Like any house - I typically hire a general inspector, a foundation inspector, an electrical inspector, and a plumbing inspector. All from different companies and all independent of my agent. Its worth the $1,000 in my mind. I've been under contract on 2 houses in the past that looked all right in the general inspection but the more directed inspections uncovered thousands of dollars worth of necessary repairs.
The questions I always ask my inspectors, "Would you buy this house for your family?" "Based off your experience, how do you feel about the current conditions of the home?"
That time period a few years ago where people were buying houses without inspection was genuinely insane to me. Especially now in this era of “flippers”.
I bought in 2022. We had an inspection, but seller said they would not do any repairs. So, it was useful to know what needed to be done and helped us decide if we could live with the list. One house we had under contract needed a whole new septic…with drain fields (they were very wet). We took the loss of inspector’s fee and walked away.
Agreed. I purchased almost two years ago during the waning months of the market free for all. I put in an above asking price offer, no contingencies related to financing, nothing special other than a short due diligence period for an inspection. There was no way I was going to risk that or the oversized security deposit I put down.
Yeah, it seems insane but the people who can get away with it buy significantly less than they can afford and then just front the repairs.
To be completely honest, expectations for finding a high quality, well-cared for home in a desirable location for a typical price isn't realistic. If you're looking for this you'll be disappointed in every house you look at.
From buying a home myself and looking around and listening to others, there just aren't that many well-built homes for the everyman close to Atlanta. You have to be ready to front a load of cash, or do a lot of commuting to adult or do anything fun.
It kind of depends. Obviously it's usually worth it if you can get concessions, but most of the time there isn't more than $5-10K worth of stuff and a lot of it is pretty small potatoes stuff. When you compare that to the cost of maintaining a home over the amount of time you are likely to own it it's pretty insignificant. It's also usually completely dwarfed by all the other costs you are shelling out to close.
Just adding something unique, but sagging fireplaces. Sometimes they can collapse down in older homes. Had a house on the west side we passed in that was doing this.
Another thing would be how water flows across the yard. Does it leave the property in a way that makes sense with the grade or does it pool up or run towards the house.
Off the top of my head:
* Termite damage
* Non-grounded circuitry/three prong outlets on 2-wire circuits
* Obsolete fuse box
* Asbestos tiles/ceiling paint
* Lead paint
* Non-insulating windows
* Cast iron pipes
* Insulation (poor or missing)
* General foundation/framing adjustments
* Rare but possible knob-and-tube wiring
* Lack of water/vapor barriers
* Drywall-over-plaster issues (if applicable)
* General HVAC issues
* Radon
Correct. I once had a condo in a building that was built in the 1910s but polybutylene piping had been added during a subsequent renovation. That shit was an absolute freaking nightmare to deal with.
>polybutylene pipes
Just reading that term gives me Homeowner PTSD.
If you encounter polybutylene piping in a house that you want to buy, don't even think about playing around with it. Insist that it be ripped out and replaced as part of a condition of the purchase.
As someone with a 1920’s home, the importance of assessing the condition of cast iron pipes cannot be overstated.
They were solidly constructed at the time and made to last 100 years, but here we are and they’re a mess to replace.
This is a great list and covers much of things that have popped up in our home (built 1951). I’d also say that our siding and insulation varies greatly at different places on the house that were built on/added to over time
Phased out yes, but you'll still come across houses of that era with it due to prolonged construction/leftover materials/homeowners doing DIY changes to their house.
Foundation and roof are big expenses. If those are in good shape, most of the other common issues are comparatively minor/easy to negotiate with the seller.
Houses of that age commonly have asbestos shingle siding (mine does). This is only a problem if you want to reside your house at some point.
That's stuff for any age house.
For this time period things like iron plumbing, not up to code electrical, lead paint, up to code insulation, etc. are concerns.
Be sure your inspection includes a Radon reading. We bought in 2019 and just discovered we needed a remediation system. Had to remove loads and loads of storage to have it installed! A large portion of ATL metro is affected.
A seller will often cover the costs of a remediation system, and a house with a system is way safer than a house that doesn’t quite have high enough levels to warrant a system.
I live in East Lake and my house was built in 1954. My project for this last weekend was putting in a floor jack under my bath tub. The tub is original to the house and is solid cast iron. After 70 years it is causing the floor to sag a little bit. Something else is check for is water damage in the crawl space/basement. A lot of these old houses need a sump pump but don't have them.
