>>3011051
How old? The thing mostly is the furnace, around here anyway. Then see if the water main is copper. Then after that, windows and insulation. Then electrical. Plumbing no big deal.

>>3011051
roof, water pipes, wiring, HVAC, what the basement looks like, (poke and prod shit, look for mineralization, water staining, appliances up on platforms)
I redid my house after i bought it on the cheap, flooring upstairs was decent, basement was old but dry, furnace was ancient but it worked.

I eventually finished the basement on the cheap with flimsy but good enough non bearing walls, had an electrician come and rewire half of it so i could do ceilings he was super cheap. redid the upstairs bathroom, new flooring, rotated the clawfoot tub and put a shower device on it. Redid the kitchen cabinets and flooring, added a dishwasher and mounted microwave rangehood. Built a ground level wooden platform deck in the backyard ($2000) 12x24. redid the front steps to be a small 4x7 deck so that the door was more easily accessible. also replaced the old windows with insert windows, read the fine print on how they build them to your measurements so you aren't having to fill a one inch gap all the way around.

I didn't do it all at once started with insulating the attic, did the windows, then the basement, the front deck, the upstairs bath, the kitchen, and the backyard deck.

If i had to do it over again i;d have had the wiring all redone before i did everything else (house is wired kinda weird)

forgot to put that i did gutters and downspouts where the water all ends up 10 feet from the house, terminate the downspout at least one foot above the ground so the extension has a good downslope. if the ground is settled around the house don't be afraid to add window wells and back fill a good slope away.

roof is expensive but if it looks good to begin with (no water stains on the ceilings or bubbling paint on the walls) it should last until you need to replace it.

>>3011051
>>want to avoid huge mortgage/loan/interest as much as possible
>If there's something critical that people always fail to consider when buying, and fucks them over later, posting that would be helpful too.

Buy a turnkey house with a big mortgage. Pay the interest, put your liquid money into investments (which will outpace your interest payments).
Every payment is building equity and credit score.

You can literally just sell your house to pay off the the mortgage, get back all your equity in a lump sum and buy a new house with a new mortgage.

Flipping houses died years ago
Shitbox houses arent cheap, materials and appliances arent cheap.
The mental drain of living in a pulled apart house where all of your free time should be going to fixing it fucking sucks.
You arent finding a decent fixer upper in an actual nice neighborhood.

You are shackling yourself to your house just like a mortgage just in a different kind of way. Except its a crappier house in a crappier neighborhood and its not appreciating in value as much.

And if you do sell it and make a decent chunk of change from your sweat equity, you havent played the game with the bank so its going to be harder to get an actual nice house (because your chunk of change will be a nice down payment and thats it)

I dont regret buying and rebuilding a fixer upper, but I will never ever do it again.

>>3011076
>Plumbing no big deal.
I'm in a 2008 rented tract McMansion and LL just had to tear up the slab to fix plumbing and that in turn fucked but the wood floor he was so concerned about not fucking up.
I told him "I think its fucked, mate, consider replacing with tile" but he didn't listen so then he spent big bucks on a repair that didn't really come off, but I don't care I'm just renting.
But he did make me move all my pack ratted shit to let his flooring guys sand and seal.

What I worry about is hidden dry rot. There is no way to inspect and they wont let you poke holes even if the shit shack already has 2' holes in the walls, just not where you need to inspect on the shady mossy side of the house at the sills.

>>3011146
I"m a recently retired Tradie so I could live in a semi-TLC house to fix up.

1/2 my worry is will it be raided by local meth-heads when they see I'm driving off and wont be back for a couple hours.

Maybe I should "join a church" but besides maybe some "security" on my house I'd have zero interest in any actual Jesus anything.

>>3011051
related thread
>>3011094

American home repair is so easy mang. Just remove the cardboard or pine wood and caulk it it's done.

>>3011153
If youre a retired tradie then why ask us? You've probably seen it all. I've only had a dilapidated trailer and some land ive fixed up at first, then bought a 100 year old house to fix everything up, then I got some 40 acres with another house from 1994 on it. On all the places it's been heating was the main issue, along with the water main breaking in the winter and tearing up the lawn to dig a copper line. I haven't had much issue with plumbing as long as it's done right whether it be copper, galvanized steel, pvc or pecks or whatever. You usually don't have to re-do a whole lot. Im just going by my experience and what I know.

>>3011153
>I"m a recently retired Tradie so I could live in a semi-TLC house to fix up.
Being retired might make this a better situation. For me, being at work with stuff pulled apart and laying around with looming deadlines just to come home to a house which is a wreck because you are ripping shit apart is draining. Working (or feeling like you are working) every waking second of your life stops being fun fast.
Retired and you can dedicate more time to it might not be as bad.

Still i think it stands, location location location no matter what.
If you want to live in it as a forever home, it better be in a good location.
If you want to sell it and move up into a better house, it needs to be in a good location.
I did the whole living/fixing/selling thing twice, both in suburbs of my home city and never once thought about crackheads stealing anything. But I also paid (with a mortgage) ~250k for the houses where the neighboring houses were 350-400k.

They both needed updated kitchens, flooring, and other small stuff. Get them up to par with the neighbors houses and sell them for market price. Not a typical flip really.
Both times I walked away making ~50-60k profit but you have to live there at least 2 years to avoid short term gains tax.
Making an extra 30k a year on the side is good, but the amount of time and energy just building and cleaning and going to the hardware store didnt feel like it was worth it.

I was so fucking burnt in the second house that I lived there 4 years before really finishing what took 2 years in the first one. Moved onto a house that didnt need a lot of remodeling and im much happier for it.
Also I had bought both houses before covid, ive passively looked for another similar house to maybe do as a rental and its a lot harder to find one now. Markets pretty bad.

I guess my thoughts are, if you can actually find a decent house in a decent place go for it. Beware of the teardowns everywhere, some just is beyond repair.

My only recommendation is don't try and save plaster walls, just rip it out and hang sheet rock

My house had mold on all exterior walls of the basement, some insulated drywall, some wood panelling, some uninsulated drywall. I removed all of the walls and moldy materials and I'm running dehumidifiers. I'm trying to determine if I need to do interior or exterior waterproofing, and if I need a sump pump. Two exterior walls have hard surfaces: driveway, concrete patio. Two sides are dirt. The house was built in 1957 and has cinder block walls. My plan was to wait until the thaw and take moisture tests and pictures of water intrusion. I was going to tape down a plastic sheet to the floor to see if there is a ground water problem under the middle of the basement (sump pump). I'm doing all of this because I want to finish my basement and don't want to have to redo it, but I also don't want to spend a boatload of money paying a guy to do exterior waterproofing, perimeter drain, sump pump, etc unless I have to.

Q. How can I determine what an adequate waterproofing solution is?
Q. How reasonable is it for a guy to trench around his own foundation and hire people to just install the waterproofing solutions, would it save money?
Q. My understanding is that a perimeter drain only works if it goes all the way around, but the driveway and patio make that difficult, is the method where you go from an exterior perimeter drain/waterproofing on one wall to interior drain/waterproofing legit?
Q. Do I just spray foam it drywall and forget?