It's reached the point where I don't rely on the seller to tell me about the details of the renovations they've paid good money for. It's not that they lie to me. It's that they're often uninformed about the extent of the work performed.
Case in point. Two properties I recently listed and sold had had their electrical systems upgraded. In both cases, I asked "has the knob and tube been removed?" and in both cases, the Vendor was certain beyond a shadow of doubt that it had. After all, they had spent $10,000.00 so it MUST have been totally updated.
As it turns out, both homes had at least 50% knob and tube in the walls. Yes, the home owner had replaced much of the wiring, had upgraded the service from 60 amp to 100 amp and had installed circuit breakers. However, the electrician had not rewired the house.
Rewiring an older home is expensive, intrusive, dirty and time consuming. Most electricians I've spoken with do not like to do this kind of work. It means crawling around a dirty spider infested attic (electricians are afraid of spiders). It involves breaking holes in the walls and stringing new wires through old dirty joists (electricians don't like to get dirty) and it involves patching these holes and then repainting replacing the wall paper and yes, electricians don't like this work.
Electricians are a sensitive group, sort of like a cult. They're a privileged lot with a finely tuned sense of entitlement. Not unlike teenagers come to think of it.
There are a couple of ways to find out what's going on with
the electrical system. Have the property inspected by a qualified electrician, preferably one not suffering from arachnophobia. The other is to have the home inspected by a qualified home inspector (one not so inclined to suffer from arachnophobia or mysophobia).
They'll know what the deal is.
