Both sides
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
Maine has some of the oldest housing stock in the country. In Lewiston, Auburn, Gardiner, Bath and Brunswick, a house built in 1900 is unremarkable.
That is the appeal and it is the work. These houses ask a specific set of questions, and every one of them has a known answer if you ask it before you commit.
Knob and tube is still live in parts of some houses here. The electrical risk is manageable. The insurance problem is the real one, because a number of carriers will not write a policy on it, and without insurance there is no mortgage.
Establish early whether it is present and whether it is still energised. Partial rewiring is common and the cost varies enormously with access.
Assume it in anything pre-1978. You are entitled to disclosure and to an inspection period.
It matters most with young children, and it has specific implications if you intend to rent. Intact, well-maintained painted surfaces are a very different situation from peeling ones.
Oil is still common here. The system itself has a knowable age and condition.
The tank is the thing to pin down. Above ground in the basement is routine. Buried in the yard is a different matter, because of the cost and liability if it has leaked. Find out which you are dealing with before you are committed.
Sills and foundation, because a century of water finds the low point. Chimney condition, particularly if anything is vented into it. Roof, including whether ice dams have been doing damage at the eaves.
Insulation, or the absence of it, which shows up in your heating bill rather than in the inspection report.
Most of these houses have been renovated more than once. The question is not whether work was done, it is whether it was permitted and whether it was done well.
An unpermitted addition is a title and appraisal issue as well as a quality one.
Buyers and sellers, across central and southern Maine, with Fontaine Family - The Real Estate Leader.
Wells, septic, oil tanks, lead and shoreland zoning. The questions Maine actually asks.
Including when the answer is that a house is not worth it, or that you should wait.
Not automatically, but it is more than a repair item. Many insurers will not write a policy on a house with live knob and tube, and no insurance means no mortgage. So it can turn into a financing problem rather than an electrical one. Find out early whether it is present and whether it is still energised.
Assume it in anything built before 1978, which in Maine is most of the housing stock. It is manageable, it matters far more with small children in the house, and it has specific implications if you intend to rent the property. You are entitled to disclosure and to an inspection period for it.
Ask where it is. An above-ground tank in the basement is a normal item with a known replacement cost. A buried tank in the yard is a different conversation entirely, because of the potential for a leak and the cost of dealing with one. You want this established before you are under contract.
Roof and chimney, foundation and sill condition, ice dam damage, insulation or the lack of it, and the standard of whatever renovation happened in the 1980s and 1990s. The useful question is rarely whether work was done. It is whether it was permitted and whether it was done properly.
Tell Emma what you are trying to do and when. If the answer is that you should wait, she will say so.