How to buy an old house

Have you ever dreamed of owning an old home? Do you drive by the older houses in your town and think about what it would be like to live in that beautiful gingerbread decked Victorian or the perfect white clapboard colonial? You are definitely not alone. Lots of people spend hours on Zillow (or Redfin our Realtor.com) dreaming about the perfect place to call home. But what if the perfect house for you is an old one? How do you find it?

By the time we started actively searching for our old house, I had learned some tips and tricks for filtering out the new construction, condos, and anything built before 1900 really, because I wanted what some realtors call an “antique house.” Here are my favorite ways to weed through all the newer houses on the market to find your historic house.

Search smart
In addition to using the slider filters for date range (the filters that allow you to only search for houses built before a certain date in a real estate app), there are a few other search options you can play around with.
When using online realty search apps, some search terms or keywords can help you narrow down your search for an old house. When describing older homes, realtors tend to use the work “antique” or “historic” to describe a property that a buyer would consider old. Start by narrowing down your search area, and then head over to the filters in your specific realty app (these are the same filters you would use to specify square footage or price range of your search) and look for a keyword or search term box.
Most buyers will use these for items they are looking for in their home search, such as a pool, garage, or fireplace. By adding in these adjectives that realtors use to describe a house with some history, you can often narrow your search down to just the old gems in your search area. If you are a bit more open minded, or are looking for a project, you can search for “fixer upper” or “contractor’s dream,” to see some of the houses that require a dedicated buyer willing to get their hands dirty.

2. Take a drive

Get familiar with your surroundings! Have you ever actually driven around looking for the areas of your community where the older houses are? Neighborhoods of older homes tend to be grouped together, and if you keep your eyes peeled, you can usually spot them. If you have no idea, a quick Google search for your town or city’s historic district can help. If your town has one, a historic district in New England tends to be in the center of town. They are usually marked with a sign put up by a historical commission or society. You may also be able to spot plaques on houses with the original owner or building date on it, marking them as historic. Grab a friend (or willing partner) so you can be the passenger, and go on a house scouting trip. You might even get lucky and see a for-sale sign on one.

3. Old house search sites

There are a few neat sites out there, geared towards helping you find your dream old house. In addition to being the best type of old house eye-candy, they gather together listings for historic houses, and can often be searched by state, house style, and age. Here are a few of my favorites:

3. Visit the local library or bookstore

All local libraries have local history sections you can peruse to get an idea of where the older houses in your community would be. If you are looking to buy a historic house in your town, it is good to get to know the local history, because a lot of the investigating you will do on your house’s past will involve delving into the past! Ask the librarian for recommendations on the best books for getting to know the area. Librarians are always willing to help, and are often thrilled to be asked for this type of subject.

Similarly, a good bookstore will have a local history section. Even if they don’t have copies of the older history books on your area (more on how these are helpful in your old house search later!) they usually have books by companies like Arcadia Publishing, who focus on local history. The information in these books is a great place to start, but the images will be most helpful for your house search. When we had settled on our hometown, I picked up the Arcadia volumes on our town (there were multiple!) and started hunting for neat houses. Oftentimes, the images said where the house was located, and whether or not it was still standing. When we were house hunting, I used these pictures as reference when driving around town. When I saw our house on the market, my first move was to look it up in our local history book, and found an image of it from 1872.

You can check out Arcadia Publishing local history books here!