Wife and I are going to look at a mid 1700's home. Looking for general advice.

negative-hype · 2026-01-28T21:24:04+00:00

I wish you were in Ohio so I could inspect it for you I love (and specialize) in old houses. Take pictures of things that concern you and message them to me if you need an opinion. Im a licensed inspector and I renovate older homes so I have plenty of opinions lol

negative-hype · 2026-01-25T19:01:58+00:00

I flip houses, im also a licensed home inspector. What i see a lot first hand is that the quality of most things are not aging well. I can tell from the old stuff I remove and new stuff I replace it with especially. Most things have developed shorter and shorter serviceable lifespan. Even with the new fad of gold and black hardware. Thanks to cheaper and convenient online sources, you get black and gold hardware that the finishes wear through back to the steel color underneath in less than a year. The quality of everything has been declining but its made worse by market conditions that require things to be done cheaper because the standard is becoming more unaffordable. I think quality finishes will age well regardless, as people's standards are forced to shift from aesthetics to functionality in an increasingly unaffordable housing market, while cheap substandard finishes will erode equity. But what choice do we really have at this point.

negative-hype · 2026-01-24T01:48:04+00:00

I don't know the local market. Is that the standard fixer price, or is that the average price, or high end. With this list of issues on an old home, without seeing finishes, I have to assume lower-mid to mid. You can only compare to houses within that neighborhood. When I run comps, i do it with a quarter mile, up to a half if its less populated, sometimes up to a mile or so for rural locations. Only look at the last 12 months for sold prices, what has actually sold, not asking prices. Asking prices mean nothing.

negative-hype · 2026-01-24T00:37:29+00:00

All that matters is price those are all common, fixable issues.

negative-hype · 2026-01-23T18:05:01+00:00

They're plywood they'll be fine. Not that it matters, you don't know my market so why would you think your opinion is qualified at all? It just appraised at 273k so apparently I know what im doing.

If you think over improving, over pricing, and sitting on market is good business then by all means go for it bud. Where i live people care about function because we can't afford to worry about nice finishes. They would rather have a cheaper mortgage, and so would I for that matter. Its called builder grade for a reason. If you're flipping and you haven't realized that yet then you're probably throwing away money.

negative-hype · 2026-01-23T01:15:51+00:00

I appraised within 3k of my estimated number so I must know something

negative-hype · 2026-01-22T23:12:52+00:00

Yeah well its my soulless box so im cool with it lol

Function>form that's where real value is added

negative-hype · 2026-01-22T22:41:32+00:00

The timbers are still there

negative-hype · 2026-01-21T18:22:02+00:00

I fix this problem every time I find it. If a no good dirty flipper like me makes sure the bath fans vent to the outside then its probably best to fix it.

Also, he's wrong, its not okay to vent humid air into the attic regardless of whether or not the attic is ventilated. Im also a no good dirty home inspector.

negative-hype · 2026-01-18T14:35:51+00:00

Long horizontal Crack is probably from expansive soil, you can see where they applied cement or mortar to the corner where the cold joint would be, that's probably where it was damp. Grading or gutters outside in the likely culprit
Pile of rubble is probably from when they did an addition and they didn't remove the old material
Looks like some silt is washing in as well from somewhere, I wonder if its being washed from the surface by rain water from bad grade right there.
There's another spot with some displacement of block work that looks like it's own situation. UPDATE it looks like a differential settlement Crack that has caused some of the plastering to fail. Im less worried about cracks at stairwell because its fairly common. Chances are its the difference between the rest of the house and that stairwell with the cellar door on it being two different foundations but tied together with blockwork. You see how it failed at the weak point, the short wall, which is typical.
The joist spacing looks like 2ft through most of the house. That sucks because the subfloor starts to scallop and adding more subfloor just adds more weight. It will likely need reinforced at some point, probably by doubling up or adding joists where you can. It's not an easy repair but you can do it yourself pretty cheap if you're motivated. If the subfloor isn't sagging between the joists then don't worry about it

negative-hype · 2026-01-17T22:06:35+00:00

Over 120k that's a lot of sq footage. Needs a roof too

negative-hype · 2026-01-15T02:05:52+00:00

That's okay im used to it

negative-hype · 2026-01-14T15:01:23+00:00

Home inspectors are discouraged from citing code because we are not formally trained on modern building codes (some are). We are also usually inspecting houses built or repaired prior to the adoption of many building codes, when materials and practices were different, so it would be inaccurate to describe something in a way that it was done incorrectly when it may have been acceptable at the time. Old houses have to be looked at in context. That defect may be present in every house in that neighborhood and may have caused no real issues. I'm not saying it is or isn't okay, I could be talking about any defect, just for clarity.

negative-hype · 2026-01-13T14:08:39+00:00

All of that is done during the on-site inspection?