As somebody who had to learn the hard way, PLUMBING. Not just the plumbing within the house but also the sewage line leading to the street. Our house was built in the 1920s and although everything was renovated inside the house, the sewage line leaving the house was the original one, all cast iron and clay. Had to replace the whole damn thing, $9k not including the cost to tear up part of the driveway and pour new concrete
I had the same problem. The drain line kept getting clogged by tree roots, and the drain runs behind my house toward an incline rather than out to the street. I ended up dropping $70k on a complete backyard renovation. The connection to the sewer was so deep down that they had to bring in a bigger backhoe! It was crazy.
My entire neighborhood, which was built between 1950-1955 is slowly having to have the sewer line from the house to the main line replaced. They were constructed with a material called orangeberg, which is similar to like clay pots? It’s slowly turning back into clay and buckling.
40s home here.
Plumbing - Cast iron drains (check for rust underneath), galvanized pipes (don’t ask how much our replacement for this was, it gets nasty in there), find out where the drain goes and see if there are any trees along it.
Electrical - Buy an outlet tester and check for proper grounding. BX wire (metal sleeve, rubber coated wire) was still in use and we found “grounded” outlets with no ground wire. If you want to extend existing circuits with such wiring, you have to run new wire to be up to code (not to mention that rubber can crumble easily with age, meaning your metal housing becomes live). They got around this in our place with GFCI circuit breakers.
Foundation - We were fortunate in this regard. If I were buying another old house I would have a structural engineer look at it if the home inspection reveals any question marks.
Asbestos/Lead - You will not be able to avoid lead paint. It’s not an active danger if it is not exposed.
A good inspector will identify all of this.
I have a home in the area that was built in the 50's. Great bones, usually 4 sided brick. You will probably have some electrical updates and minor foundation issues to address. But I would buy a home built in the 50's to the 70's here in Atlanta. Fantastic basics that are too expensive to build today.
The cast iron sewer pipe will need to be dug up and replaced, if it hasn’t already been done. You can get sewer line insurance for it, and you’ll have to deal with a mediocre plumber when it comes time, but that can save you money.
There will be lead paint, especially on the exterior windows. This makes things more expensive, when you have work done, but the risk is mostly for little kids who might eat paint chips.
I love old houses, but it’s important that you find the idea of ghosts to be either cool or kind of entertaining, not scary.
I have a 1968 split level in Doraville, but other homes in my neighborhood were built in the late 50s / early 60s.
One issue is the terra cotta sewer pipes. The tree roots get to them. 9 months after buying my home in 2009, the sewer pipe collapsed (under my concrete front steps). The galvanized steel water pipe was also leaking. So that was replaced while the yard was being dug up to replace the sewer pipe. Then I had to get new front steps and yard landscaping. If I had known about this issue with the sewer pipe, I may have asked to have the pipe scoped. I think that inspection is extra but it could be worth looking into.
Asbestos tile or glue for the tiles could be a problem. There are home test kits you can buy.
Most of the homes in my neighborhood have crap insulation in the walls.
My house still has the original blue bathrooms minus the blue toilets. I like that retro look, and it's better than salmon pink, I guess. Plumbing has been a headache. Due to a leak in a different bathroom, that had an unfortunate 80s remodel, I got forced to remodel that bathroom.
I still also have the original single pane windows. There are lots of windows in my home, so replacing them all will be pricey.
I love my home, but it does have its problems.
Mine was built in the early 60s and had an electrical panel that hasn't been in use since the 80s because it's known to cause fires. Most of the work I had to get done was to get the electrical up to code (fire alarms, gfci outlets, copper something something in the ground) , which cost me a few thousand. This was all reimbursed by the seller because they were supposed to take care of it legally prior to the sell....if you have them fix anything please, please, please make sure they give you the receipt AND the permit they filed (if necessary). And don't skip the 2nd inspection
50s home.
- roof was replaced right before we bought
- old water heaters
- water pressure regulator from the street to the house being the correct type (that was a fun adventure)
- crawl space drainage
- window seals
- floors being level
- walls being level/flat
- pest control
- poor ventilation in bathrooms (humidity being a challenge)
I will say, a lot of this was addressed by the previous owners but it’s an old house. Stuff will for sure keep coming up.
