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I just got a real estate agent and he's been looking for houses in my price range/want.

There was none so far that were good enough. Most are fixeruppers, though I have them in mind still if there's nothing else. The agent was really nice in pointing out any issues I should be watching when looking at houses, and he would point out things that may need fixing. I could tell he was not just in it for the money, so that's really good.

He has my number and whenever a new house goes for sale in my range he'll call me. I'm in no hurry to buy which is good. He was saying throughout the summer there tends to be more that go for sale.

Have to say it's quite interesting to go in different houses though and see what there is out there. It's also crazy how people just don't bother to update stuff. This one house had stucco inside and was sooo 1960's LOL. All that is repairable mind you. Nothing a belt sander and shop vac can't fix.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4607, old post ID:29837

I love 60s style houses. The house in the Peter Sellers movie The Party is so frikking awsome! How are the foundations where you live. Here in Texas we have a mixture of soil, clay and rocks that constanty make the ground shift due to dry weather and rain that cracks and shifts all foundations here. Foundation repair is a big time business here....

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4607, old post ID:29838

The first house had a really weird foundation, the footing was not more then a few inches high, then the rest was wood. Probably lot of water issues in the basement, but hard to tell. Something that is fixable but very expensive, basically need to jack up the whole house, which results in cracked walls and such.

Some older houses actually have brick foundations, which are also bad for water leaks. The newer ones have full cement ones. Split level foundations tend to be kinda bad on older houses though, as they tend to not really level the floor well. My sister's old house was like that, and so was one of the houses I saw. The windows were also right at ground level so water seeped in.

I've even seen some where they dug a hole outside for the windows, that is BAD. all the snow gets in there and melts, and the water has nowhere to go, but inside, or along the outside of the foundation. (better have good weeping tiles!)

As for the ground, honestly not sure if it's clay, or soil etc. I'd be willing to guess lot of rock and sand/clay. It's been said that pretty much any house here has a mine under it. Some regions are actually prone to sink holes. We had a year where it was pretty bad. They had to move a few "holes" at the golf course because it was a tad too easy to get a hole in one, when the entire green was 90 feet under. You're not getting your ball back either. :p

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4607, old post ID:29840

I have seen some scary stuff regarding foundation styles up in canada. I dont think they have a lot of building codes up there. The cabin right down the road from where we stay in august had a foundation that was piles of rocks, concrete, and logs. Most piles would move if you kicked them.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4607, old post ID:29847