Does Age really matter?

[Daria B.]

Does it really matter the age of the property or as long as it's in a good location, up-2-date (ie roof, flooring, kitchen/baths, HVAC) and rentable? This would be for buy-n-hold investments.

Up to now I never really thought about it before because my 1st rental, although built in 1990, I bought as my primary with no intension or thought of it being a rental. But as things happen in life these things change. Since I bought the home new and I knew everything that went into it and kept the condition pristine, there was no thought of "hum I wonder what the previous owners did to this place that I don't see". It has served as a rental since moving away in 1998 and cash flows very well and is also paid for. In addition, appreciation continues to be good. By now it does need to have the kitchen, flooring and baths remodeled that I'm addressing soon.

My 2nd and 3rd rentals I never lived in so I applied my logic of: location, who my target renters would be, "age" (couldn't be anything less than 1980 as I thought that to be a good stop date), and the essentials like age and condition of HVAC, roof, interior, structure, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things but you get the idea. The 2nd was built in 1983 and the 3rd built in 2005 and both passed the other "my" tests.

So, here I am now looking for another property and am considering reducing my "age" rules. And here's why: I found a property that has had new everything, HVAC, roof, hard surface flooring, kitchen and baths redone (yes the old was tossed and the new was bought in), and the usual painting. When I looked at the age of the property and saw it was built prior to 1960.

After speaking to my insurance agent and giving her some homes to price quote, she told me that the older the home the more insurance would cost. I'm not sure why if any house that has to be rebuilt would be done at "today's" prices, so what does it matter. As we were communicating via email I decided I would need to call her to find out why. Haven't yet but next on my list.

What's your opinion does age really matter to you or as long as the property meets all the other essentials then it really doesn't matter.

Thanks!