Duplex Red Flags

[Luke Nelson]

Most of the duplexes in my area are over 100 years old but are in a great location. What are some major red flags when buying homes of this age?

[Michaela G.]

From my experience with Victorians, I would say that you don't really know what you're buying, until you own it. 

You can have a full inspection, but these homes have gone through several generations and owners and a lot of repairs may have been patches over patches. You don't know until you tear out the top patch and find stuff underneath. 

You might have a drop ceiling and don't know what's above, until you tear it out. 

Every old house I've done has had termites at some point or another, whether an active infestation or a dead one. That in itself is not such a big deal, because you can kill them. They have to come down into the ground at least once every 24 hours. So, if you the ground treated, they'll die. But you don't know what kind of damage they might have done. 

A good thing is that the lumber that they used to use is much better than today's. For one thing, a 2"x 4" is actually 2"x4", today's 2x4 is 1.5" x 3.5" or so. Also, they used wood that grew naturally, no fertilizer to speed up the growth. That means that the same size dims wood had more rings and thus more sap and thus more strength. Today's trees are being forced to grow fast and the wood isn't as strong.

Basically, what I"m saying is to make sure that you have more money available, than what you think you need for renovation, because you'll need it. But those old homes can be very charming and beautiful, with character, that you might not find in today's houses. If it's done nicely, you might get more rent than a similar size house, that's not historic.