ReiJournal.com

One of the challenges of buying a home - either to live in or as a rental - is the hidden expense time bombs due to the aging of mechanical portions of a house.

While the structure of a house can generally last for decades and in some cases even centuries with nothing more than occasional maintenance work, the mechanical parts of the house generally don’t fare as well.

Mechanical components include appliances - refrigerator, dishwasher, garbage disposal, etc. - as well as things like the hot water heater and the air conditioning/heating units.

Each of these items have a finite lifetime and if you plan on keeping the property for any length of time, you should anticipate that one or more of these units will break down during the time you own the property. Here are sample lifetimes of mechanical components of a typical house:

Garbage disposal	10-12
Trash compactor	10
Water heater, gas	10
Water heater, electric	12
Water heater, tankless (on demand)	10
Refrigerator	14
Washing machine	12
Dryer	13
Range, electric	17
Range, gas	19
Dishwasher	10
Cooktops	15
Air Conditioner	15

Of course, these are just estimates and failures can happen at any time. But it is a good starting point to let you know when to expect troubles.

So how do you, the prospective house buyer, use this information?

You use it in two ways.

First you use it when doing a side by side comparison of several properties. Properties with newer appliances will have a higher value to you than properties with older appliances. So if the price and other factors of two otherwise equivalent houses is the same, the one with the newer appliances would be more desirable.

Second, you can use this as a negotiation tool when trying to buy the house with the older appliances. If you are working directly with a seller, you can show him the other house you are considering and explain how you have no incentive to buy his house due to the age of the appliances vs the other house… unless the price was lower to account for the anticipated near term repair costs. If you are working with a real estate agent, you should make the same pitch to the agent and stress that this information should be passed on to the seller’s agent (and of course the seller) to explain the rationale behind the offering price.

Keep in mind also that replacing an appliance is more than the cost of the appliance. There is also installation and disposal costs. And these can be quite significant.

Many times these gentle reminders of the challenges the new homeowner will face is just enough to get price negotiations (or other negotiated concessions) rolling in your direction.

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