Life experience

Last night I went and looked at a house my son was thinking about buying. My life experience of buying three houses, working on those houses, and 20+ years of This Old House shows is what I had to bring to the table. This is the house

What I pointed out was: the top 3 feet of the chimney was leaning, it needs rebuilt and a cap; the nails holding the gutter on one side were coming out; the replacement window were cheap and need replaced. We went in to the house and I tried to open a window and couldn't get the window unlocked fully and it would lock fully so I couldn't open it; the house had no A/C and the panel would have to be changed as it was too small to add breakers for A/C; the furnace had rust on it; there was knob and tube gerryrigged into more modern wiring; the upstairs was finished , but not very well and was very warm for such a cool day it was yesterday. There was no way of know how the roof was insulated and the workmanship of the finishes was amateur. We were able to look in the attic crawl space and there wasn't much insulation so my guess there wasn't much between the drywall and the roof; the kitchen was extremely outdated and tiny. You could not fully open the back door to go down to the basement because it would hit the refrigerator; the only full bathroom was also tiny; the front porch was closed in years ago, but there is no heat so the people living there put a drape up between the living room and the porch that we assumed to keep the cold draft from the porch at bay; there is no garage door opener and no man door for the garage. We couldn't even go into the garage because it was full of there stuff; the concrete driveway and the concrete at front entry to the house was crack and both are going to need to be replaced; there looked like there were electrical issues as they were using extension cords and those plug in units so you can plug more stuff in.

For the money they were asking, there was just too much stuff that was done half-assed that would need to be fixed. There was no way to make the kitchen or bathroom any bigger without some major renovation. The backyard was small and with a dog there would just not be enough room for her. My son works long hours and does not have any home improvement skills yet. I think he will keep looking. He thanked me for my help and pointing out stuff he didn't even think of. So all the mistakes I made and my life experience of owning three houses are helping him. That makes me happy.