Buying an old home definitely has its benefits, especially if you love history and old architecture like I do.
However, there are some downsides to buying an old home.
For one, they usually need work. Oftentimes old homes are not taken care of properly or sometimes abandoned, and so they need a lot of structural work to be habitable again. Thankfully the home I had bought was structurally sound, the repairs it had were more minor. Despite this, the house had remained on the market for several months without any buyers interested in it. And it was easy for me to see why, it was because it needed heating and cooling work. Most people want to buy a home and move in without dealing with any issues, especially HVAC related issues. This home being an older home, had an old wood stove as its only sort of heating. There was no cooling, and no ductwork. Now it was incredibly expensive to add ductwork to this old home, and possibly damaging, and so my husband and I decided on just getting a ductless air conditioner. The HVAC specialist we talked to told us this was the best method. The ductless HVAC system is as its name implies, it does not need duct work. Without the air ducts, the HVAC installation was much simpler, and much cheaper. Getting the ductless heating and cooling system was surprisingly easy, and we managed to get this beautiful home for a great price because nobody wanted to deal with the easily solvable HVAC issues.