When Darlene Little bought a house in Lincoln Park a few years ago, she did so knowing a massive tree in the backyard was dangerously close to falling. It would have to be removed. OK.
Well, the only way to take out the tree was to tear down the garage. That was fine too. The garage was dilapidated and Little wanted a new one anyway. Then she found the garage’s concrete floor was crumbling. It had to be dug up and re-poured. When the tree came down, pieces of it broke some of the cobblestone sidewalk and damaged many plants.
The job she had estimated would cost $5,000 or $6,000 ran triple that amount.
“It was a mess,” recalls Little, who is vice president of residential brokerage for Beliard, Gordon & Partners in Chicago. “I probably cried a little bit. There were other things I wanted to spend money on and I didn’t want to spend it on a garage. I was upset with myself for not having seen this initially. I should have gotten estimates.”
As Little found out, small problems can quickly become big ones. And even real estate brokers are susceptible.
Halloween was yesterday but buyers can confront horrors in their housing purchases any time of year. What are some of the most common things that can haunt you after you’ve moved in?
– Making an emotional buy instead of a rational one. Sure, you’re gaga over the stained glass window in the coat closet or the little fountain in the backyard. It’s not enough reason to buy a house.
“Buyers will focus on one thing that is important to them and look for that,” says Sandra Matson of Baird & Warner Real Estate’s Gold Coast office. “Maybe they wanted a formal dining room so they bought a vintage home but that home has bad closets. Now they don’t have good storage. What they should do is make a wish list and prioritize it.”
“Sometimes families forget some of the things they like to do best,” says Little. “Maybe they congregate in the kitchen in the morning and then buy a house without an eat-in kitchen. They don’t have that meeting area anymore. Their living patterns change.”
– Undisclosed defects. The seller’s disclosure statement isn’t fail-safe, says attorney Robert J. Galgan of Galanopoulos and Galgan in Elmhurst. “All the seller says is `to the best of my knowledge,’ or `I don’t know.’ Some people have selective memories.”
Water, either from roofs or basements, is the biggest cause of distress, he says.
In one recent situation, the buyer discovered too late that the wallpaper on the kitchen ceiling covered water damage from a bathroom leak above. The cost of the repair was $500.
“The majority of buyers have had their homes inspected but then because of rain–and not necessarily a gullywasher–find they have problems,” he says. “The cost of litigation is so substantial and it’s such a prolonged process that it’s more logical to eat it and fix it and move on unhappily.”
Finished basements, he adds, are difficult to inspect. “You can’t take down the paneling to see if there are cracks.”
– Buying a 20-year-old home. Twenty years is a critical point in a home’s age, says Ron Passaro of RES-I-TEC, a home inspection company in Bethel, Conn., and founder of the American Society of Home Inspectors in Arlington Heights.
“The roof is at the end,” he says. “You’ve reached the life expectancy of the heating system. You’re probably already through your second generation of water heater and on your way to the third. The plumbing starts to be problematic. You could be in for a lot of repairs.”
– The heating and air conditioning don’t work. This is the second biggest complaint Galgan hears.
“The problem is, if you buy during the heating season you can easily check out the furnace,” he says. “But how can you check the air conditioning? The opposite is true if you buy during the warm season, it’s easy to check the air conditioning. It’s more difficult to check the furnace.”
– The septic system fails. If you get a bad one, it’s one of the most costly situations you’ll encounter. And unfortunately, because they are underground, they are difficult to inspect, says Passaro.
“The system is designed for so many years. Around here, the criteria is 20 years, although most last longer. A failure is when the liquid comes to the surface of the ground. When that happens, it has to be abandoned. Whether you can build another one depends upon how much property you have and the soil conditions.”
– The seller did a lot of the work himself. It’s fine if he knew what he was doing. Many don’t.
“Some of the worst disasters we find are when homeowners think they are contractors,” says Passaro. “In most cases, you have to tear out the work they already did because no one wants to work behind someone else’s mistakes. Then the cost is maybe one-third more than if it had been done right in the first place.”
Sometimes it makes a difference which projects the seller took upon himself to do, he says. Electrical ones, if not done properly, are the most dangerous.
“Electricity can kill,” he says. “I never heard of anyone dying of a plumbing leak.”
– Becoming enamored with the decorating. You can like the seller’s furniture and artwork a whole bunch but don’t forget it’s your stuff you’ll be living with. His sideboard may fit well in a dining room that has windows on three walls and opens to the living room on the fourth. But where will you find wall space to put your tall china cabinet?
“When the place is empty and all you see is the shell, it’s not the same,” says Matson.
– The location isn’t what you thought it would be. You may want a particular location but change your mind after you’ve been there awhile. One single woman chose her first home based primarily on price. It was in a growing community with many young families. Before long she noticed all village, park and library programs were geared toward children. Moving again would be expensive. She travels to other suburbs for entertainment and cultural enrichment.
“Someone may want to live close to transportation so they have a short commute,” says Matson. “Then they find the area too busy or too dense. I usually tell people if they don’t know an area to go back and see it at different times of the day and week.”
– Not hiring professionals. To cut costs, you may think about buying without a broker, closing without an attorney and skipping the home inspection. Some people do and live happily ever after. But there are risks.
“By not using a broker, you won’t be informed of all the properties that are on the market,” says Matson. “Or if you’re a first-time buyer you don’t know all the questions to ask.”
“A house is the largest investment most people make in their lives,” says Passaro. “At the high end, (a home inspection will) cost you $300 to $400. That’s a good way to hedge your bet. You probably wouldn’t buy a used car without paying a mechanic $25 to $100 to look at it. But if that car broke down the day after you bought it, it probably wouldn’t ruin you financially. If something serious was wrong with a house, it could ruin you financially.”
Recently, Little became a home buyer once again. She went to an open house in Lincoln Park and fell in love with an 1873 rowhouse with an antique chandelier in the dining room and marble fireplace.
“I want it and don’t care how much it costs,” she said at the time, fearful another buyer might outbid her.
Back at her office, cooler heads prevailed. Colleagues pointed out some of the drawbacks to the century-old home. It was heated by an oil furnace. The kitchen was from the 1950s. The decorating was hopelessly outdated.
If she still wanted the house, they told her, she should have it checked out by an inspector who specializes in historic architecture.
She did, and learned that the furnace, although provincial, was in good shape. So was the foundation. The electrical system was adequate provided she didn’t go overboard in hooking up music and computer equipment. With his report in hand, Little tendered a reasonable offer, which was accepted by the seller.
“The inspector gave me a lot of information about the house,” says Little. “He eased my mind about what needs repair immediately so I don’t put all my money into the down payment. I know this house is going to work for me.”
