Are you constantly tripping over toys or even the kids themselves whenever you try to walk about the house? Do you struggle to find a single space in the house that hasn’t been invaded by screaming children and all of the chaos they leave behind them? I’ve got news for you, it’s time to move house. It might have been fine when it was just the two of you but now that you’ve introduced the sheer force of destruction that is children into the house, you need more space. The only problem with that is, buying a house costs a ridiculous amount of money and when you’ve got a family that goes through clothes and food at an alarming rate, you probably won’t be able to afford a brand new place. You can save yourself a load of money if you buy an older house that’s seen better days and fix it up a bit, but before you do that, just remember these things.
Creepy Crawlies
Gross little insects love old houses so you’re always at risk of buying a house that’s infested with the things, chomping through all of the floorboards and bringing the whole house crumbling down. Before you agree to anything, you need to go over the whole place with a fine tooth comb and make sure that there aren’t any infestations. Or, if you really wanted to save yourself some money, you could buy the termite infested house that nobody else will touch with a barge pole and get termite treatment yourself. You’ll have some pretty good bargaining power if the house is infested so you’ll be able to knock the price down.
Roof Damage
Waterfalls are a lovely, relaxing thing to look at, but not when they’re falling through the roof onto your face when you’re asleep. Roof damage is one of the worst possible problems when you’re buying a fixer upper so it’s best to just steer clear of anywhere that needs work in that area. You’ll be able to tell if there’s a massive hole obviously, but sometimes smaller gaps that you can’t really see will still let water in. It’ll run down the walls and you’ll be living in the middle of a mold infested hell hole in no time. Your best bet is getting a surveyor to come in and have a look to make sure there’s nothing too bad going on up on the roof.
You’ll Have To Do The Work Yourself
This is definitely worth remembering because, even though you can get people to come in and do some of the work, you’re doing this because you want to save money so you’ll have to do a lot of it yourself. This isn’t like that time when you wanted to put some shelves up so you watched a couple of Youtube videos and drilled a piece of wood into the wall. You’ll have to actually know what you’re doing so just think about that before you take on a massive project.
Buying a fixer upper house is a great way to save money, but if you get it wrong, it’s also a great way to spend all of your cash on a crumbling mess.