Do we walk? Need estimates?
Hi All, I’m a newbie to the forum and as can tell from my user name, I’m anxious. My husband and I are considering buying a 3 story limestone/brownstone in Brooklyn. This is our first time buying and bascially first time dealing with all the issues of buying an old house or any house for…
Hi All, I’m a newbie to the forum and as can tell from my user name, I’m anxious. My husband and I are considering buying a 3 story limestone/brownstone in Brooklyn. This is our first time buying and bascially first time dealing with all the issues of buying an old house or any house for that matter. We got the home inspection back and it was pretty grim. We are not sure if we want to walk away or not. The house has not been maintained at all so it needs tons of work. We are trying to figure out how much we should ask off the price to make this worthwhile. I was wondering if anyone has ballpark estimates for the stuff listed below. Also any names of a good contractor that does free estimates.
Thanks much,
Jen
Here are the issues:
– Lead water main, most likely cracked as water is coming into the basement. The fire hydrant on the opposite side of the street.
– leak in the bay window and water damage
– ancient boiler that needs to be replaced with gas
– electrical circa 1920’s needs to be upgraded
– asbestos that was partically and not professionally removed
– no griter in the basement (it must have been removed at some point), need to install
– repointing the back side of the building
– redo browstone staircase, it is crumbling in parts
Don’t count on the market going up again for at least five years. Interest rates are going to shoot up and prices have just barely started going down. From someone who has done one major renovation (on a farm house upstate) and one partial (on a brownstone in bklyn) I would say walk away and find a place where you can put your money into getting the place into the final shape you want it. Otherwise you will put any money you have into simply making it livable and never have the money for the finishing touches, which becomes more frustrating the longer you live in a place…
If you made a verbal offer that was accepted, got the grim inspection report back, and still want to go forward, try to negotiate a discount for the cost repairing defects that are “new” information. You could tell when you saw the place the boiler was ancient, and saw the crumbling steps on the stoop, etc. and presumably the asking price & your offer took that in to account.
Focus on what the inspection tells you that you didn’t already know and the broker / seller didn’t disclose on their own & figure how much that’s going to cost. You can discuss with your attorney negotiating to get repairs in to the contract or a price reduction. Usually the later is better because you want to be in control of the repairs.
We had some of the same issues when we bought our train wreck, er, I mean house. BTW, its awesome now but it was at least six months before it felt like we were winning.
We replaced the lead pipe going from the street to the house, it was not that expensive of a job. Main Man did ours (google it, he’s brooklyn based) I don’t think it was more than 3,000. They get all the permits and repair the sidewalk, the whole thing was about a day’s work. Price depends on how far hydrant is from house.
We also did a new boiler. There are a bunch of vendor recommendations on this site we used, Victory Brothers and had a positive experience. I think all told we spent about 6,000 for an oil to gas conversion.
In terms of getting a quote from a contractor, you will find many GCs on this site that can give you a quote.. two we got estimates from are All Renovations, based in STaten Island, does a bunch of work in Brooklyn and Transcend Contracting. We didn’t wind up using either so I can’t speak to the quality of the work.
Its not un-doable, just take it one part at a time.
Good Luck.
Oh man, how much is a sewer main? we were thinking of doing it at the same time since we would be digging anyways.
Thanks all, I guess what makes this place special is partly that it is affordable. There aren’t a lot of places out there in our price point in a neighborhood we would want to live in. If we want a house that is, and we do. It isn’t in a great neighborhood, but it is changing fast. We want to get in before the market starts going up again. Obviously I don’t have a crystal ball on that one.
You’re looking at some serious work! I’d say a new gas boiler is more in the $8k range these days. And electrical is tough–it will probably be at least $4k to bring new service into your house, if that’s what you need, and then a lot more money to re-do the internal wiring; I’d say $3-5K per floor for the basics. But you don’t need to do this all at once.
We paid $2500 for a new water main, but this was 8 years ago. A sewer main is much more expensive.
Sounds like the standard issues you will find in any brownstone/limestone not recently renovated. Probably 50k. You may be able to put off the pointing for a while, depending. Just make sure the price reflects the work needed. Don’t panic.
is there a special reason you LOVE this house? if not, i would say to keep looking.
if what you are looking at is a standard 3 story limestone/brownstone, something similar with less problems should be available or come available soon.
Hi Boerum Hill, by stairs, I actually meant the stoop. I’m from California, we don’t have stoops there and I forget my vocab sometimes 😉 The internal staircase is fine.
What do you think the repointing will cost?
rh, yes, i did mean the water line coming into the house. I would need to do this first since there is water coming into the basement. god knows for how long it has been this way. Ugh anxious!