Appreciation post: The inspector who found the water heater was from 1998

We were about to put an offer on a cute little ranch house in Springfield. The seller said everything was updated. Our realtor pushed for a full inspection anyway, which cost us $450. The inspector spent an hour in the crawl space and came out with a picture. The water heater had a date stamp from 1998. He said, 'This thing is older than some of my tools. It's not a matter of if it fails, but when.' That one find gave us the power to ask for a $2,000 credit at closing, which we used to replace it before we even moved in. It turned a potential disaster into a simple fix. Has anyone else had an inspector catch something that old and basically save their whole deal?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessarodriguez1mo ago

Wow, our inspector found original wiring from the 70s, total game changer.

-1

fionat551mo ago

Oh man, that's a wild find... honestly the biggest thing I'd worry about is whether any past DIY work messed with it. People back then would just tape stuff together and hide it in the walls. You could have a real puzzle on your hands trying to trace where everything goes now. At least the inspector caught it before you started any big projects.

the_rose1mo ago

Original wiring from that era often has cloth insulation that gets brittle over time. You'll want to check if it's aluminum, which was common then and can be a fire risk. A full rewire might be needed, but at least you know what you're dealing with now.