When you are buying a home in the US there are different laws in every state that guide the sale. However, there are some common things that those laws do NOT cover and this is what our episode covers today. There are things that are happening that NO ONE is generally looking for that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our goal today is to help you find those BEFORE you purchase this new home.

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[00:00:30] Eric Goranson: To get that up to current building code because someone didn't get a final permit. Sign off. Now that leads to the last part of this one. Have all the permits been signed off on that residence? When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know that we've got you further. This is around the house.

[00:01:15] Eric Goranson: Around the house nation where people share up projects and things and things that they're working on. And it's a, uh, real safe space to, uh, share up stuff. And, uh, trust me, if, uh, anybody gets had a hand over there or we don't, uh, we don't accept trolls and rudeness and, uh, fake posts, those people, uh, get removed from the group so we can keep it safe for everybody.

[00:01:57] Eric Goranson: The first one, can you [00:02:00] afford to keep it up and maintain it? You know what's interesting? Someone might go out and buy a house, they bought their house, their dream house, and it's an old craftsman or an old Victorian, and they're just being able to get in there. But they maybe don't realize that there's 50 or a hundred thousand dollars.

[00:02:43] Eric Goranson: You know that that is a great bandaid. It might keep the systems working, but if you've got a 20 year old H V A C system and a 25 year old roof, and it's been a decade or more since it's been painted, you have some big ticket items [00:03:00] heading your way. And these are things I really want you to pay attention to when you're out looking at a house because you know, with interest rates and things right now, as high as they are, you can't just go out and get a cheap home loan these days.

[00:03:36] Eric Goranson: Little bit different story. This is, are you getting what you're paying for? Now here's what happens. Let's say you bought a 1920s home in the middle of a nice town, and maybe the back porch has been wrapped. Maybe the, the top [00:04:00] of the, you know, the attic space has been converted, the basement has been finished.

[00:04:36] Eric Goranson: I have had 1700 square foot homes. Show up is a thousand square feet in the building department because somebody converted the basement in the attic space, and so it changes completely the square footage of the home. Now the problem is, is don't go to the tax accessor or the auditor because if you have a 1700 square foot house you're buying and you tell [00:05:00] 'em it's 3000 square feet, they'd be happy to tax you at 3000 square feet.

[00:05:20] Eric Goranson: You're paying so many hundreds of dollars a square foot for this house. And by doing that, what happens is you're now buying a house that you do that doesn't exist. You're paying stor, residential, you know, livable storage space where livable space instead of storage space, and that's huge. So you wanna make sure that's it.

[00:06:07] Eric Goranson: Sometimes it can be very hard because what happens is, is those things are traditionally not grandfathered in. What I mean is, is if they did that in the 1950s or 1960s and didn't pull permits, you're gonna have to bring that up to 2023 building code in most areas. I see most areas as there's probably an exception out there, but general rule is it has to be brought up to the newest one.

[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: Specter starts heading upstairs. He goes, we [00:07:00] don't have a second floor on this. What? The homeowner even had a stamp set of plans for that second floor, but either they had lost the permit, which Portland had done. They had lost a number of years of building permits. At that time, the city of Portland had, when they converted over to digital, there were permits, permits that were lost, and then on top of that, what happened was is uh, it cost the homeowner another hundred thousand dollars to bring that second floor up to current building code.

[00:08:02] Eric Goranson: Is in remodel and edition, we were going to have to rip off all the drywall in that edition, put the right insulation in, and there was gonna have to be so much work done that the kitchen remodel wasn't going to happen because there was no way to get that up to current building code because someone didn't get a final permit sign off.

[00:08:45] Eric Goranson: And get finished that that project didn't get the final inspection or there was a problem where they, you know, got red tagged, whereas, oh, it's almost there. We gotta do four or five more things. And those four or five things got forgotten [00:09:00] and then nothing happened to get it finished off. People forgot about it.

[00:09:35] Eric Goranson: Around the house will be right back up to do some important messages. Don't go anywhere.

