Better to buy a newer or older home?

"Caretaker" - I love that word for what one is to an old home. When I owned my old one, I DID think of myself as that - especially as it was on the local heritage list. When I put the new roof on, I did not think of it as my new roof, but as the house's new roof - setting it up for its next half-century.

An old home is a bit like a gracious and hospitable person - (if one has bought one with the right "feel") - and I worry about who has mine every time I drive past - it having been recently re-sold.

I hope they love it!

"Caretaker" is nice.

OK, does some kind soul want to translate this for me? I'm doing online research and this is giving me a headache:

diowan-youre not stalking the new folks are you? gotta give up the place and trust that youve picked someone the house would approve.

It's pretty straight forward Soz. On a typical mortgage you pay point(s) and/or interest. The higher the points the lower the interest rate. 1 "point" is usually equeal (from a total end cost perspective) to about the same as .25% interest over a 10 year period so if you pay 2 points you could expect the bank to offer a loan with an interest rate .50% lower than what you'd get if you didn't pay any points.

IN most cases if you plan on keeping the home and paying off the mortage over a period greater than 10 years you are better off paying the closing points and getting teh lower interest loan (you pay less in total after all is said and done). If you plan on keeping the house for less than 10 years you are usually better off not paying any points and taking the higher interest rate (this assumes you WILL be out of the loan by the time the break-even point is reached so you end up ahead of the game...)

Just keep in mind that when comparing loans you have to look at both the interest rate AND the points at closing.

Cool. That helped.

Farmerman - I drive past most weeks on my way to the shops! Is that stalking? It is on the way.... LOL

I love those little Arts & Crafts houses! That one is adorable.

Hi... I've been away, but Quinn sent me a link to this interaction. I've not read most of it, but at the top of this page dlowen said something about being the caretaker.

Quinn has been to our house. We've been here only about a year and a half. The house is either 100 or 110 (different accounts) years old. We are essentially the third owners.

Houses typically get the most work done to them in the first year of ownership... that means that this house has only really had one previous chance for a makeover.

The walls are sagging, the roof needed replacement, the kitchen needed asbestos removal, the wiring needs doing, the yard nees lots of help.

Gawd I love this place! The woodwork is pristene! Not even painted! The door hardware is fancy brass, except the back end where the help would have been.

We even still have an indoor privy!

Mrs. SealPoet and I fell in love with this pile the first time we saw it. I didn't even want to peer through the windows the first time because I knew I couldn't stand the dissapointment when it sold before we could buy it. We intend to be here a long time, so we are taking our time. One room at a time is the plan and at the rate we are going it will take about ten years before we finish. The kitchen. After removing the asbestos we put in Home Depot countertops, hacked to fit, and press on floor tiles. We intend to live with the kitchen the way it is for several years so we know what we want.

We hope to do any renovations gently. we don't want the next owners to come in with any idea other than cherishing a house that has been loved for so many many years...

More later... this is just getting me warmed up...

Oh goody!

The bungalow was sold on Thursday. (Not to us...) I've found a bunch more really nice places in Minneapolis, though, and will be viewing at least one next week. Basically, I'm satisfied that there are a lot of options, and that is good to know in terms of deciding if we want to live there, IF E.G. gets the offer.

If he DOES get the offer, and we DO decide we want to live there, then I can start doing this stuff in earnest.

You will find you dream home Soz and when you do just buy it. The rest will fall into place.

yeah. I'm with Joanne on that. I told you about not looking in the windows...? Well, we got a realtor friend of ours to let us in one evening. We just goggled about the place. Something about the size resonates with my childhood and grandparents' houses.

We went to an open house the following weekend. There was one guy who was giving the broker a real protion of guff about lead paint and asbestos. We figured out that he's a developer type who wanted to get this place on the cheap, make it over and sell it at a profit, skinning off all of the character and charm in the process. We followed the progress via internet while we were on vacation, and finishing getting our house ready for market. While we were away, the house came under agreement. We almost cried. but the couple who put in the offer backed out when thye had the house inspected. Seems the last straw was that there had been a fire in the attic around 1920. 1920? Gimme a break! The house is still standing 80 years later. Seems that the husband was not all that enthusiastic about buying a house that needs this much work.

So anyway, the house goes back on the market. There's another open house, and they've dropped the listing price by 40k. That monday we put in an offer, right at the listing price, and put our house on the market.

The next morning first thing Mrs. SealPoet gets a phone call. There's been another offer for the same amount, and that couple didn't have a pre-condition (like not needing to sell a house first) so their offer was accepted. Mrs. SealPoet said she wished there was something to distract her because this house was all she could think of... two hours later the World Trade Center fell.

But if you really want something it turns out. The other couple also backed out, and we sold our house in about three weeks.

And here we are...

and here we stay.

If you're out this neck of the woods... well, you're an old friend that we haven't met yet, and you're invited for a visit.

Hey SP..thanks for coming in here and sharing with us all the ins and outs of the big house, I figured the story of your monolith and the joy it brings would be nice to hear about.
Soz, the bungalow was not to be, tis all....you'll find something right when the time is right, Im sure!

I'm sure!

The trip was a mite discouraging, though. I'd found a fully restored 1884 "Caribbean Victorian" with a nice little yard and a garden room, and set up an appointment to see it. Wanted to actually see at least one as a basis of comparison -- how it appears on the Internet listings vs. real life.

Well, the poor little house was plonked down in the middle of an industrial wasteland. I don't know what that area was like in 1884, but now it's near factories and freeways and some new cookie-cutter apartment complexes. It was the only house within about 3 blocks. The house itself had some suspicious (probably painted-over mold) spots in the basement, was kinda off-kilter everywhere (nothing was plumb), the fireplace was "ornamental", and the stained glass windows that looked so purty in the picture were decals. DECALS.

All that for $269,000.

That said, we did a lot of neighborhood drive-arounds and I really think that was not necessarily indicative of what's out there. Lots and lots of great neighborhoods in Minneapolis.

Soz-sort of like buying an oil painting or a proper antique on e-Bay. Its good you see stuff "on the hoof"

whoa-THIS WAS MY 100th POST I FEEL SUDDENLY OLD

farmerman, you've aged sooooooooo! and suddenly. We still love you.

We lived in a house over 100 years old. Very cold in the winter.

Well, well, jus' looka here at this old dead thread.

Hello . . . anybody at home?????

Roger, you are so right -- Seattle friend here has been through the remodeling mill all right!

Hey, I'm now an expert on all kinds of things!
Ask me anything.

I can tell you that a flat roof needs redoing much much sooner than a peaked roof.

My house is now super-gorgeous! I'm very pleased with the results and I'm very pleased with my own design ideas which kind of evolved as the changes progressed.

I should say that the remodeled parts are gorgeous (5 rooms) I had an air-duct cleaner come in to get the construction dust out of the furnace and pipes. He walked through, counting vents and admiring my new rooms. Then, he got to the 1970 kitchen and said, 'What happened here?'
LOL!

If anyone still wants to talk 'old houses' and 'renovation', I'm here.

Seattle friend

Having been through a bit of both, I can tell ya no matter how unexpectedly inconvenient remodelling becomes, as it has a way of becoming , it is downright pleasant compared to the consternation arising from rebuilding a portion of the old place once the firetrucks have left.

Oh mi gosh, I'm so sorry you had a fire!

Do you want to say how it happened? Any words of warning or wisdom for the rest of us?

A fire seems like it would be a total nightmare.

Seattle friend

My house is 29 years old. After the winds of last month, I'm very glad I bought it. I now know that it can survive anything I may get here.