Buying a House: Red Flags
All houses have problems but not all problems cost the same. Here’s how to spot the most expensive repair items before your inspection.
Since a large portion of the homes in Portland are 60+ years old, it’s important to recognize the biggest potential problems with a home so you’re not blindsided by an inspection report. Older houses will always have some issues, but that doesn’t mean buying one is a bad idea. Looking out for the big ticket items can potentially save you significant money in repairs. This is meant to be a guide to spotting these items, but always talked to a licensed professional or a home inspector before making any decisions.
1. Foundation
When doing an initial walk through of a home, check the foundation before you fall in love. Make sure the walls are straight and well supported and check for cracking. Some vertical or diagonal cracks are not unusual and don’t immediately indicate an issue, but should be assessed and repaired as part of closing. Big nasty horizontal cracks, however, indicate a “bowing” effect that is more difficult (read: expensive) to repair. Any crack that you can fit a dime through should be repaired.
Another foundation issue to look out for is what we call “kitty litter” foundation. If you can use a coin or a key (or even your fingernail) to chip away pieces of foundation, it needs to be fixed. Crumbling foundation is a common issue, especially with homes built around 1920. Contractors typically mixed concrete with other materials they had around the job site, resulting in poor quality foundation. That plus our wet climate means damaged foundation is very common. Sometimes, it is just the parge coat (outer protective coating) that needs repair, which can be done easily. But significant evidence of foundation troubles or settling issues can quickly be a 30-40k problem.
This image shows a vertical crack that should get assessed by a professional.
2. Plumbing
Galvanized piping is very common in homes built before the 1960’s. Though not a safety risk, galvanized pipes corrode over time and become narrower on the inside, restricting water flow. They also are more brittle and more prone to breaking randomly and flooding your home. Many people in Portland can coexist peacefully with their old pipes, but know it is a significant cost if one breaks or if you notice your daily shower is no more than a trickle and you have to re-plumb the house. Additionally, retaining the old pipes also is a major downside if you decide to resell. Copper or modern PEX pipes are both good things to look for when touring a home.
Older bathrooms are charming but can have older galvanized pipes.
3. Roof
Your home’s roof should last for 20-25 years with regular maintenance. Unfortunately, that means that many roofs on older homes are approaching or have exceeded their service life. For a roof to be certified, it needs to be considered in good condition for its age, does not leak, and has an estimated two years or more of life remaining. Based on these vague criteria, you can end up buying a home with a roof on its last legs that will need to be replaced within two years of moving in. When looking at houses, check to see if you notice any obvious moss accumulation. During your inspection period, the inspector should also check for signs of water intrusion in the upstairs or attic crawl space, as well as walking on the roof to find any spongy areas. Roofs are common points of negotiation before close, where the seller can offer to give you a credit or bid to replace the roof themselves before close.
In our rainy climate, it’s important to have a roof in good condition, as well as adequate and clean gutters.
4. Buried Oil Tanks
It is incredibly common for houses to have had oil heat at some point in the past (or currently!). Some houses buried the tanks that held the oil in their yards. Some people properly decommissioned them when they switched over to gas. But some didn’t. Buried oil tanks are steel drums that may have oil and/or sludge remaining inside them, buried a foot below the ground. The oil plus our wet climate rusts and degrades the steel, potentially causing leaks. We recommend every house have a buried tank scan done during the inspection period even if the house currently uses gas. If one is found, the soil around it should be tested. The decommissioning can be covered by the seller as part of closing, but regardless it’s important to do it before a leak happens. If the oil tank is found to have leaked and leached oil into the soil, the decommissioning process can be costly. The homeowner can be held responsible for paying back environmental damages if the oil tank isn’t properly decommissioned and it is found to have leached into the water table or onto your neighbor’s property.
Making sure your yard doesn’t become the site of an oil spill is very important.
6. Electricity
Homes in Portland typically have some sort of electricity issues. Knob and tube wiring is very common. An outdated form of wiring, it should be fixed if found. Typically even if a home has knob and tube, it’s only in certain areas of the home (the converted attic, for example). Outdated electrical panels are also very common. Usually, the panel will have a sticker with the install date. The older the install date, the more chances the wiring isn’t done to modern code. There are even some panels that have been recalled for safety issues that are still around in Portland homes. While looking at homes, open the panel, check to make sure there’s no sign of rust, a mass of wires, and that the circuits are properly labelled. You can also see if the panel has enough service to install wanted items, like a kiln or a hot tub. Not all panels can accommodate these items, so if that’s a deal breaker for you, it’s important to check.
7. Asbestos
The last thing to look out for in older homes is asbestos. Asbestos was used in everything back in the day because of its strength and fire-resistance properties. Unfortunately, we found out much later that it causes cancer and serious lung problems if inhaled. Asbestos can be found in pretty much everything— floor tiles, duct tape, wall coverings, roof shingles, or paint. To be clear, asbestos is only a problem if it becomes friable, meaning to become airborne. Most asbestos is perfectly happy to keep to itself unless you go messing with it, so the risk to your health is low during day-to-day life. It only becomes an issue if you want to remodel some part of your house and disturb walls and/or floors, or get a new furnace and disturb the old asbestos tape, etc. Once disturbed, you would need a special contractor to come in and professionally abate (remove) it, which can add a hefty fee on top of whatever work you plan on doing. If you don’t plan on disturbing it but want to take precautionary measures, you can also have the asbestos encapsulated, or professionally sealed so it can’t get out. Either way, it is something to be aware of so you don’t get surprised later. Landfills will require your materials be tested for asbestos prior to accepting it, and the only way to be sure if your home contains it is to test. So, before making significant disturbances to the surfaces of your home, it’s best to test first.
It is hard to determine if a building material is asbestos until tested, so it’s safer to assume it is and be pleasantly surprised that it’s not.
Overall, none of these issues should scare you away from buying a home on their own. And in Portland, odds are that you will buy or at least consider a house with one of these issues. Instead, this should help you be more aware as a consumer as you tour homes. All of these issues are manageable, and each one of them can be remedied. But these are often the most costly repairs, so it is good to understand what you’re looking for ahead of time so you can make an informed decision. This guide should always be used in conjunction with a trusted home inspector for the most accurate assessment of a house.
The information provided is for informational purposes only. Author is licensed broker in the state of Oregon.