Buying 35 year old house

ask8

Hi all advice needed badly,I'm considering buying a bungalow in Kerry thats around 35 years old.The house is in poor enough condition and would need renovating throughout.The house is in a nice area and the vendor is willing to negotiate.My problem is i'm not sure of my next step i contacted a structural eng. his quote was 500+vat.Would I be better off to get the advice of an experienced builder first who could give me an honest opinion of the building and what it needs and then get the survey done before purchase.Any advice folks?

Supertech

A builder will give you an opinion, but it will be informal and is unlikely to be in writing. That price seems a bit steep to me, but it depends on the detail to be contained in the report.

huskerdu

It also depends on the builder, how useful his opinion would be.

Building standards wrt insulation were pretty poor in Ireland 35 years ago.
If you intend bringing the house up to modern insulation standards, you will
need someone to give advice on whether this is possible / feasible on the house.

You might be able to get an structural engineer to do a more high level report, for a smaller fee, just to get professional opinion on the major issues before purchasing.