[00:10:12] Eric Goranson: Hey guys. Welcome back to Around The House Show where we get you the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. We're talking about the top 10 things to consider when buying a home that they don't tell you about. But first, make sure you're following me over on my new YouTube playlist, and that's over at Fox 12, Oregon.

[00:10:44] Eric Goranson: So if you're looking to start a project, we're starting to really cover a lot of stuff over there, including some great main and. America made in northwest kind of stuff. Even though this show goes around the world and around the the country here in the United States, we have some great products here [00:11:00] that are made locally.

[00:11:21] Eric Goranson: So here's the thing. You need to make sure that you have all the inspections done, one or two of them. And here's where I want to put a little asterisk on this. If you have any cracks in the foundation, I wanna make sure you have a structural engineer come out and take a look at it, even a foundation contractor.

[00:12:06] Eric Goranson: If you get air testing done that says that there's mold in a house, now you can do a little bigger look and say, where is that coming from? And to be honest, if you're the purchaser, you wanna be able to hang that on the hat of somebody else to pay for, right? Not you. So you wanna make sure that you can get that dialed in.

[00:12:45] Eric Goranson: And at the same point, it's not a bad time to have on home energy audit done too, to see what you can do and see what, um, you know, how leaky is that house. What do you have to do to get that thing? So it's really going to be, you know, [00:13:00] efficient for you because with the price of heating and cooling and everything else these days, understanding what you're buying is gonna be key.

[00:13:25] Eric Goranson: And I'm talking your investment. What is going on with your investment here? Because for instance, when I purchased my house, I bought the smallest. House with the biggest lot in the neighborhood, which ended up being the cheapest house in the neighborhood, and that gives me such a great place to be able to grow and be able to take this house into bigger and better things.

[00:14:15] Eric Goranson: Now, if you're in a planned community and it's all brand new homes, or they're newer homes, That's really not the same conversation as, as in a, as in a more established neighborhood, or if you're out on a farm, you know, just making sure that you've got a place for this to grow, that you can come out and be a little farther ahead is gonna be a better deal.

[00:15:01] Eric Goranson: And here's, let me explain to you how the best way to do this. If you're looking to put an offer on the house, go around and open all the doors and windows. If they're all opening correctly, that's a good sign. If you walk around the outside of the house, do you see any cracks or crumbling foundation Have a little level in your pocket?

[00:15:43] Eric Goranson: Now if there's cracks, for instance, in concrete, it's not that big a deal cuz you can get that repaired. The only issue that you need to look for is when things are sinking, and you might have to put helical piers or pin piles in to help support stuff. Is [00:16:00] that chimney pulling away from the building?

[00:16:25] Eric Goranson: They knew better. The waterline had broken outta the drain in the laundry room, and it literally caused a hundred thousand dollars of the damage underneath the house because every time they ran that top load washing machine, it dropped 50 or 60 gallons underneath and washed out the foundation wall under the kitchen, which caused the kitchen to sink and the room to sink.

[00:17:06] Eric Goranson: Literally. There's lots of ways to do it in that situation. You're trying to get it back to level and fix it cuz it had settled. I mean it bound. You couldn't have gotten the refrigerator out without a sazo because it jammed the refrigerator from the exterior wall. And the sidewall into the cabinets. It wasn't coming outta there.

[00:17:42] Eric Goranson: No, you don't have to jack the house up anymore. That is the old school way of doing it. You could actually go inside of that basement and pour a brand new interior foundation. On the inside of that wall, you might lose a couple square feet, but you can actually live in the house instead of having to move outta the house and they [00:18:00] jack it up cuz most building departments and engineers will not let you stay in the house when they jack it up.

[00:18:27] Eric Goranson: Be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.[00:19:00]

[00:19:27] Eric Goranson: Thanks for tuning in. I do appreciate every single one of you, and if you listen on the radio, don't worry. You can catch us all on the podcast. Just look for a round the House show on your favorite podcast network. Well, to review what we've talked so far is, you know, about those top 10 things to consider when buying a home that they don't tell you about.

