NEVER Buy These Types of Houses...EVER

Look, this is an old house. It's going to need some work. You've got to expect that. I didn't expect that water. It had legs. A little work, a little care, a little imagination, and it's going to be great. I don't care how great you think it's going to be. I still wouldn't buy it. Several months ago, I did a video telling you what types of homes you should never buy. And now I am back with another list, a continuation of more homes that you should never buy. Now, I've had people come at me and say, I'm just a negative real estate agent, and I'm basically telling people you just shouldn't buy a house at all. It's not what I'm trying to do. The purpose of these videos are to educate consumers about things to consider when you're looking at homes. So that's the whole reason why I do these videos is to give you information to help you advocate for yourselves. So let's get into this list right now. I got some good ones. Let's get started. Some may disagree with me about this list, and I had a lot of people disagree with me on the prior video. But I will tell you, if you find yourself that you need to buy these types of homes, that's totally fine. My recommendation to you is just do your research and do your homework because a little research, proper inspections will pay you back in many returns and could end up saving you some money down the road. So let's get into this list right now. First on my list, I would never buy a historic home. Yes. Now, look, there are many people that love older homes. I've said it myself. I love old homes. And to buy a historic home, it's really exciting that you're owning a unique piece of history. Now, what designates a home to be a historic home? Well, the home needs to be connected to specific historical events. A historical home is connected to significant individuals, and the home could also provide important historical information. So, for example, in my area, we have so much history here, like going back to the Revolutionary War. And in my town specifically, the famous poet Joyce Kilmer actually lived here. So his house is still standing today, and someone's living in it. And that is a designated historic home. So let's talk about the negatives of owning a historic home. The number one negative is strict regulations on what types of renovations you can do on the house. For real. If you're in the market and you want to buy a historic home, you need to do your research and check with the local historical society to find out if there are restrictions and regulations on what you can do to that home. Now, for the most part, you could do renovations on the inside, such as updated kitchen, updated baths. But in a lot of cases, you can't change the exterior of the home, or maybe put an addition on. Because if that's going to change the whole look of the home and the integrity of the home, they're not going to let you do that. So it's very important before you even put an offer in to find out exactly what the restrictions are with doing any types of renovations. Another drawback is that they're very expensive to maintain. As you know, I've mentioned about older homes before. There are specific things that come with an older home. So with the historic home, you're going to have the same thing. These houses are going to be a couple of hundred years old in some cases. Now, if you buy a house that's in a historic district, where there's a whole bunch of historic homes on a main drag or it's in a downtown, you're expected to maintain the exterior of that home and the landscaping to make it look pristine. And if you don't, the historical society, they might come after you. So that could be super expensive. And you'll be having that pressure of having to keep up the outside of that house and having it look nice pretty much year round. Yeah. So maintaining it and making repairs, it could get pretty costly. Let's talk about the value of these historic homes. So if you have a historic home and you want to sell it, let's go back to the regulations on renovations. That's going to turn a lot of buyers off. So your return on investment may not be so great. It's not going to be as great as if you owned a regular single family home in a normal neighborhood. So that is another reason why I just would never buy a historic home. Next on my list is I would never buy a house with an older roof. Yes. I know a lot of you are going to come at me for this one because it's challenging. The houses we're looking at today, most cases, these roofs are pretty old. But here's the reason why I would never buy one. Insurance companies may not give you homeowners insurance if you have an older roof, say it's 20 years or older. I'm hearing about this a lot. I just read a story on a local Facebook group about a family who bought a house. They were living in it for a couple of months and their homeowners insurance policy got canceled because the company discovered that their roof was old. Yes, it's happening. Now, I'm not saying all companies are doing that. They're canceling policies or they're not offering insurance. There are some companies that will insure you, but it's going to cost you a lot of money. If you're in a situation, you're in the process of buying a house and you discover that the roof is older, and I highly recommend you get a licensed roofer to inspect the roof, to have them help determine the age of it, and to determine what the cost would be to replace it, I would go back to the sellers and ask for some type of concession, maybe even reduce the price to cover the cost of you replacing the roof. Because if you have a plan in place and you replace that roof within a few months after you purchase it, then you won't have an issue with insurance. That is a big reason why do not buy a house with an older roof. I wanted to also mention, if you are looking for a real