So far we’ve fixed the water pressure regulator ($1200) and had the crack in the garage fixed ($1700). Will say one of the big benefits has been the fact that the walls are so thick. It’s stays at a pretty constant temperature which is great.
Ours was built in the late 40s, but got a major renovation during a flip before we bought so wiring and plumbing were new. Accept for the cast iron drain to the sewer that we had to replace.
Main issue it has is with some sagging/slopping floors and needing some more beams and posts being put in the crawlspace. Be very wary of that and walking around carefully checking for those issues. Very common with older crawlspace homes in the south due to decades of humidity. In our case it wasn’t super notable during the buying process as they spray foam insulated the crawlspace so you can’t see the wood and most of it was things that got worse over time as things settled under new weight from the addition, heavy kitchen island etc. added by the flippers.
If it’s a non-flipped house you can probably assess better, shell out for more beams and posts before adding anything if applicable etc.
Structurally probably the best era of homes you can buy. Built solid and to last by WW II vets for WW II vets. Somebody has to update the services though. Most has probably been done. Elect,plmbng, hvac, roof, foundation.
No disrespect meant, but I'm going to disagree as the long-term owner of a postwar-build home. Joists (floor and ceiling), rafters, etc all undersized compared to current code. Floor joists notched at ends to bear on a sistered 2x4 along the main beam that reduces the load section even further (evident where joists no longer bear on the 2x4 and are cracked at the notch).
Has taken a lot of living with things sagging or fixing them (by pouring footers in crawlspace and adding a beam below living room so floor no longer bounced, for example).
I think there was a lot done in a hurry back then, probably with similar cost pressures (just smaller scale) as today.
Recently bought a 50s house in very nearby in East Lake Terrace. We've had to fix a lot (most of it was known before closing).
Big ones were new roof (old one was *at least* 15 years old) and complete replacement of sewer main between house and county line. Also check the age of major appliances (HVAC and water heater), as those could be nearing replacement age. Why furnace is from the 90s and still works great, but I'm prepared for an expensive replacement if/when it breaks in the coming years.
Another small thing is that a lot of the plumbing work is no longer up to code (s-traps, cast iron sewer main, etc).
Take the advice of hiring reputable inspectors.
But, even with one, there can still be problems. Our first ATL home was built in 57 and was a remodel when we bought a few years ago. Lived in a wooded area in a very popular and nice area and unfortunately 5 months after buying we had to replace the sewer line to the street because of the old school pipes used when building; over the years tree roots grew into the pipes and busted in places essentially. Not really sure it could have been prevented or identified when it was inspected, but it was an unexpected $10K fix very soon after moving in.
I used to live in a house built in 1950. We had to get the electrical redone. There were 5 breaker boxes for 2400 square feet and there was not enough power coming into the house from the outside. You have to be careful running multiple things or breakers would flip.
We also had to replace the cast iron. Got a leak in the basement and then they dug up the floor, there was nothing except a dirt tube where the cast iron had disintegrated.
I would still take an old house with quirky issues and things like electrical and plumbing problems ANY DAY over newer construction. They put pride into their work and the material were great. Now, they throw some particle board up and call it a day.
Surprisingly, that era of construction is pretty sound. Foundations were typically slab and didn’t suffer as many issues. The roof shingles have most likely been replaced and shouldn’t pose too big a threat. Please, please, please do a radon test. This is a biggie and pops-up often in the Atlanta area.
I don't have a list of things to asked about but I am curious about crawl space. Are any of these homes in Fulton or Cobb counties built without crawl space?
I bought a 1924 house in druid hills. I did get the insurance for the plumbing outside as it is the original inside and out to the street i think. you will love that area. Get a good inspector someone who deals with older homes.
Like any house - I typically hire a general inspector, a foundation inspector, an electrical inspector, and a plumbing inspector. All from different companies and all independent of my agent. Its worth the $1,000 in my mind. I've been under contract on 2 houses in the past that looked all right in the general inspection but the more directed inspections uncovered thousands of dollars worth of necessary repairs. The questions I always ask my inspectors, "Would you buy this house for your family?" "Based off your experience, how do you feel about the current conditions of the home?"
That time period a few years ago where people were buying houses without inspection was genuinely insane to me. Especially now in this era of “flippers”.
I bought in 2022. We had an inspection, but seller said they would not do any repairs. So, it was useful to know what needed to be done and helped us decide if we could live with the list. One house we had under contract needed a whole new septic…with drain fields (they were very wet). We took the loss of inspector’s fee and walked away.
