From: "Hamilton Audio" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: house rebuilt year
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 02:50:48 GMT

we had a similar issue...the house listed as 1978, but all windows labelled
as 1984.  Furnace is 1984 too...during the
requisite lawyer signings, I noticed something...the home was listed as
1978, but original permits were in 1969!!  Turns
out that there was another house here, and a bunch of stuff happened "in
between" sans permit.  local neighbours confirm
that a much smaller house "used to be here", and to avoid complication, a
single part of the foundation was left original
and built "around" to avoid needing permits....apparently it was possible
back then!

I had an appraiser cornered and ran this by him...he agreed to take a look
at the house quickly (family friend) and let me know....
he didn't even get inside the house and told me it was worth every penny and
more of what I paid, no matter the age.  Local
neighborhood, quality, etc were all too high to even think of starting
litigation to get back some money....

I guess being surrounded by $300K homes does well, doesn't it??  :)  If the
house is "the one", and its right in every other
way...have it thoroughly inspected and looked over.  if its got a clean bill
of health, who cares?  I know I don't...

b

"art"  wrote in message
news:cPaZb.59358$IF1.28097@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
> Walk away.  You'll never be happy...you'll always be suspicious, you'll
> always feel screwed over. Why bother. Is this the only house for sale in
the
> area where you live? Why are you pursuing it? Go buy another house. The
age
> of the house is meaningless. Where I live there are plenty of 100 year old
> houses that sell for over a million dollars while new houses sell for 500
to
> 800K. Age has nothing to do with anything. Get a competent building
> inspector if you must have this house and only this house out of all the
> houses in the universe. The inspector can pretty much figure out what was
> changed. You sound like a person who thrives on aggravation and drama.
>
>
> "Philip"  wrote in message
> news:ba78a0bd.0402122056.5571edb4@posting.google.com...
> > With the money you have on the table, it is time to discuss your
> > concerns with your lawyer. That what you paying him for.
> >
> > As a sanity check, in my town houses are torn down regularly with the
> > foundations being reuse. Why? In my town, if you keep the orginal
> > foundation it is consider a remodeling job for permit purposes. The
> > resulting houses sell for 700K-1.5 million. I don't think the 100 year
> > old foundation is hurting the price. But ever town is different.
> >
> > Also, in my state, you have to declare known defects. I doubt a old
> > foundation in sound condition is considered a defect. If you are
> > really worried and still want the house, have it check out by a
> > structure engineer. If you want out of your contract, it could be a
> > reason. If you are just trying to get a lower price, you can try but
> > you also run the risk of the seller walking away.
> >
> > djavdet@yahoo.com (Djavdet) wrote in message
> news:<812feb8b.0402060936.1f07b9fc@posting.google.com>...
> > > Hi every one.
> > > I have a question,
> > > We are trying to buy a house and everything was good enough so far but
> > > recently we found that house has an older foundation then structure
> > > itself.
> > > Seller did not disclose that fact and listed the house as '85 but
> > > foundation is older , like '69.
> > > So does anybody know whether the seller is supposed to disclose such
> > > information and what's gonna happen if he did not? I mean , should we
> > > be warried about it or just forget it?
> > > Yeah everything is happening in NH
> > > Please advise
> > > Thanks
> > > Djavdet
>
>