On buying a house...

It has no air conditioning. It has a half-completed electrical refit. It has a barely started blumbing refit. It has no appliances. It has hardwood floors. It has hand-carved woodwork. It has three stories. It has 100+ years of history.

Would you buy this house?

Location, location, location. Everything else you can change.

That’s a very cool looking house, even if you don’t know what blumbing is. :wink: Depending on neighborhood comps, it could either be a moneymaker or a moneypit. If you want to occupy the home, and it’s a nice neighborhood, it could be a great place to live in and fix up over time. Good luck

I’m a sucker for a pretty face.

Even if that house were an unstable mess inside, I’d have trouble saying no.

I also have a history of dating poets, which is never a good idea, so take my advice for what it’s worth. :wink:

Real estate person checking in: YES, and I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. Repair the electric and plumbing, and it could be worth around $450-$650K, depending on comps. Great “location, location, location.”

How much work do you want to do? It looks like a great house (assuming it’s structurally stable) but someone is going to have to spend a lot of time or money fixing it up.

As a person who has always lived in, helped restore quite a few, and currently owns a historic house, I will say buy it only if you love it and are willing to devote lots of time and money.

Owning a historic home is a joy, but it’s also a lot of work, and that work should be done* right.* The value of the house (to people like me) is its historic character and charm. Nothing is worse than finding a lovely old house that has been grossly modernized. I’m not talking about updating the electric and things like that-- I’m talking about an ultra-modern-looking kitchen, or fad decorating which permenantly alters the character of the house.

And it is a lot of work. Old horsehair plaster cracks a lot, especially in areas where you have a lot of temperature shifts. Correctly updating the electric can be quite expensive (old wiring cannot carry the modern load safely, so should be replaced entirely.)

Expect your heating bills to be high. Old windows often let in lots of drafts, and those high ceilings, while attractive, suck up the heat. (I prefer brick homes because they are naturally better insulated than wood or clapboard.)

The plumbing could also be a pain.

I’ve seen a lot of old homes which have projects like electric and plumbing refits started but never completed-- a lot of times it’s because people started the project without a real good idea of how much work and money it costs.

How is it heated? You may have to replace the furnace or boiler at some point. When it comes to AC, if the house already has a forced-air system, you could just add an AC unit, but if the duct work isn’t there, you will probably be unable to put it in without great expense unless you use one of the new systems like Mr. Slim.

It’s not a home to be purchased lightly. If you’re willing to cherish and devote money/time to it, you could be very happy there, but if you just want a house, you might be better off with new construction.

It sounds as if it could be a good buy if you have the skill, time & cash to devote to it. If you’re not handy enough to do (or at least properly manage) the necessary repairs & upgrades, a house like this can break your heart.