news just in
well, we had the inspection on Saturday and now we're not so sure...*sigh*
turns out this house experienced a pretty massive fire at one point and the support beams in the attic are all charred. structurally speaking we think it's pretty sound (and we're going to have a structural engineer in to assure us of that), but in terms of resale, who the hell wants to buy a house with a lot of fire damage? there were other smaller problems, slight corrosion here and there, fairly damp basement...half the roof is slate the other half shingle...slate is more expensive to maintain but lasts longer...basically, it's a house built in the 1920s and not a new condo complex. this all means that upkeep is going to be more significant.
the one thing nagging away at me is that the ceiling in the living room and in the bedrooms is acoustic tiling, not drywall...well, it sags in the living room...it doesn't feel particularly sturdy...i'm talkin', the inspector took is hand and pushed on the ceiling and the whole thing moved! yeah...not a good sign in my book.
we have a meeting with the realtor today to talk about all of the things we are uncomfortable with following the inspection. namely: fire damage, droopy ceiling, damp basement. we also looked through the condominium association documents. we would be an association of 2 units...but the documents kept referencing an "Executive Board" made up of 3 people who, in the end, would have the power to make decisions final. now that sounds just fine to me, except that we're an association of 2 units! for all we know, we'll have 2 people living in the downstairs condo and what happens if they want to repaint the house, we don't want to...who decides? *sigh*
this is so hard.
i fell in love with the space, and now i'm not so sure...it's scary. the money factor is a big part of it. recognizing that if something "catastrophic" like a leaking roof happened, we don't have a nest egg or a big association fund to fall back on.
we said we wanted to buy a condo because we weren't ready for the upkeep on a single family home...this condo is more like a single family home.
on the plus side, all new appliances, beautiful hardwood floors, lots of light, great feel to the space, views of the lake, walking distance to downtown...*sigh*
advice anyone??? PLEASE!
turns out this house experienced a pretty massive fire at one point and the support beams in the attic are all charred. structurally speaking we think it's pretty sound (and we're going to have a structural engineer in to assure us of that), but in terms of resale, who the hell wants to buy a house with a lot of fire damage? there were other smaller problems, slight corrosion here and there, fairly damp basement...half the roof is slate the other half shingle...slate is more expensive to maintain but lasts longer...basically, it's a house built in the 1920s and not a new condo complex. this all means that upkeep is going to be more significant.
the one thing nagging away at me is that the ceiling in the living room and in the bedrooms is acoustic tiling, not drywall...well, it sags in the living room...it doesn't feel particularly sturdy...i'm talkin', the inspector took is hand and pushed on the ceiling and the whole thing moved! yeah...not a good sign in my book.
we have a meeting with the realtor today to talk about all of the things we are uncomfortable with following the inspection. namely: fire damage, droopy ceiling, damp basement. we also looked through the condominium association documents. we would be an association of 2 units...but the documents kept referencing an "Executive Board" made up of 3 people who, in the end, would have the power to make decisions final. now that sounds just fine to me, except that we're an association of 2 units! for all we know, we'll have 2 people living in the downstairs condo and what happens if they want to repaint the house, we don't want to...who decides? *sigh*
this is so hard.
i fell in love with the space, and now i'm not so sure...it's scary. the money factor is a big part of it. recognizing that if something "catastrophic" like a leaking roof happened, we don't have a nest egg or a big association fund to fall back on.
we said we wanted to buy a condo because we weren't ready for the upkeep on a single family home...this condo is more like a single family home.
on the plus side, all new appliances, beautiful hardwood floors, lots of light, great feel to the space, views of the lake, walking distance to downtown...*sigh*
advice anyone??? PLEASE!