As a "veteran" old home owner (1830 Victorian, 1870 Victorian duplex and a 1779 Cape) my advice would be never pay much more than the land is worth.

Likely right on the bricks.

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AT one time, I owned up to ten late 19thC.-to 1910 solid brick homes at the same time. Lived in some, rented others. Frankly, there were no unexpected problems. New HVAC, plumbing, wiring, roof re-shingling, re-sheathing are expected at some point.

Make any offer conditional on satisfactory inspection. Then try and get someone with old house experience for the job. The main thing to be sure about is structural condition. Also, check for termites/carpenter ants and any other local pests.

Ironically, all those old homes I owned are still standing while I've consigned many 1940s-1960s homes to landfills.

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buying an old home NEVER "makes financial sense". It will always take more monetarily than it will give when you go to sell.

Totally depends on location!!

The old downtown Toronto homes I bought for C$35K-C$115K in the '70s-'80sare now fetching C$950-C$1.6m. And that's after the 30% haircut home prices have taken from their April highs.(No, I wasn't prescient enough to hang on to any of them.)

Hmmm.... too many variables to judge I think. Even reading it Im not sure what you are describing with the brick and whether its a structural issue or just some surface pieces flaking off. Are bricks actual broken in pieces, are you seeing big cracks within the entire wall or along the mortar joints? And one person's "very musty" can be another's normal old house funkiness on a humid summer day.

If you are truly on the fence about it you could get a knowledgeable acquaintance or hire someone just to come along before making an offer to take a look - without it being a full blown inspection at this point The seller doesnt have to know who it is - just someone coming along with you (you should of course also have the inspetion contingency in the offer)

Whether or not you hire someone now or wait til. after offer made, you should start calling around if you havent already done so to locate the right kind of home insector - someone who knows and loves old houses. Not all have the same level of expertise. You can tell by talking to them - if they go on for along time talking to you on the phone about your possible house - just because they love talking about old house s- that's a good sign! You might even get some kind of answer to your question re condition of the brick without him/her having to come out to see it.

I think its true that old houses can be a money pit, but honestly.... I think there again thats something you wil need to rely on your inspector (a good one) to help you with. As you go thru the house they should be able to come up with a range of repair/renovation options for you, some ball park figures for each option (DIY vs. hiring someone), even have some recommendations for who can do the work. Then add.... pick a percentage....50%? Various schools of thought.

It can be as dire as Sophie paints it, but maybe not... there again, too many variables - overall condition of the house, market (appreciating?), your own vision for the house .... if its an intact vintage house with original features that you like and can easily DIY the plaster repairs and re-shellacking the wood and installing your own new kitchen cabs.... if the op's have already upgraded the electrical and replaced the lead plumbing... then you're ahead of the game. If the house has been severely neglected or futzed with in weird ways and/or you have this insatiable need to yank out walls and move stuff around and buy an expensive kitchen even though the average american eats out more now than they eat in -- then your mileage may vary. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks all for your replies!

" buying an old home NEVER "makes financial sense". It will always take more monetarily than it will give when you go to sell."

"Totally depends on location!!" I totally agree!!

The home is not at our max budget but is at the max asking price for the location. We have new-built our 6 previous homes ( DYI projects don't faze us!) and in doing so always kept the home's investment inline with what the market would bear in a re-sale market. Of course, doing much of the work ourselves always allowed us to realize more when we moved on. Now we want to try something different by way of a character home. We are not limiting ourselves to move in ... some repairs improvements while keeping as much of original features as possible is fine. This particular home is essentially move in ready (needs more storage in the kitchen but that is minor) but the current owner bought the home two years ago for top dollar for the area and of course has a mortgage to pay off and his asking price is at the top of the market. It's a small town and took a hit in the commercial district a few years back. It is a crap shoot if it will rebound and iffy if the housing market will realize an upswing . A major investment in structural work ( which is above our abilities) on an already top dollar home for the area is more than likely never to be realized if in fact we were to sell in ten or so years.

The home had been under offer a few months ago but that deal fell through. Our agent is unsure if the appraisal came in low or if indeed, something is going on with the foundation.

Are bricks actual broken in pieces, are you seeing big cracks within the entire wall or along the mortar joints? And one person's "very musty" can be another's normal old house funkiness on a humid summer day."

Looking at the brick face you can see where ,under the paint, the surface of very large areas has deteriorated/flaked off. We did find a few where the paint had blistered and the under lying brick had become essentially powder with some varying sized particles. Did not notice any cracks in our first look over. The brick dust is what I consider to be a significant amount. It looks like someone took a huge feather duster, dipped it in the dust and hit all over the walls. There is an actual light orange hue over the painted surface. I imagine it's coming from above where the sills lay on the brick which has not been painted. This basement is damp... it has a definite musty odor and the de-humidifier left in the basement is needed.

If this home did not have as much of the original, fantastic wood work and really nice plaster, we would not give it a second look due to the basement concerns.

Again I thank you for all your replies. This potential Old House Novice appreciates all of your perspectives!!

Im thinking the bricks are just lining the basement interior and that there must be more to your foundation than just one row of bricks holding up an entire house, correct? Whats on the outside, rocks, concrete or more bricks and what's the condition of that?

If its just flaking off \ the surface on the interior, and if the moisture issues can be corrected (eg poor drainage from around the house, get the paint off the exterior too if its trapping moisture inside) then maybe its not so bad.

This calls for a visit from a contractor experiences in basements and drainage and moisture control.

What you see might just be surface layer of bricks damaged by paint trapping moisture. But it might also mean a site drainage problem, and worst case, that the whole foundation needs to be replaced or heavily fortified before 2.5 stories ends up in the basement.