a dirt basement is good thing or bad thing, my grandmother had a dirt basement and stored jars of all sorts of good stuff down there. The owner is only selling for 32,000$ and the lot is 50X115, has sewer but solids have to be sucked out once every 3 years. But has water electricity gas etc. The real estate agent says the owner may go down to 25,000$ The real estate agent also said if this house was closer to the city it would sell for 80,000$ 

If anyone could give me advice to ask the home inspector to look out for anything in particular?

Or if this sounds like a good idea to buy and fix up perhaps the back deck area and mud room shoe area i could perhaps sell for higher or same price?

This house is in sask canada


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## devdally (Apr 29, 2010)

*Old House Inspection*

First things first: foundation. You can invest thousands of dollars on remodel and improvement, but if your house's foundation is poor, there's no getting away with surface deterioration such as cracks and spalling. Having home improvement in my Fort Collins home served as a lesson - a costly one at that. Other things you have to take note of are electrical system, galvanized water pipes, roof shingles, (possibly rotting) walls and areas with leaks. Also check the attic and basement for possible ventilation or insulation problems. Take it from someone who's had fair share of repairs due to poor basement finish!


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## jayinwww (Apr 17, 2009)

Here is the attic pictures i not sure what you mean by ventilation problems but i do know the floor of the attic is all insulated.


























here is more pictures of the basement, i guess what i can do is ask the home inspector to go over the basement foundation very carefully. There is a few cracks here and there but isn't that expected in all older homes? 










Here is another shot outside of the lower part of the house that looks is ok shape but there is one crack that i did see.


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## etobia (Jun 10, 2011)

*How much did you end up paying?*

How is your purchase and remodel going? Do you think you ended up with a good investment?



jayinwww said:


> Covered up basement window.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Wellsiwdrer (4 mo ago)

jayinwww said:


> Covered up basement window.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry for asking here again but I really want to know what happened next? Were you able to secure deal? 

Same case is with my client in Chicago and I hope if you're still there, you may guide better. 

Looking for suggestions.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

@Wellsiwdrer You are responding to a 12 year old thread, and the OP may or may not be active. It may be best to use the messaging system to contact the directly to find out what you need.

You can also start a thread of your own describing what you want to do in detail and posting pictures so we can see what you see.


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## Wellsiwdrer (4 mo ago)

chandler48 said:


> @Wellsiwdrer You are responding to a 12 year old thread, and the OP may or may not be active. It may be best to use the messaging system to contact the directly to find out what you need.
> 
> You can also start a thread of your own describing what you want to do in detail and posting pictures so we can see what you see.


Okay noted.


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