[00:20:05] Eric Goranson: Is the cheapest one? What's the value? And then we talked about, uh, foundation issues. And one more thing I kinda wanted to talk about, let me expand on that first one, which was, can you afford to keep it up? Are you living in an area where there is frequent or fr possibility to storm damage? Are you in a hurricane area?

[00:20:47] Eric Goranson: If you get a storm, could, do you have enough to cover for that insurance policy? Can you afford the insurance policy on that home? Can you afford to get it back in it? You know what happens if you have a hurricane? [00:21:00] Is the house old where it might not make it? Or is it in Florida where it's one of the new fortified homes down there?

[00:21:29] Eric Goranson: Can you afford to keep that house up through the storm? Something to consider. Well, the next one here on my list. Do you need room to expand? Are you, is? Are you a young family? You're thinking about having four kids and you have a two bedroom or a three bedroom house? Did you get a big enough piece of property that you can do in addition down the road?

[00:22:10] Eric Goranson: No, younger kids are something that just happens for a handful of years, and all of a sudden they're 6, 7, 8, 10 or or 10 to 15, and all of a sudden they're heading off to college. It goes quick, but is your house gonna be able to fit your family plans? Or do you have space to be able to make it that house?

[00:22:52] Eric Goranson: Can you do something to your house to make it bigger, to fit your family situation? And maybe that's a big deal. [00:23:00] Maybe it's not a big deal, but it's something to consider. And I always say that if you're going to design your house for small children, unless you've got a daycare, that should be a temporary fix.

[00:23:32] Eric Goranson: And that's something that can cost you a lot of money and that's fairly wasteful. And, um, nah, that's just not one that I'd be be doing. I mean, it's cute and all might look good on your Instagram, but is it gonna be practical? Probably not. Now, here's the next one that I, that is a big one. Is there an HOA or a condo owner's association?

[00:24:17] Eric Goranson: Do you wanna have a natural landscape, but you have to have grass? Do you wanna paint your house black? But they can only let you have five different colors of tan. You see where I'm going? HOAs can be great for keeping a house value and not letting a neighborhood go badly. They can also be a nightmare for a homeowner if you tend to live a little bit outside the norm.

[00:25:03] Eric Goranson: You get where I'm going at this? These other issues with HOAs. I mean, I had a, I, I battled out a condo owner's association with, uh, my wife Julie's place where she used to live. I had no idea, and I mean, I had no idea because the rules weren't posted anywhere when I was dating Julie, that I was parking in the gas parking spot.

[00:25:55] Eric Goranson: That was a very celebratory, but I tell you what, this predatory [00:26:00] towing agency and yeah, we have a big problem with towing companies being scammers in the state of Oregon. That's a huge issue here that our state still has not gotten under control. But I tell you what, car towed, it was illegal to tow it because the rules weren't posted and it was a battle.

[00:26:43] Eric Goranson: Cuz it could be something. That is not conducive to your neighborhood. I mean, are you, do you like to be barbecued in the back with the, with the smoke going? I have heard of, of, uh, HOAs limiting the amount of days you can barbecue in the backyard. [00:27:00] Yeah. How insane is that? So be careful with what you do understand it.

[00:27:30] Eric Goranson: I've seen people get sued for, um, or fined, actually not sued, but they get fined because they didn't mow their lawn every Monday, or you don't have control of your front yard. I have a buddy what gets planted in his front yard, he doesn't control the H HOA does. And you know something, even though he owns it, they're the ones planting the plants.

[00:28:10] Eric Goranson: All right, we come back. We're gonna wrap up all the different things, the top 10 things to consider when buying a home that they don't tell you about after these important messages. Hey, if you want more information about us, head over to around the house online.com or just find us on social media. And look for around the house show.

[00:29:03] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. Thanks for joining us today. Well, we've been talking about the top 10 things to consider when buying a home that they don't tell you about, and uh, the next one on the list here is really important and it's understanding the crime and the laws of the neighborhood you're moving into.