estate agent in your market, whether you're selling or whether you're buying, I'm connected to a lot of agents in this country, and I'd be happy to help you get connected with someone in your market. Click that link down below, fill out the form, and I will get back to you shortly and get you connected to a real estate agent in your area. Next one is, I would never buy a house right next to a school. I'm gonna get a lot of backlash on this one, I am sure of it. Now, yes, homes that are close by to schools, they do have a higher value and people will pay more money for it. But I am talking about homes that are literally backing up to a school, like you back up to the property and you see the fields and the playgrounds from your house, or the school may even be across the street. Hear me out on this one and why I think it's not a great idea. Number one, you're gonna be dealing with noise for about nine months out of the year. So here in the Northeast, the school year runs from September till June. You have all that time where you're gonna be hearing kids in the playground during recess or during gym class. If you're near a high school on the weekends, you could be hearing all the sports games, the football games going on, and that could kind of become a nuisance. Another drawback is the traffic. Yes, so you know how it is. If you have a family, you know how it is dropping kids off and picking them up, the pickup line, the traffic can get pretty hectic. So that could be a big problem when you're trying to leave for work in the morning. Another drawback is trespassing, especially if you're living near a high school or a middle school, not so much in elementary school, cuz a lot of younger kids take buses or get picked up, but you could potentially have some students walking through your backyard if you use as a shortcut. That's a problem too. Another drawback is it could take longer to sell. Now I did say before, homes closer to schools do retain a higher value, but not everybody wants to live like right smack next to a school. So it could take longer. I'm not saying it's gonna hurt the value, but it just could take longer to sell. So that's something you need to keep in mind. Next on the list. This one's kind of obvious. I wouldn't buy a house next to power lines. Yeah. And I'm talking about those heavy duty power lines, like with those big towers. Yeah. I've seen neighborhoods where these big towers and power lines are, that will be pretty much in people's backyards. Would not recommend buying that. I would never buy a house next to one of those. Now, first of all, even though the research hasn't confirmed it, but there is belief that the electromagnetic fields that are coming off of these power lines can link to cancer. Again, the research hasn't confirmed it, but there is belief that it could cause health problems. So that's one reason I wouldn't buy a house next to these power lines. Another reason is if there's a bad storm and God forbid, lightning strikes and causes damage to the power lines or knocks the power lines down, there's a risk of a fire or electrocution. Like you have to be careful. You can't go near those power lines. That's another drawback too. The biggest drawback to living next to power lines is clearly the resale value. It's not going to sell that quickly, nor are you going to get a top dollar for that because of that location. It's not the best location. So if you are considering this is the only option you have, you have to buy a house that have power lines nearby. Brace yourself for that. Keep that in the back of your head that you may not sell it for top dollar as if the house down the street and next to a park or next to a school will fare better and sell for a higher price. That house next to the power lines will not. So yeah, I would never buy a house next to the power lines. Nope. Another house I would never buy is beachfront property. And I'm going to get backlash on this one too. Hear me out. Beachfront properties are lovely and they provide a great relaxing environment. You have access to the beach, the ocean, all the things. There are a lot of drawbacks to that and it can be very costly. The biggest drawback to owning beachfront property is the homeowner's insurance and flood insurance. You have to get flood insurance if you're going to be living on the beach. Obviously that is going to be very expensive. To me, that's a big drawback and that's why I would never buy a beachfront property. Another big drawback is the maintenance on beachfront homes. When you're right on the ocean and you have all this salt air, the sea spray hitting the house, it's going to do some damage and you're going to have to be maintaining that house pretty much every year. You're going to have some corrosion. If there's anything metal, you're probably going to have to repaint the house every couple of years because of the damage from the salt air. The biggest reason I wouldn't own a beachfront property is the risk of the storms and hurricanes. If you're on the East Coast, you all know, like down in Florida, we saw the devastation that those last two hurricanes caused, but hurricanes do hit the East Coast. Even up here in New Jersey, we've had our share of tropical storms that were a hurricane when it was further south, but when it gets up here, it still does a lot of damage and they also cause a lot of beach erosion. There's a lot of risk when these storms come through and they could really damage the home and even completely take it out. Those are reasons why I would never buy a beachfront property. Hope you appreciated this list I provided you today. If you want to know what are the types of houses you should never buy, you got to look at this video right over here. Thank you so much for watching me today to get your dose of real estate reality. My name is Jackie Baker and I will see you next time.