response 55 of 87:

Jul 9 17:19 UTC 2000

Since when were you bothered by things that were warped? ;)

response 57 of 87:

Jul 9 18:26 UTC 2000

resp:55 - I think the fact that I am still friends with *you* proves 
that I have a high tolerance for warped things. 

response 59 of 87:

Jul 9 20:50 UTC 2000

Warped floors are a problem because:
1.  They look bad
2.  It's very hard to tile them unless the warping is fixed
3.  The warping is usually pretty difficult to fix, since you have to hear
into the floor and remove cabinets arnd such.  It might also mean a lot of
water got into there at some point, which might mean rot.

In general you won't find a perfect house, even new.  But what you do want
is one with a minimum of problems to fix.  THings like water leakage tend to
point to maintenance problems on the part of a previous owner, which could
mean that there are other serious problems hidden.

response 61 of 87:

Jul 9 22:13 UTC 2000

        I believe you said the house you were looking at was build in 1901.
Even back then. cindreblocks were used on occasion. which leads to a question.
Is the foundation cinderblocks, or cobble (Stones of medium size) and cement?
If It's cobble and cement check the outside foundation, and inside basement
walls for the quality of the cement. If it is loose or crumbling, run, do not
walk, away from that house. redigging And pouring a basement is NOT cheap,
and except in rare case, not worth it.

        While you're looking at the foundation from the outside, be sure to
checl the outside walls to see if they lean or are out of true. That little
problem is almost impossible to fix easily, and extremely expensive to repair.
Matter of fact, in that case the best thing to do is tear the house down. In
which case, you're paying an Exorbitant price for nothing more than a lot in
Ypsilanti.

response 63 of 87:

Jul 10 04:58 UTC 2000

When we were on the market for a house, we found that generally to have a
chance at getting a good house you had to be there the first day it went on
the market, and make a decision about whether you wanted to buy it in a matter
of hours.  This is a hard way to make such a big purpose.  We found that as
first-time house-buyers we felt the need of a professional in our corner, so
we hired a buyer's agent.  We liked ours a lot (Doris Preston, Re-Max) but
you should talk to several.  Get someone you are confortable with, who seems
on the same wavelength as you, who has been in the business a long time, etc.

response 65 of 87:

Jul 10 12:31 UTC 2000

Others may have mentioned this, and I just missed it, but another thing that's
important is the condition of the electrical system. Earlier vintages of
electrical systems were not all that safe to begin with, and have only gotten
worse as they deteriorated. They certainly wer not designed to handle the load
that we put on them today. Most houses that old don't even have outlets with
three-prong sockets, which means you'll be doing some rewiring just to plug in
your computer and operate it safely.

response 67 of 87:

Jul 10 13:51 UTC 2000

Oh, and by "standard contract" I *don't* mean the ones the real estate 
agents have sitting around the office; those are generally skewed toward 
the benefit of the sellers. 

response 69 of 87:

Jul 10 20:42 UTC 2000

I like #66 - especially the part about NOT using the real estate agent's
forms. I've considered writing my own, if/when I decide to buy another house.

response 71 of 87:

Jul 11 00:54 UTC 2000

That would be much safer than doing it yourself.

response 73 of 87:

Jul 11 01:49 UTC 2000

So how are you supposed to know if a house is in a flood plain? My Dad does
have something to say about old houses. When I told him I was looking at a
house that was almost 100 years old he said: "well that house got to be a 100
years old for a reason" 

response 75 of 87:

Jul 11 07:12 UTC 2000

Whether you're in a flood plain is very much an issue of geography and
topology.  If you go outside and look around at the surrounding lay of
the land, you may be able to get an idea.  If the land you're on is very
flat, and you are mostly surrounded by hills that go up, and no valleys
that go down, you should be suspicious.  You should be even more
suspicious if you see a river or stream or marsh nearby.  Another
possibilty is a buried stream - for instance, in Ann Arbor, if you go to
william near 1st, you'll find right at the railroad track there are 4
storm grates below which you can hear gurgling.  That's allen creek,
which got roofed over at some point (the 30's?).  It's also a flood
plain, and in a sufficiently bad thunderstorm, you can see the water
back up out into the street.  This is bad, but it's not the worst design
you can find.  The worst design is when you depend on an electric pump
to pump things uphill, either sewage or storm water or both.  This is
sometimes found in newer subdivisions.  By the same token, it's best to
find a house that doesn't *have* or *need* a sump pump.

In michigan, the local drain county drain commissioner's office might be
a good source of information about storm sewers, any pumps, the lie of
the land, and where the local flood plains are.  The local water
authority presumably should know if they have any pumps pumping sewage
uphill anywhere in their service area.  Another useful reference may be
a toplogical map of the area in question - you can get such maps for the
local area of michigan (and perhaps all of michigan) from Borders.

As a general rule, if you can walk either downhill, or uphill along a
ridge in all directions from your proposed property, you are probably
not on a flood plain.

The kind of soil also makes a difference.  Clay soil is much worse than
sandy soil or gravel, because the water can run along the top instead of
sinking down in and away.  Landscaping around the house, & gutters can
also make a difference.

response 77 of 87:

Jul 12 05:38 UTC 2000

There was high water under the railroad trestle on Huron?  Have there been
any water problems at the Pumpkin?  For that matter, is this the mythical
hundred year flood that the building codes for that neighborhood believe in?

response 79 of 87:

Jul 12 13:24 UTC 2000

Apparently we've now had 2 seprate "100 year" rainfall amounts, but I think
a 100 year flood takes a lot more water than that (like a like a sudden melt
of a lot of snow).