houses in original condition

Anyone buy or consider buying a house with none or few changes from its original state? If so, what was your experience like?

Thanks!

Re: houses in original condition

Our house had the original kitchen, as far as cabinets go. The appliances and counter top are fairly new. As for the bathrooms, the stuff may not be original, but it's OLD.

The whole house is also paneled, which we just painted over for now. Actually, I like how it looks.

IMO, the main (and maybe only) advantage of buying a house with mostly original/old stuff is the money you save. We got a great deal on our house. Whereas if you buy a place with mostly newer stuff that you hate, you might feel obligated to live with it for a while because it is new. If we had the $$ I would SO be ripping all this stuff out! Especially the bathrooms. The kitchen cabinets have held up well and look great with a new paint job (they were wood)

Re: houses in original condition

We actually put a bid on one, and we were out bid. The couple were the original owners having lived in the house for over 40 years and it looked it!! We admit there was a lot of work to be done, but some of the woodwork and the fireplace was well worth keeping somethings as they were. This house was in unbelievable condition considering they really didn't do much to it in all the years they were there (which is why is sold pretty quickly and for a better price than we put in!)

Another house in Deer Park was about 100 years old and I loved the original floors and moldings. Also the fireplace in the "parlor"...when have you seen a house with a parlor!! Again, this one needed more work than the first one, but it had charm!

I say if you want it or are considering it, just don't think about the cosmetics, also see what the pipes, foundation and the roof looks like. You could be asking for trouble if they haven't done anything to things like the roof, or the pipes.

Some homes look charming, but others look like the trio from Three's Company took up residence there.

Good Luck!!

Re: houses in original condition

I bought one. Original owner of a 1971 Brookville Colonial in East Northport. All of the bathrooms and everything in the kitchen was original... yes, Avacado Green appliances! Don't see too many of them anymore.

Last year, in order to sell the house they redid the roof, vinyl siding and all new windows. The house was still... BEYOND!!!

Comparable houses in the area started at 669K which was over our budget for someone elses taste.

My FIL is a kitchen designer so I had him look at the house with me. He estimated it would need 125K to fix it up... that's his cost.

Well, it was so worth it. No one else was buying that house. Two RE told me people would walk in and walk right back out. I bid low, they countered, I held firm... tak e it or leave it. They took!

Two weeks later the bank appraised it for over 200K more than what I paid for it and that's before improvements.

We have to live with IL's for three months and we are involved in major construction but I will be getting a brand new house for a lot less money and w/o new construction taxes!

Re: houses in original condition

we wanted to buy one to knock it down but there was too many people going for the property that we had no chance

typically, houses in original condition could be bought at a bargin. 1 house we look at was so old, the furnace or boiler that was installed was the size of a old school VW beatle ...

it was like a history lesson when we went to the house

Message edited 1/10/2006 11:20:55 AM.

Re: houses in original condition

We bought a house with original everything, including a washing machine in our kitchen and dryer in the garage (we dont have a basement). We had planned on updating the house and living there for 5-6 years, since then we decided to update it and sell it next year. I have to say when I bought this house we had very little money to put down, when we sell it, we should have a nice down payment, even with prices dropping.