[00:29:49] Eric Goranson: Do you understand that? Somebody could be doing heroin in the street in front of you and the police aren't going to show up. So these are things that I really want you to understand what you're getting into. [00:30:00] In the neighborhood that you're moving into and understand what's the good stuff and what's the bad stuff so you can understand the right location for your home.

[00:30:30] Eric Goranson: So I just chalk it up and say, Hey, they're okay with it. And are you putting your house in the right location? Are you, do you have a family? Are you coming in an up and coming neighborhood where you're hoping it's a great investment? Or are you trying to go to a safe place with good schools, you know, There's no right or wrong answer here.

[00:31:15] Eric Goranson: Versus to where they can afford to, which leads to traffic. So these are things that I really want you to think about and the other stuff that you can think about too is, is what happens in that neighborhood as far as your nor local neighborhood association. How active are they? Just things like that to, to understand what's going on.

[00:31:57] Eric Goranson: So it's just something to consider when you're out looking [00:32:00] around what those crimes. Laws, all that sort of thing is going on there so you have a better understanding. Now, the next one here is a big one. What is the likeliness of your home to be able to flood and can you get flood insurance for it? Just like earthquake?

[00:32:46] Eric Goranson: So these are things to understand. Or if you look at some homes in some FEMA areas, they will say, you can build there, but you're gonna have to make the front door 12 feet off the ground or whatever that. Rate of flood is so [00:33:00] understand the ability to be able to have your house insured. If you have a pre 1920s house, sometimes that doesn't go well.

[00:33:31] Eric Goranson: So just understand the playing field and what your challenges are moving forward to be able to do that. So understand the insurability and the likely cause of damage to that house, kind of like we talked about in one, but just understanding so you can have that coverage and be good to go. And then number 10 on my list.

[00:34:18] Eric Goranson: These are all things to consider when purchasing that house. What can happen? Where can you park? Is it a busy street and then, and you have to walk, you know, a quarter mile down the road with no sidewalks. Maybe that's not the right house for you. Can you add some parking? These are all things to consider when looking at the home.

[00:35:00] Eric Goranson: One of the biggest ones that I see out there that, uh, ends up popping up later is understanding where your property lines are. And what's your access is, are you coming off of, uh, off of a neighbor's driveway? Do you know that the fence lines might not actually be the property lines? You know, it's interesting.

[00:35:41] Eric Goranson: You know, there are some interesting things where there's a pin in the ground and it says that's where the survey is, but now that number doesn't make sense, and so it's hard to figure out where the lines are and where they're not. And how to get away with that within your neighborhood, because these are [00:36:00] things that can be very contentious and expensive if you have to fight that battle.

[00:36:31] Eric Goranson: Well, that property line is a couple feet into his yard. Or into their yard. So that's gonna be something that you have to really consider. So dealing with that, understanding where those lines are in maybe worst case, paying for a survey to understand what it is, can be a bigger piece because it's one of those things that, uh, as long as people understand where that line is and, uh, maybe fences don't have to move, but you can put something together where.

[00:37:27] Eric Goranson: You know, with access, if you are coming off a flag lot and maybe your, uh, driveway comes off of that, making sure that you have all the rights and easements to your property is another key to finding the right home. And sometimes, and this is where realtors. Do a great job of trying to sell you and understand going through the process and depending where you are.

[00:38:15] Eric Goranson: That's the important part in a course. Trying to find where you've got those issues that could cost you money later. I just wanna see that you get into the house, get exactly what you're paid for, and don't get ripped off or get, you're buying a house that you don't think it's. Nice is what you thought you were getting, and that's the key right there.

[00:38:50] Eric Goranson: Go over the contact us. I would love to put you on the show and, uh, have your question answered and I can help you with that. Doesn't matter if you're stuck on a project or you're trying to find [00:39:00] resources or whatever you're trying to do, I'm here to help. And head over to around the House online.com, or if you've got a question head over to Around the House Nation on Facebook, that is a group that we can also chat about what projects you have going.