Buyer beware is imperative.

almost 2 years ago I almost bought a place that needed a lot of work – roof, insulation between the roof and living space, carpets, heater, new kitchen, new bathroom, new floors, new fireplace, insulation under the floor, new water heater, fixes to the decking, siding, and painting. The wires were okay, to my surprise, but made of aluminum….The house was 25 years old and had 0 maintenance since new.

I went to Home Despot, added the numbers and found that the cost of renovation was staggering. I don’t have my notes, but it was around $30 to $50K for all the stuff, not counting potentially years of labor to do the work. Worse yet, you couldn’t amortize the cost of the fix up – it was all outta pocket. After that, I added the cost of the fix up to a house I was looking for.......and ended up buying a bigger 4 year old house instead. Not only do I have 0 fix-up issues (okay, it’s a house there are always minor ones) but the total cost was less than the purchase price plus the fix up price. Better yet, the future value of the house i bought is greater than the fix-up...even after the fix-ups!.

A house is almost the same story as a car, just more expensive. You get what you pay for. BTW, Utah homes all but demand latest generation insulation, heating and air conditioning, unless you want to pay substantially to heat and cool the ever extreme temperatures.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"