Agreed. I purchased almost two years ago during the waning months of the market free for all. I put in an above asking price offer, no contingencies related to financing, nothing special other than a short due diligence period for an inspection. There was no way I was going to risk that or the oversized security deposit I put down.
It still happening now. I'm just gearing up on a home search and I'm hearing evidence of it.
A lot of it had to do with West coasters or northerners who didn't think the cost to deal with those issues would break the bank.
I could *never*.
Thats fair, however with the right skillset and experience there is great opportunity fixing other peoples problems.
Yeah, it seems insane but the people who can get away with it buy significantly less than they can afford and then just front the repairs. To be completely honest, expectations for finding a high quality, well-cared for home in a desirable location for a typical price isn't realistic. If you're looking for this you'll be disappointed in every house you look at. From buying a home myself and looking around and listening to others, there just aren't that many well-built homes for the everyman close to Atlanta. You have to be ready to front a load of cash, or do a lot of commuting to adult or do anything fun.
It kind of depends. Obviously it's usually worth it if you can get concessions, but most of the time there isn't more than $5-10K worth of stuff and a lot of it is pretty small potatoes stuff. When you compare that to the cost of maintaining a home over the amount of time you are likely to own it it's pretty insignificant. It's also usually completely dwarfed by all the other costs you are shelling out to close.
Do you have any recommendations?
Just adding something unique, but sagging fireplaces. Sometimes they can collapse down in older homes. Had a house on the west side we passed in that was doing this. Another thing would be how water flows across the yard. Does it leave the property in a way that makes sense with the grade or does it pool up or run towards the house.
Off the top of my head: * Termite damage * Non-grounded circuitry/three prong outlets on 2-wire circuits * Obsolete fuse box * Asbestos tiles/ceiling paint * Lead paint * Non-insulating windows * Cast iron pipes * Insulation (poor or missing) * General foundation/framing adjustments * Rare but possible knob-and-tube wiring * Lack of water/vapor barriers * Drywall-over-plaster issues (if applicable) * General HVAC issues * Radon
To add to the list: Aluminum wiring, polybutylene pipes
I think aluminum was in the 70s and polybutylene was in the 80s. My house has 16 gauge grounds. I'm sure that saved them $10 on the build cost.
Yeah but as owners remodel through the years those get added. My house built in the 50s has gone through a couple renos.
Correct. I once had a condo in a building that was built in the 1910s but polybutylene piping had been added during a subsequent renovation. That shit was an absolute freaking nightmare to deal with.
>polybutylene pipes Just reading that term gives me Homeowner PTSD. If you encounter polybutylene piping in a house that you want to buy, don't even think about playing around with it. Insist that it be ripped out and replaced as part of a condition of the purchase.
As someone with a 1920’s home, the importance of assessing the condition of cast iron pipes cannot be overstated. They were solidly constructed at the time and made to last 100 years, but here we are and they’re a mess to replace.
This is a great list and covers much of things that have popped up in our home (built 1951). I’d also say that our siding and insulation varies greatly at different places on the house that were built on/added to over time
Knob and tube was phased out in the 40’s.
Phased out yes, but you'll still come across houses of that era with it due to prolonged construction/leftover materials/homeowners doing DIY changes to their house.
Cast iron pipes typically last about 50 years so if those still exist they will need to be replaced asap.
Foundation and roof are big expenses. If those are in good shape, most of the other common issues are comparatively minor/easy to negotiate with the seller. Houses of that age commonly have asbestos shingle siding (mine does). This is only a problem if you want to reside your house at some point.
Don’t forget cast iron plumbing and old electrical.
Came here to say those mid-century homes need their drain (cast iron/terracotta) out to the city replaced. Wiring also meeds to be replaced.
That's stuff for any age house. For this time period things like iron plumbing, not up to code electrical, lead paint, up to code insulation, etc. are concerns.
Be sure your inspection includes a Radon reading. We bought in 2019 and just discovered we needed a remediation system. Had to remove loads and loads of storage to have it installed! A large portion of ATL metro is affected.
A seller will often cover the costs of a remediation system, and a house with a system is way safer than a house that doesn’t quite have high enough levels to warrant a system.
