First deal under contract and might back out. Need advice.

[Jason Hines]

We finally had an offer accepted for a multifamily that we plan to house hack in a great up and coming location. The current owner has owned the home since 1990 and has taken great care of it. We had the inspection done this week and just got the inspection report. Now that I've gone through it, I may back out, but that may just be me being scared. 

- Both of the gas boilers are from the 1950's, but are still working. No local HVAC places are open to giving me rough estimates but google is telling me anywhere between $3k-11k. Out of pocket, that's just too high

- The roof is modified bitumen and is coated with aluminum oxide. The inspector said its good, but said you can only coat it so many times before you have to replace the whole roof apparently.

- Getting insurance might be difficult too. The house was built in 1860 and my mom (home insurance agent) advises not to buy the home even though those are the only two major issues.

Any advice? Am I being smart here?

[Mike McCarthy]

@Jason Hines I honestly don’t see any issue whatsoever. Gas boilers last almost forever. Sure the one you have is less efficient than the newer ones, and at some point you’ll have to replace it, but you knew that going into buying an older property. Really, the only way those gas boilers fail is eventually they’ll rust through. But no leaking and no comments on rusting in (the inspector opened the furnace and looked), I wouldn’t worry too much.

Same with the roof. All roofs are installed, and get old. Flat roofs are more susceptible to leaks, but that’s pretty much all we have around here. They work well. Again, at some point it’ll need to be replaced, but with no issues, you should have 10+ years left. More if you silvercoat every 5 years.

As for insurance, the age of the house shouldn’t have much to do with it. It sounds like it’s in good condition and doesn’t have the ‘huge’ old house issues of original lead piping or knob and tube wiring. Call a local insurance broker and ask. I doubt you’ll pay a penny more than if it was built 20 years ago.

Based on what you’ve shared, I would have zero hesitation of buying.