[wgknestrick]

I was in the plumbing industry (father owned own business). I don't claim to be a master in anything else, but I have done work on my own house in everything else. I also property manage on the side for a couple of rentals.

My ranking of the different areas of houses:

HEAT
1. Natural gas
2. Propane
3. Oil
4. Electric

HEATERS
1. Hot water (radiator) system (very cheap to maintain and efficient)
2. Forced hot air (most popular) (MUST HAVE RIGID DUCTING)
3. Forced hot air with flexible ducting (In almost every new house)
4. Radiant Ceiling

PLUMBING
1. Rigid copper lines
2. New Gray compression style (not sure exact name as it is new)
3. PVC glue fittings + pipe (white)
4. Flexible copper (I've seen this in most newer houses)

Facets
1. Delta-Moen (most popular and can find parts easily- good value)
2. Khoeler -expensive, looks nice, but still good
3. Anything else - throw away facets. They start leaking, throw away, replace with above.

ELECTRIC
1. Make sure box is 150A or bigger (best is 200A)
2. Absolutely no 2 wire / insulator type (usually only is very old houses)
3. Observe general neat-ness of runs going into the box will tell you a lot about the skill of the electrician
4. More ceiling lights the better

Windows:
1. Vinyl tripple pain
2. wood (can be very good if new and of good brand - Anderson, Pella)
3. aluminum (in my house and they really suck)

GENERAL PLUMBING
1. Make sure there are vents for and near every toilet (Check roof for pipes)
2. Floor drains in basement are absolute must (most new houses dont have these) Wait until something leaks bad down there. Should have floor drain by heater/AC/Hot water heater.
3. Make sure there are shut off valves under each sink and for each toilet.

CARPENTRY
Inspect general trim seems and moldings. This will tell you a lot about the carpenter. Look at the joices in the basement, inspect for uniformity, bowing, height of joice (taller joice = better), etc. Also make sure there are no slumping sections in the roof as this is a sign of weakness.


My big advice is also to ignore all paint/carpet/wallpaper/paneling and any other minor aspect of the house. All this **** will be changed anyways over the next 10yrs and there is absolutely no reason to turn away from a great house, just because of the previous owners bad tastes. This way you replace it with exactly what you want.

Also is a good idea to make a list of projects you can do yourself (or have family connections that could do them) to try to walk into a good deal. Some houses have problems which might be fixed easily for much less money than that problem detracts from the houses value.

STYLES OF HOME
1. Single dwelling homes
2. Condo
3. Twin
4. Town house

You can never, ever go wrong with a "house" This is the only one garanteed to always appreciate in value. Any other will stay even, lag behind depending on the neighbors. Example, it only takes a couple of ghetto families to ruin a town house plan. With town houses, you are always going to have people sharing a wall with you that you have no control over.