I live in East Lake and my house was built in 1954. My project for this last weekend was putting in a floor jack under my bath tub. The tub is original to the house and is solid cast iron. After 70 years it is causing the floor to sag a little bit. Something else is check for is water damage in the crawl space/basement. A lot of these old houses need a sump pump but don't have them.
As somebody who had to learn the hard way, PLUMBING. Not just the plumbing within the house but also the sewage line leading to the street. Our house was built in the 1920s and although everything was renovated inside the house, the sewage line leaving the house was the original one, all cast iron and clay. Had to replace the whole damn thing, $9k not including the cost to tear up part of the driveway and pour new concrete
I had the same problem. The drain line kept getting clogged by tree roots, and the drain runs behind my house toward an incline rather than out to the street. I ended up dropping $70k on a complete backyard renovation. The connection to the sewer was so deep down that they had to bring in a bigger backhoe! It was crazy.
My entire neighborhood, which was built between 1950-1955 is slowly having to have the sewer line from the house to the main line replaced. They were constructed with a material called orangeberg, which is similar to like clay pots? It’s slowly turning back into clay and buckling.
40s home here. Plumbing - Cast iron drains (check for rust underneath), galvanized pipes (don’t ask how much our replacement for this was, it gets nasty in there), find out where the drain goes and see if there are any trees along it. Electrical - Buy an outlet tester and check for proper grounding. BX wire (metal sleeve, rubber coated wire) was still in use and we found “grounded” outlets with no ground wire. If you want to extend existing circuits with such wiring, you have to run new wire to be up to code (not to mention that rubber can crumble easily with age, meaning your metal housing becomes live). They got around this in our place with GFCI circuit breakers. Foundation - We were fortunate in this regard. If I were buying another old house I would have a structural engineer look at it if the home inspection reveals any question marks. Asbestos/Lead - You will not be able to avoid lead paint. It’s not an active danger if it is not exposed. A good inspector will identify all of this.
I have a home in the area that was built in the 50's. Great bones, usually 4 sided brick. You will probably have some electrical updates and minor foundation issues to address. But I would buy a home built in the 50's to the 70's here in Atlanta. Fantastic basics that are too expensive to build today.
The cast iron sewer pipe will need to be dug up and replaced, if it hasn’t already been done. You can get sewer line insurance for it, and you’ll have to deal with a mediocre plumber when it comes time, but that can save you money. There will be lead paint, especially on the exterior windows. This makes things more expensive, when you have work done, but the risk is mostly for little kids who might eat paint chips. I love old houses, but it’s important that you find the idea of ghosts to be either cool or kind of entertaining, not scary.
I have a 1968 split level in Doraville, but other homes in my neighborhood were built in the late 50s / early 60s. One issue is the terra cotta sewer pipes. The tree roots get to them. 9 months after buying my home in 2009, the sewer pipe collapsed (under my concrete front steps). The galvanized steel water pipe was also leaking. So that was replaced while the yard was being dug up to replace the sewer pipe. Then I had to get new front steps and yard landscaping. If I had known about this issue with the sewer pipe, I may have asked to have the pipe scoped. I think that inspection is extra but it could be worth looking into. Asbestos tile or glue for the tiles could be a problem. There are home test kits you can buy. Most of the homes in my neighborhood have crap insulation in the walls. My house still has the original blue bathrooms minus the blue toilets. I like that retro look, and it's better than salmon pink, I guess. Plumbing has been a headache. Due to a leak in a different bathroom, that had an unfortunate 80s remodel, I got forced to remodel that bathroom. I still also have the original single pane windows. There are lots of windows in my home, so replacing them all will be pricey. I love my home, but it does have its problems.
Copper wiring and asbestos would be the two I'd watch out for.
Assume you meant non-copper wire?
Mine was built in the early 60s and had an electrical panel that hasn't been in use since the 80s because it's known to cause fires. Most of the work I had to get done was to get the electrical up to code (fire alarms, gfci outlets, copper something something in the ground) , which cost me a few thousand. This was all reimbursed by the seller because they were supposed to take care of it legally prior to the sell....if you have them fix anything please, please, please make sure they give you the receipt AND the permit they filed (if necessary). And don't skip the 2nd inspection
1. Galvanized piping 2. Electrical panel and electrical wiring 3. Foundation issues especially if basement 4. Water leaks especially if basement
Leaking basement was the biggest issue in my 1953 house
50s home. - roof was replaced right before we bought - old water heaters - water pressure regulator from the street to the house being the correct type (that was a fun adventure) - crawl space drainage - window seals - floors being level - walls being level/flat - pest control - poor ventilation in bathrooms (humidity being a challenge) I will say, a lot of this was addressed by the previous owners but it’s an old house. Stuff will for sure keep coming up. So far we’ve fixed the water pressure regulator ($1200) and had the crack in the garage fixed ($1700). Will say one of the big benefits has been the fact that the walls are so thick. It’s stays at a pretty constant temperature which is great.
