First purchase - an old house? 1925

[Ray Fleener]

First house I toured was built in 1925. It is a Craftsman Bungalow. I personally thought it would need a gut job (quite a bit of work overall). Hypothetically, if a first time home buyer were to purchase a gut job house, what tip would you give them from your experiences? After looking at the place, my thought was to pursue something different at this time. Fort Wayne, Indiana area. I'm still learning how to run the numbers accurately, but just feel the reno numbers on a gut job on an old house might be a bit much for my first attempt. Also older houses were just built different and the unfinished basement had moisture with the track around the perimeter to drain. Thoughts on moisture in basements of old homes? I did learn from my first tour experience though. It helped me solidify my target search area and learn more about home history, boilers, etc. 

[Jaron Walling]

As an investor that's owns and rents older properties in Indianapolis I tell you my experience. You're in for a treat if you think that rehab will be easy. Quite the opposite if you start opening up walls. Add 15% to the budget as a safety net. Every distressed property I purchased had pumping issues, bad windows, and doors. My current primary has a 30'' wide back door **hint hint** that's not a common size. It me took a month to replace it. Contractors wouldn't even quote it. Ended up finding the replacement door at discount warehouse and installing it myself. I wanted to add some outlets in some rooms; an easier job with DRYWALL. All the wall are lathe and plaster. Ended up running more expensive waterproof floor outlets. Saved so much time. 

The list goes on but my point is don't go crazy on the demo and create more work. I made that mistake a few times. It just cost me more TIME and MONEY.