Help buying House, first time buyer here.

[VitruvianDoc]

My wife and I are looking into homes in the Univ of Tulsa area. We're big fans of the older styles from the 1920's - 40's with the architecture used, the "gingerbread" look etc.

Anyways, we're going to a private tour of a house we're extremely interested in.
I am trying to figure out what all I need to ask that comes along with an older home.

The actual house was built in 1928, built on a crawl space, and has some plaster walls. not sure if it is all plaster, but will ask tomorrow.

I am already looking into whether it has Knob and Tube wiring, what its Amp rating is, if its on fuses or a circuit breaker, and obviously what all has been updated.

It has been updated to central heat and air by the seller, but I have no clue what to ask about this. I will look into specifics if we move to close and get an inspection such as furnace life, hot water, etc, but if anything general i should be looking for.

Plumbing is a no knowledge area for me. I know modern uses PVC for drainage and that older homes sometimes used metal, but no idea what implications there is or what I should look for,

Any other tips, please.

 

[redmax51]

Stay away from Lewis.5th 6th area is a bad one.Old houses are money pits.You had better think about this carefully.The area you are talking about is not an area you want to be spending thousands to remodel.Sorry to be so negative but I've seen this before,it will strain your pocket book,sanity and your marriage.The only way it will(or might) work is if you have the skills to do the work and you both enjoy building "sweat equity".I don't know you but if I did,I'd recommend your first house to be in one of the "bedroom" communities,BA,Owasso,Catoosa,etc. and as new as you can afford.Good luck with what ever you decide.

 

[JD8]

I dunno why Redmax is spacebar impaired tonight but I'm going to second everything he just said. This coming from someone that just looked all over midtown for a house and settled in broken arrow and found MUCH more house for the money. However, you're a DIY'er and love projects...... just keep in mind the money pit part.

 

[thecoffin]

The older homes in the TU area are not all bad, but 90% are over priced. For the area and sq ft of the houses. But if you bargain good you might get a good deal. I just bought my first house a lil over a yr ago around the 31st and 145th area. You might check into some of the older area of BA. Around main from 71st to 91st there are alot of houses kinda like what your looking for. Maybe for a lil better value and IMO better location but thats me though.

To the questions part if your going to by the home get a good inspector. If the house need any repairs, Have the seller either pay to have them done. Or if you want to DIY, get the cost of the repairs discounted off the price of the house. The house market is hard to sell right now so don,t settle and take your time make the seller wait and think. In the end get your way cause it something you gotta live with for more then a few yrs most the time. One last thing to think about is are you going to get back out what you put in.

 

[david04]

Built in 1928 no doubt means all plaster walls, means it's hard to hang things and hard to repair, but curves can be achieved easier in plaster. Just take a look at the a/C, furnace, water heater, etc and see how old they look. Look at the windows, see if they are recent double pane windows or old ones with multiple layers of paint (you know what I mean, I'm sure) Roof is also very important on ANY home you buy. wiring of course needs to be checked out. Make sure it has no aluminum wire.

I used to have a home built in 1930. Every time I had to repair something, I'd take the broken part to Home Depot to replace it, and they'd say "Oh, they don't make them like this anymore." kind of a hassle. Small bedroom, kitchen and bath, too. We got that old-house fever pretty much out of our system when we were young!

So, where's the one you're looking at?

 

[david04]

Maybe you should watch the movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and Shelly Long
"The Money Pit" Trailer

 

[Tyson]

my mom has a house over by tu and like coffin said they aren't all bad but, be sure to check for mold, my mom didn't and all under her house there is black mold, unless your just dead set on that area i would look around and see what else you can find, there are way nicer places for cheaper money. if i was going to be in the house market right now i would start looking at forclosed homes, a guy and get those really worth the money right now.

 

[redmax51]

HUD foreclosure homes are good deals.They have to pass HUD inspection and are all over town. You,through a realtor,make a sealed bid on them.

 

[VitruvianDoc]

The thing is i am brand new to tulsa. Most of the HUD homes i find are in Tulsa in areas I dont know much about, or know to be bad. We have a low limit as far as houses go, about 120k, which has priced us out of most areas such as Jenks and BA. I go to school at OSU School of Medicine off 44 and BA and my wife works at Jenks East so BA would be a terrible commute for us both especially with all the dang construction. Our ideal area would be west bixby, jenks, south tulsa, or the area around TU but our price is our limiting factor.

Any recommendations would be nice however.

 

[Tyson]

a buddy of mine bought a house about a year ago in ba for 97k so 120k isn't pricing yourself out of houses, you just gotta put the time in to look, and not settle.