Top 4 Problems when Buying an Old Home in San Diego

If you’re buying an older home in San Diego, then there are a few things that you need to watch out for when you’re making that purchase. Let’s find out what those are! 

Something to keep in mind with these homes, because they’re older, you definitely want to do a home inspection on these types of homes, because there are things that can come up that you want to be aware of, and it’s best to know going into it now, when you’re looking to purchase what these things are going to be, so you’re not surprised. Many of these homes are found in the Uptown area of San Diego, such as North Park, Normal Heights, South Park, Hillcrest, and Kensington. These things are going to be a few different factors.

1. Foundations

Number one is going to be foundations, Because these homes are a hundred years old, the foundations are old and they’re going to be unreinforced. What that means is they don’t have rebar running through the concrete. They may not have the post and piers strapped to the house. 

You definitely want to have a home inspection done and then possibly a foundation inspection and be prepared to potentially spend some money fixing those foundations. Now, if it’s as simple as strapping the post and piers, that’s not too bad, a few thousand dollars, you’ll be set. If it’s much more extensive, there’s actually damage that has occurred to the house because of settling, you could be in for $60,000 to $100,000 to do repairs in these homes. 

When you’re looking at homes, you want to make sure that either of those repairs have already been done by one of the prior homeowners or that there are no major repairs needed. Or if there are major foundation issues, be prepared to spend that order of magnitude of cost to fix the foundations.

2. Cast Iron/Old Piping

The other thing that you’ll run across these home is cast iron piping. These definitely corrode over time because they rust out. You also have old piping in the house as well. These are a couple of things that hopefully they’ve been replaced by a prior owner, but potentially they have not. 

You might have to be prepared to come up with significant amount of money to replace these things. Sewer lines, these can run anywhere from $8,000 – $20,000 depending on how long the line is and what’s needed to do. You can’t oftentimes realign the sewer line within epoxy filler that coats the interior of the pipe. And that can be a cheaper option as well. 

And then these older homes, because they have old pipes sometimes in the house itself, sometimes they need to be replaced. Do you want to replace those either with copper piping or with a PEXplastic style piping as well.

3. Electrical

The other thing is the electrical on these homes. Sometimes these homes have old knob and tube wiring. If they have that, that’s definitely something you’re going to want to get upgraded soon to the traditional electrical panel with circuit breakers. Knob and Tube, if frayed, can pose a fire hazard

4. Roof

Also, something to look for on these homes is going to be the roof. Sometimes it’s not readily apparent when you see it, but this will come up in a home inspection. Sometimes the roofs can be rather old as well. They’re not going to be a hundred years old, of course! We just want to check the age of the roof and make sure there’s still useful life or potentially you may need to do some repairs on the roof as well.

Bonus #5 Lead Paint

Most homes built before 1978 will often have lead in the paint. If the paint is not disturbed, then it poses no health risk. However, it is sanded, or ingested (there are stories of babies/toddlers eating lead paint), then it poses a significant health risk. Many of these homes have been painted over with non-lead based paint which encapsulates the lead paint. However, if you do any work on the home, you need to make sure the contractors are certified in lead based paint removal.

These are just things to look out for. Sometimes these homes have been completely upgraded and they’re ready to go. But other times you’re going to need some of these repairs done. And that’s an overview of things to keep in mind when you’re buying an older home.

Curtis Chism, Realtor
858-281-2568 | Mobile
mailto:info@sandiegohomes.io
Chism Team | DRE #02105113
brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277