Knob and Tube Wiring- Cost?

bbo · 12-29-2012, 11:44 AM

sometimes with a first offer, you need to set boundaries too, as both buyer or seller.

when we went to buy this house, we actually bid on another house. we determined that X$ was what we could afford with payment, interest rate, taxes, utilities,, etc.

with first house we bid on, the seller wanted more than X$ and his Realtor told ours that it would just break his heart to take less than asking. we walked away without counter-offering and had word passed to them that we made our max bid and would be looking elsewhere. That house ended up selling for 10k less than our offer about 1 year later.

the next house we bid on we left some room for negotiation as it was in a community with lower taxes. we never mentioned it to the Realtor showing houses so she told the selling Realtor that we just walked away from another house after that seller tried to counter offer. they accepted ( I liked this house better myself.)

moral of the story, do what's best for you since you are the one looking out for yourself. Real estate agents are most interested in quick sales, not getting the highest price for the seller or the lowest price for the buyer. realize that the more time they spend on a client, the lower their hourly pay goes. Only you can determine what price you will accept or pay, don't get forced into something you are not comfortable with.

That said, let us know how it works out.

FYI, for such a small house, it does look very appealing from the photos.

sgip2000 · 12-29-2012, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayleen4246

Thank you everyone for your replies. It helps so much to hear from people who have experience doing this type of thing. The only I wanted to say, in response to sgip2000- I was never trying to flip this house or just trying to make it look pretty. I bought the house 6 years ago but it quickly became too small after being married and having children. My brother than lived in it for a while but was laid off and couldn't cover the mortgage anymore. I'm not really wanting to pursue being a landlord to a stranger so I put it up for sale. Any issues that I knew of I fixed correctly prior to putting it on the market so I was just very surprised when 11 requests for repairs/changes were sent back to us following the inspection. Especially with the attic wiring because that was never even mentioned as a problem to me when I had my inspection done about 6 years ago. We're going to have an electrician come in and look it over to verify everything is fine with the wiring (i.e. it's safe) and than will most likely send a counter offer back saying we will fix the smaller things she asked for but that the wiring will be left as is. Again, thank you all for your help. Happy New Years!

I wasn't saying you were trying to flip it. I was just making a general observation.

When I was in the market, I saw several that were "flips" and didn't make an offer on any of them as they were just "polished turds".

kayleen4246 · 01-03-2013, 01:57 PM

Just an update- We had two electricians come in and look at the wiring. Both said it was safe and in great condition with no need to replace it. Their estimates were between $1000 & $2000 to completely replace the knob & tube wiring. We counter-offered saying we would do everything but the wiring and the window on her 11 item list. Her agent said that her loan would be contingent on the wiring being changed so we offered to go half and half. She wanted no part of that and demanded that every single item on her list be completed PLUS she wanted us to come back in the spring to fix "anything else" that may come up. I didn't even know that a buyer could ask for that. We chose to walk away at that point. The house is going back on the market and *hopefully* we'll get another offer soon. Thanks everyone for your help!

bbo · 01-03-2013, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayleen4246

Just an update- We had two electricians come in and look at the wiring. Both said it was safe and in great condition with no need to replace it. Their estimates were between $1000 & $2000 to completely replace the knob & tube wiring. We counter-offered saying we would do everything but the wiring and the window on her 11 item list. Her agent said that her loan would be contingent on the wiring being changed so we offered to go half and half. She wanted no part of that and demanded that every single item on her list be completed PLUS she wanted us to come back in the spring to fix "anything else" that may come up. I didn't even know that a buyer could ask for that. We chose to walk away at that point. The house is going back on the market and *hopefully* we'll get another offer soon. Thanks everyone for your help!

It's hard to walk away from an offer, I understand, but the last part about coming back in the spring to fix "anything else" serves as a red flag that there would have been something major.

rrolleston · 01-03-2013, 02:18 PM

That's crazy she not only wants a house in perfect condition she also wants a maintenance contract. Maybe the realtor should suggest she buy a new home with a maintenance contract.

kayleen4246 · 01-03-2013, 02:53 PM

Ya, the spring thing was my "You've got to be kidding me" moment. There was some other things that she's done that contributed to it as well. She was supposed to take out an additional $1000 to cover any repairs she wanted- she changed her mind on that and instead just wanted more cash back at closing (she was already getting around $3000 back). She also never turned in/gave her earnest (s/p?) money. I just figured that we were wasting on time and the house was off the market for a deal that wasn't going to work out in the end anyways. Better to just walk away than keep trying to please the unpleaseable. Sorry that this became more of a real estate question versus an electrical one.

bbo · 01-03-2013, 03:20 PM

no worries, I'm glad to hear the K&T was safe and ok for selling. goes to prove that just because something was done a long time ago, does not make it inherently unsafe.