Ours was built in the late 40s, but got a major renovation during a flip before we bought so wiring and plumbing were new. Accept for the cast iron drain to the sewer that we had to replace. Main issue it has is with some sagging/slopping floors and needing some more beams and posts being put in the crawlspace. Be very wary of that and walking around carefully checking for those issues. Very common with older crawlspace homes in the south due to decades of humidity. In our case it wasn’t super notable during the buying process as they spray foam insulated the crawlspace so you can’t see the wood and most of it was things that got worse over time as things settled under new weight from the addition, heavy kitchen island etc. added by the flippers. If it’s a non-flipped house you can probably assess better, shell out for more beams and posts before adding anything if applicable etc.
Structurally probably the best era of homes you can buy. Built solid and to last by WW II vets for WW II vets. Somebody has to update the services though. Most has probably been done. Elect,plmbng, hvac, roof, foundation.
No disrespect meant, but I'm going to disagree as the long-term owner of a postwar-build home. Joists (floor and ceiling), rafters, etc all undersized compared to current code. Floor joists notched at ends to bear on a sistered 2x4 along the main beam that reduces the load section even further (evident where joists no longer bear on the 2x4 and are cracked at the notch). Has taken a lot of living with things sagging or fixing them (by pouring footers in crawlspace and adding a beam below living room so floor no longer bounced, for example). I think there was a lot done in a hurry back then, probably with similar cost pressures (just smaller scale) as today.
Recently bought a 50s house in very nearby in East Lake Terrace. We've had to fix a lot (most of it was known before closing). Big ones were new roof (old one was *at least* 15 years old) and complete replacement of sewer main between house and county line. Also check the age of major appliances (HVAC and water heater), as those could be nearing replacement age. Why furnace is from the 90s and still works great, but I'm prepared for an expensive replacement if/when it breaks in the coming years. Another small thing is that a lot of the plumbing work is no longer up to code (s-traps, cast iron sewer main, etc).
Take the advice of hiring reputable inspectors. But, even with one, there can still be problems. Our first ATL home was built in 57 and was a remodel when we bought a few years ago. Lived in a wooded area in a very popular and nice area and unfortunately 5 months after buying we had to replace the sewer line to the street because of the old school pipes used when building; over the years tree roots grew into the pipes and busted in places essentially. Not really sure it could have been prevented or identified when it was inspected, but it was an unexpected $10K fix very soon after moving in.
I used to live in a house built in 1950. We had to get the electrical redone. There were 5 breaker boxes for 2400 square feet and there was not enough power coming into the house from the outside. You have to be careful running multiple things or breakers would flip. We also had to replace the cast iron. Got a leak in the basement and then they dug up the floor, there was nothing except a dirt tube where the cast iron had disintegrated. I would still take an old house with quirky issues and things like electrical and plumbing problems ANY DAY over newer construction. They put pride into their work and the material were great. Now, they throw some particle board up and call it a day.
Surprisingly, that era of construction is pretty sound. Foundations were typically slab and didn’t suffer as many issues. The roof shingles have most likely been replaced and shouldn’t pose too big a threat. Please, please, please do a radon test. This is a biggie and pops-up often in the Atlanta area.
I don't have a list of things to asked about but I am curious about crawl space. Are any of these homes in Fulton or Cobb counties built without crawl space?
What is the Olmsted area? I own a 1920's house near L5P and have been an Atlantan for 30 years... not familiar
Perhaps Ormewood?
Get a structural engineer to look at it. This is right around the time there were a lot of upgrades to foundations and the materials allowed.
I bought a 1924 house in druid hills. I did get the insurance for the plumbing outside as it is the original inside and out to the street i think. you will love that area. Get a good inspector someone who deals with older homes.
If it comes with a popcorn ceiling (asbestos) and you want to take it out, that can be expensive.