I have a 1950 era rowhouse, with 100 amps and fuses. New York City. I haven't had any issues with the power and all the fuses are 15 amps. There is on 240 volt circut for a large AC unit which is just two of the 15 amps combined somehow.
Is there any need to upgrade the electric before selling the house? I've had some people tell me that 200 amps and circuit breakers are now required. I've hardly ever blown a fuse but can do so by running the toaster oven at the same time as the microwave. Not always, but I avoid doing that. In fact I replaced that fuse with a circuit breaker dressed up as a fuse, which screws in but doesn't need to be replaced if it pops.
There are two 100 amp fuses in the fuse box (big guys), so perhaps there is already 200 amps coming in and just 100 are in use?
mst homeowner insurance companies refuse to provide new insurance for homes with fuses, knob and tube wiring, bad or old roofs, unsafe sidewalks and a long list of other issues.
Just call state farm and random other companies and ask about fuses....
you need to know 90% of buyers wantt a move in ready home , fixer upers limit the mrket to 10% of al;l buyers. You will have to sell cheap:(
What's required for new construction doesn't apply to what's already there. If it complied with the code at the time, then it's almost certainly legal and doesn't need to be upgraded. That's how it would work in the vast majority of places. But NYC could have it's own rules.
I've hardly ever blown a fuse but can do so by running
No, that's exactly what a 100 amp service has, ie, two 100 amp fuses. If it's an old row house with fuses, it's almost certainly not a
200 amp service.
As to whether it's "needed" to upgrade the electric service, I'd say that depends on a lot of factors. Unless there is some unique NYC position on the code, the answer is that you aren't required to do so. Whether it might make sense to do it, that's another issue. How's the real estate situation? A house with a new upgraded electric system that you can use as a marketing plus might help it sell faster, get a better a higher price, etc. Any experience with neighbors you can learn from? What shape is the rest of the house in? Sometimes new owners are going to want to do a lot of renovation, gut the kitchen, etc and if that's the case, then it makes more sense to upgrade the electric system at that point.
If it were me, unless the electric system was the only thing wrong and clearly out of line with the rest of the house, I wouldn't upgrade it. I'd sell it like it is and see what happens. A home inspector will have something to say about the electric service. And if the buyer makes that an issue, you can negotiate and give them a discount to help pay for any work that needs to be done. If I was a buyer, I'd rather do it that way anyhow. But some buyers might get turned off and walk away too. Which raises another question, ie do you need to sell it quick, or if a sale falls through because of this, are you OK with finding another buyer, etc?
I'd make sure to read the portion of the sales contract that pertains to inspection. If what is there is code compliant, but a buyer wants to insist that you put in a new electric service, you want to make sure there is nothing there that says you *have* to do it. That whole area is an interesting one. Plenty of buyers back out over something like that. It would be interesting to see any contracts cases where the seller said, "screw you, it's code compliant, it works, it's not broken, I'm not upgrading it and you have to go through with the purchase. But for practical reasons, ie the buyers can manage to not get a mortgage, tie you up for a year while it's litigated, etc, I've never heard of that being done.
Ask for your real estate agent's recommendation. Most buyers wouldn't know a fuse from their elbow and cannot conceive of a place where you can run a toaster and microwave at the same time. Replacing the door knocker may make a bigger difference to them.
There's often a big compulsion to fix something up, just before we let it go, to how we wish it had been while we had it. Don't fall for it. Save the energy for your new place.
That may be true, but probably 90%+ of home sales today involve having the home inspected and the inspector knows the difference between a fuse and his elbow, that's where the problem will come from, if there is a problem.
I agree. There are two extremes. Some people want to make everything perfect. Others would sell a car knowing that a mechanic told them the transmission is shot and they'd lie about it.
In the case of this house, there is important information missing, ie what the true electrical load is. Electric range? Ovens? WH? Furnace? Is that one AC sufficient for the whole house or are there
"I haven't had any issues with the power" and "I've hardly ever blown a fuse but can do so by running the toaster oven at the same time as the microwave."
If I had to pick and choose which appliance I could use at any given time, I'd consider it an issue with my power. In fact, when I had that exact issue, I ran a new circuit to the kitchen so that I would never have that "issue" again.
