Hello Maryland friends! As home inspector here in the Washington DC area, we are sometimes asked, “What is the perfect house to buy?” Many people think a new house is the best because it’s brand new! Other people think an older house is better because the craftsmanship was better in previous days. If you don’t want maintenance or home repairs, the best house to buy is 4-year-old house.
Why not a brand-new house? Yes, new house construction is up to the most recent code. Yes, it’s squeaky clean and polished. But during the first few years, brand new houses take time to work out the kinks. County code inspections are minimal, and many things are discovered by the owner during the first few years, such a window that didn’t have the right flashing and ends up leaking, foundation settlement cracks and ceiling nail pops, and rooms that turn out to be cold because the builder didn’t connect the ducting to that room!
During the first 2 or 3 years, most of these issues get corrected by the homeowner. Since the house is still new and fresh, homeowners tend to take overall good care of it. By the time the house is 7 or 8 years old, the novelty of a new house has worn off and people tend to be rougher on them. And at this point, some key systems are reaching the end of their design life (water heater and appliances) and exterior wood needs repainting. At 15 years old, many roofs need work (and some need replacement), the furnace is about to go, and the house has several other issues such as dripping faucets, exterior wood rot and vegetation crowding house.
For houses 20 years and older the risk just goes up. And beyond 30 years, the weaker building codes become a concern.
That’s why the 4-year-old house is the best to buy. It’s fully up to modern code. Many of the bumps have already been worked out. Yes, in a few years you’ll need to replace of a few home systems, but it should be about 10 years before the big home expenses start to hit.
There you have it, the home purchase sweet spot!
