It all started with a mistake. My husband, Keith, and I were shopping for our first home, newly back in St Louis after a few years living elsewhere. We had narrowed our focus to a particular neighborhood, and asked our real estate agent to book a showing at a house in the 100 block of a certain street. But instead she mistakenly booked a showing in the 400 block. And because we were young, naive and idealistic, we soon bought the “wrong” house and embarked on a 15-year renovation journey and labor of love. 

Our house was a big old Victorian, built in 1902 as the parsonage for the local Methodist church. Big rooms, big windows, tall ceilings. Original woodwork, a charming staircase, enormous attic, mystery trap door, a second-floor sleeping porch with a view for miles. And all of it on a lush suburban lot of nearly 1/2 acre, shrouded by the canopy of a grand American Elm tree, almost as big as the largest elm in the state.

It seemed kind of jaw-dropping that we could get all of this for our money….about $191k in today’s dollars. And though the overall longterm investment turned out to be less lucrative than we had hoped, due to circumstances beyond our control, I still know that we made a good choice in terms of a home.

We earned an A+ in Old House Buying 101…and I’ve taught those same lessons to many other home buyers in my 14 years as a realtor. They apply to pretty much any house, but are especially important when the house is older. 

The basics: Buy a house where the bones are solid and somebody else has invested in the “boring” things, like major systems, insulation, roof, windows, etc. It’s easy to be smitten by a historical home with gorgeous architectural details, especially if the decor is also attractive. But you need to look past the “pretty” and  focus on the practical:

 Has the electric been updated? Is there still knob & tub wiring present? How about the plumbing? Are the main stack line and sewer lateral decades old? Are any of the pipes lead or galvanized steel? Are the windows original? Functional? Single-pane? Are the walls still plaster? Are there any potential health hazards present, like asbestos, mold or vermiculite? How old is the roof? Is it asphalt shingle or something more expensive to maintain like slate or clay tile? How is the house heated and cooled? Is the HVAC system newer? And perhaps most importantly, how solid is the foundation? Does it have any cracking, bowing, piering or water intrusion? 

With enough money, nearly any of the above systems can be updated or repaired. But NOT a bad foundation. Trust me when I say it will only bring you heartache and make the house harder to sell down the road. If the foundation is bad, find a different house. 

Likewise, if most of the big-ticket updates have yet to be done in a house, ask yourself if you really have the funds and the desire to tackle them yourself….. understanding that it almost always costs more than you anticipate, and that old house projects can often have a “can-of-worms” effect, where one repair leads to another and another after that. 

As for our first home, it offered the perfect mix of newer updates and vintage charm, allowing us to spend more time and money on fun stuff like decorating. But that other house we originally wanted to see up the street? A totally dated, unimproved hot mess that was really no bargain at all. 

We made the better choice. Let us help you do the same.