Of course, I've popped a breaker or two in my day by doing things like plugging in 2 heaters at the same time or other one-offs like that, but to not be able to use multiple "permanent" appliances at the same time would be an issue, at least to me.
What I see happening is a potential buyer getting an inspection, having it pointed out that the fuses and service are "minimal" and either asking for a reduced price or walking away unless there is some compelling reason to continue negotiations.
Hi, When it comes to selling a house, no matter what the condition of the house, there will be a buyer if priced right. That is my experience. I had 5 houses built and sold old houses. Always first looker bought it. Being reasonable I had it priced wee bit below going price. Often times seller thinks, his house deserves certain price.(emotional sentiment thing, I guess) If the OP's place has older electrical wiring, right off the bat, price should be adjusted accordingly. Most important and valuable leverage on selling a house is it's location. I always owned a house with an unobstructed frontal view, like far away mountains, river, park,etc.
There is nothing wrong with fuses. In fact I could build a house tomorrow morning with a 100 amp fuse box as long as I put S type adapters in each socket. Your real issue is that you only seem to have one 15 amp circuit feeding the kitchen. That is far more than simply swapping out the panel. If you are in an old neighborhood with a lot of houses wired like yours, list it and see how it goes. If you need to upgrade to sell the house, think about it or just discount the house based on a couple of estimates that you lay on top of the deal. Most people think they can beat an estimate if they shop around.
I only had one large tree near the house but that was taken down a few years ago. A friend of mine does that for a living so I hired him ...me and another friend served as helpers.
One of the neighbors did not like all the noise and came over to complain. I thought it very dumb of him to yell at men wielding chain saws. I sent him home.
Well, I guess that's the advantage to having unsightly out door wires.
If I'd up my present 100 amp service to 200 amps, the power company would not even charge to run new wires to the house. (I'd of course have to pay an electrician for the rest)
As a matter of fact, when I had a tree trimmed...we called the power company and they took down the wires for us and put them back for not charge.
In my neighborhood a lot of the homes are simply gutted when sold and the new owner puts in rooms and apartments. A house a few doors down has 6 rooms on the first floor - and it's an 18' by 50' house just like mine. I doesn't make sense to renovate when that is a possibility. They are, of course, illegal but nobody seems to do anything about it.
Most of the rooms for rent go to students going to the local college.
Then I guess you have your answer on the need to upgrade in order to sell the house.... If there is a good chance that the new owner is going to gut or do major renovations, then I sure wouldn't spend money on upgrading the electrical sysem. That kind of buyer would rather have the house at a lower price instead of buying an upgraded electrical system, at least part of which may have to be ripped out again anyhow.
In about a year I'm likely to buy a house from an old family friend in Florida; it's a block away from my aging mother in the same development, and we'll likely have pretty flexible purchase terms. After all, I bought my current house from her when she moved to Florida 25 years ago!
So, it's likely that I'll have a few months to sell my current house and can pretty much move whenever it gets sold. The only downside is having to pay maintenance on the Florida house and that's less than $400 a month.
As for the current house, it's not in great shape. I haven't renovated the kitchen or bath since I moved in and they both really need it although everything works fine. So the electric is pretty much in keeping with the rest of the place. But as I wrote in another post, most of the houses sold in this neighborhood are illegally converted to multiple apartments and even furnished rooms. I think renovating prior to sale is likely unnecessary. I'll get somewhat less than the top but they can do what they want.
I will look at the contract very carefully - thanks for the warning.
One 240 unit does the entire main floor - very well. The three bedrooms (large, small, tiny) each have A/C. I'm not sure all three have ever been on at the same time but they're on different circuits.
The funny thing is that husband in the family that owned the house before me (childhood friends of mine) was an electrical engineer and didn't trust circuit breakers!
Next stop is to clean the place up and invite a broker in for a chat.
Actually there is a lot of logic in not trusting circuit breakers. Fuses can only fail in the open condition. Breakers may fail "closed" and then you have zero protection. Google up "Federal Pacific breaker" sometime and see what I mean.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.