How to Choose an Older Home: What to Look For and What to Ignore

Q: I have a house-hunting question: what should I pay attention to, and what can I safely overlook? All the older homes in our price range feel dated, but I hear you like those. How do you tell which dated houses are worth buying and which are money pits? I’m worried we’ll end up with a lemon. – Aviva

A: Glad you clarified you’re not that other Aviva. We get this question often, so here’s our short guide: don’t be scared off by cosmetic issues you can change yourself. These surface problems are usually fixable and shouldn’t determine whether a house is a good investment. Examples of things we try to ignore include:

• Bad paint on walls or trim
• Old or tacky wallpaper and borders
• Dated or mismatched furniture staged in the home
• Unattractive curtains
• Dark brick or wood paneling
• Light fixtures that aren’t your style
• Colored toilets and dated bathroom fixtures

Those items can be updated with paint, new hardware, simple demo work, or a decorating refresh. Here are some before photos from our first house to show how off-putting these cosmetic issues can be, and how much better the spaces looked after relatively simple updates:

While those surface issues bothered us at first, we focused on the underlying positives. When house hunting, prioritize the features that are difficult or expensive to change. Our main checklist includes:

• The neighborhood — location is permanent and affects long-term value
• The overall layout and floor plan — moving rooms is costly
• Room sizes and the number of bathrooms — these are hard to alter
• Ceiling height and window placement — affect light and feel of rooms
• Permanent architectural features — fireplaces, beams, built-ins
• The lot and terrain — steep grades or problematic yards can be expensive to fix

In our first house, the den had dark brick and wood paneling, but it also had a centered fireplace and exposed beams — features that signaled promise. Once we painted the brick and beams, the room felt completely different and much more inviting:

After painting and updating decor, the space felt fresh and open:

The lot size was another major selling point for us: nearly an acre with a flat, wooded backyard. Land is not something you can change after buying, so a well-sized, private lot added a lot of value despite rough landscaping:

We did a lot of the yard clean-up ourselves and used local classifieds to find people willing to remove unwanted landscaping materials. That helped us convert an overgrown space into an easy-to-maintain yard that we and our dog loved:

Our rule of thumb: ignore paint, wallpaper, and other surface-level cosmetic problems if the house has the right bones. If you can repaint cabinets, remove wallpaper, or replace fixtures without structural changes, those are manageable updates. Instead, spend more time evaluating things that would be expensive to alter — the floor plan, the location of major rooms, natural light, bedroom sizes, and the lot.

If you find it hard to visualize changes, collect inspiration images from magazines and online sources and create a mood board or Pinterest board. Compare those photos to the rooms in a potential home — if dimensions and proportions are similar, you can usually recreate the look with paint, window treatments, and furniture.

To avoid a true money pit, get a thorough home inspection. Inspectors can’t guarantee to catch every issue, but a detailed inspection greatly reduces the risk of unexpected structural or mechanical problems. We hire well-recommended inspectors who spend several hours checking under the house, on the roof, and in hard-to-reach places. That kind of due diligence has helped us avoid major surprises with our purchases.

Do you use must-have and must-not-have lists when house hunting? Creating clear priorities helps you avoid being swayed by nice-but-nonessential features and makes it easier to walk away from homes that don’t meet your core needs.