The 1986 movie “The Money Pit” starring Tom Hanks wasn’t one of the actor’s bigger hits, but it struck a nerve with homeowners all the same.
No one wants to sink every penny they have into their dream house.
But spotting a money pit — or preventing your existing house from becoming one — isn’t easy.
Larry Nelson, owner of Construction Services in Denver, said that, on occasion, structural problems aren’t readily apparent even to the trained eye of a home inspector.
Would-be homebuyers should check out a house’s basement to spot a budding money pit, he said. That’s where most repair work is done by the homeowner.
“You can hide a lot of sins with paneling,” Nelson said, such as poor wiring or other issues that can lead to big money woes down the road. “That’s when it starts getting expensive.”
Wendy Bibeau, owner-Realtor of The Bibeau Group/Keller Williams Realty, says money pits can bubble up below the house in question.
Decaying sewer lines, combined with old tree roots and other possible obstructions, could lead to major repair work, Bibeau said.
Older homes typically require greater scrutiny for money-pit potential. But early-1900s homes made chiefly of brick require more diligence. Bibeau suggests having not just a home inspector peek at such a home, but possibly a structural engineer.
But no inspection system, no matter how carefully thought-out, is foolproof.
Cal Fenimore of Check It Out Home Inspectors in Aurora said structural engineering “isn’t an exact science,” and he compares buying a house to shopping for a used car.
“You can take it to the best mechanic in the city . . . then you drive the car away and the next thing you know you have an alternator go out. I’ve seen that with houses too,” Fenimore said.
Some money pits come in the form of clumsily expanded homes.
Money pits can sometimes lurk amid some beautifully “flipped” homes, said Garet Denise, owner of Cornerstone Inspection in Littleton and president of the local chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
Too many house-flippers concentrate too much energy on the “wow” factor — the perfect granite counter or some gorgeous kitchen cabinets.
“Most of those investors fail to address fundamental structural and mechanical system issues. They focus on the cosmetic stuff,” Denise said.
Nelson said homeowners can sometimes be blamed for turning innocent homes into money pits.
“People ignore the little fixes, the drip of water, the wet spot underneath the bathroom sink. A 20-cent washer could have solved the problem years ago,” he said.
The costliest repairs
The home’s structure. Structural defects can set a homeowner back a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the severity. Issues of expansive soil, for example, require the installation of concrete piers that go down to the bedrock. That can run $22,000 or more.
Heating, cooling, electrical and plumbing issues. Installing new electricals or new wiring ranges from $1,000 to $10,000. Faulty furnaces are typically replaced, not repaired, and they start at $1,500. It’s also generally cheaper to replace, not fix, a home’s air conditioner, at usually $3,000.
Sewer lines and plumbing issues. Can be very expensive to fix, both for replacing the lines and for the damage done to the property in digging up the old lines. Swapping out copper pipes in old homes for superior plastic ones costs $12,000 to $15,000.
Source: Garet Denise, owner of Cornerstone Inspection in Littleton