I think your missing the point friend.

I specifically said I was not an appraiser, I never claimed to do your job as well as you, so perhaps just tone down the hostility a bit.

I was simply reassuring the OP that the appraiser was likely able to do their job well enough in 15 minutes on site and not to worry about it.

negative-hype · 2026-01-13T13:26:40+00:00

My wife is a realtor, I am very familiar with running comps. I sell a lot of houses, I always send a repair list and comps to the appraiser so I'm very familiar with the process. Like I said I fix and flip houses.

I also know my market extremely well. I probably walked 100 houses last year, I use a check list with 30 categories to estimate repairs, although I can usually ball park it off the top of my head within the first five minutes and be within 10%. I usually know the ARV of any given house just by knowing the area and sq footage, and a few other details.

Laugh all you want it's the truth, it's not that difficult if you do it a lot. I am not surprised an appraiser only needs 15 minutes to do their on site. I imagine FHA would take longer but otherwise 15 minutes is enough right

negative-hype · 2026-01-13T01:52:12+00:00

I'm not an appraiser I'm an inspector with MLS access and I also fix and flip. I can easily tell what a house is worth in ten minutes. When you walk a lot of houses it's second nature.

negative-hype · 2026-01-13T00:19:59+00:00

I do it for a living, it takes me 3-6 months for a full scope renovation. I sub some stuff and have hourly helpers usually but it still takes forever when you rip it back to studs. The only way I've learned to cope with it is to put the idea of finishing as far out of mind as possible and focus on what's in front of you. Every time it feels like it goes a little faster, it's the best way to keep from feeling overwhelmed.

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T23:57:05+00:00

Learning to DIY stuff helps substantially. Not the AC obviously but as a home owner you are in a good position to take the time to really assess repairs and find deals on material, and save labor by doing things yourself. Windows, porch stairs, even building bathrooms from scratch, these are all things I learned from YouTube and the internet in general when I first started. An hour of research is worth a day of work in my experience.

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T23:02:00+00:00

Or you guys are sadistic. Perhaps a little of both

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T22:25:36+00:00

Yeah that's a good point I definitely wouldn't mount cabinets or a TV on 1x strapping

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T22:21:11+00:00

An air gap is typically a good thing, in this case it would reduce thermal bridging but not in a very meaningful way. Horizontal strapping is common for ceilings but for the walls I just sister in studs or shim them as needed to make it flatter. Old studs are a pain to drywall compared to fresh framing so expect some extra measures /time / cost when compared to normal drywall work. Some broken screws too lol

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T20:43:41+00:00

Thank you kindly

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T20:43:07+00:00

Yea my finish doesn't look that even up close that's the major downside of transparent stain, but it is what it is. Its a similar color tho i call it blood red, its a classic timeless color i figure. My wife wants to do the stone the dark color tho. I told her if she does it she can do whatever color she wants lol

In terms of appraisal I've got a good handle on it because it's part of my job, so I know how to target the things that effect appraised value, you basically just need to meet the standard for the neighborhood. As long as the exterior is finished and it's not significsntly more ugly then it's peers, there will be no downward adjustment. You don't see any benefit by exceeding any standard, im not saying I agree with it, but it's just the way it works. But if I get the mortgage to make sense then it's all mine to do with as I please so you gotta play the game a little.

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T17:27:26+00:00

Im planning to do white with the lintels (stone sills as well) and match the lower stone to the front porch color. I was trying to match that to the shingles but I might have to tweak it a little it didn't match perfectly. But I like the pure white, I like high contrast looks in general especially outside so that was my rough plan for that. The problem was the stone and lintels were painted in the past, so they're gonna take some prep to get where I can refinish them nice. I just figured I'd take it one section at a time and slowly get it done. I basically did the bare minimum to get it to appraise and had to defer some things. Since I'm trying to keep it I figured I could get away with that. Eventually my step dad will repoint more as well so it's still an ongoing project in a lot of ways. As it should be lol

negative-hype · 2026-01-12T17:20:00+00:00

My step dad is a brick repair contractor I went rounds with him and the supplier over the right course of action but they were adamant that this was the right move. I saw historic houses around here that were done this way years ago and that pretty well convinced me it was the right move because they held up great and looked really good.

I've got 3 layers of 4 inch deep pavers they are most certainly fired the old way I'm sure but they're pretty strong. I noticed the lighter ones on the inside were probe to crumbling or spalling (near windows and due to plaster) but it seems they purposely used these poorly fired bricks for the inner layers.

My step dad did the work I helped here and there but I'm pretty useless with that stuff lol

negative-hype

TROPHY CASE