Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 11/10/2009

Question
We are looking to buy a home in an upper scale neighborhood in Englewood florida.  My concern is the house is a wood frame.  What are the pros and cons.  What types of questions should we be asking?  What type of upkeep do you need to do special?  HELP IN GENERAL..  the asking price is 399,000 for a 5 bedroom, 5500 square foot home built in 1982. Thanks for any help you can give.  

Answer
Good morning Lisa, thanks for your question!

Englewood has certainly changed since I was first there 40 years ago!  Back then the biggest house in town had wheels. Today it's a beautiful area with great beaches and easy access to the best places up and down the west coast.

Homes should always be designed and built to respond to the environment they're in - that's especially important in Florida.  High winds, humidity, and insects are the top three house-killers in Florida and the reason why many homes are built of concrete block.

Wood framing for larger family homes is relatively new in Florida and came about as a way to reduce cost while increasing space - wood framing allows homes to easily go up to two stories, which is more difficult in a concrete block house.  In other words, cheap!

Unfortunately, wood framing is also highly susceptible to the three house-killers!  Do you recall the images of destruction in Homestead, Florida after hurricane Andrew in 1992?  Pieces of wood-framed homes strewn everywhere, while traditional block homes remained largely intact.  Your house was built ten years before Andrew hit, which means it doesn't have the upgraded structural measures that are now mandated by code in the southeast.

Termites are a huge problem in Florida; the temperature and humidity are the ideal habitat.  Obviously they love wood homes.  And while it's not difficult to design a wood home today that is harder for termites to attack, it's not likely that was taken into account in 1982.

Humidity is killer number three - wood rots when it gets wet, and wood is ALWAYS wet in Florida.  Again, there are preventative measures, but they weren't in effect when your house was built.  Perhaps more importantly, moisture in homes means mold growth - which can be very hazardous!  Mold can grow inside a wood-framed wall for a long time before you are aware of it.

Upkeep on a wood framed home in Florida means keeping vegetation away from the foundation and treating the soil for termites regularly; it means checking gutters and downspouts (if you have them) to keep them clean and clear; it means getting the home retrofitted to withstand high winds (rolling shutters for windows, hurricane anchors for the roof, etc.).  And it means making sure that the insulation in the walls and ceilings is properly installed.  You'll need professional help with all of those.

And I would be HUGELY suspicious of an "upscale" home selling for $72 per square foot - that is a ridiculously low price in any market.  A quality home should be selling for at least twice that.  Something is wrong with this picture, don't you think?

Finally, I will offer you a bit of unsolicited advice.  5,500 square feet is too much house for any family.  Even if you have a child for each bedroom, you're going to have lots and lots of unused space in that home.  You're going to have rooms you don't even use (the dining and living rooms, at least).  Bigger does NOT meas better in house design.  You are paying a very low price "per square foot" but buying way too much house; where's the value in that?

The house-buying public has had it beat into their heads for decades that luxury and status are found in big homes; that's a myth created by homebuilders who know that their margins increase exponentially with increase in house size.

And yet we know, from decades of working with wealthy clients, that real luxury is found in quality.  Our "truly wealthy" clients live in much smaller homes of much higher quality; none of them have lost their homes in the current crisis.  In contrast, our "wanna-be" clients who built monster homes "for show" are all struggling to stay in them...and many have lost them to foreclosure.

Quality will hold value; big, cheap houses will not.  The trend in home design right now is towards (much) smaller homes of higher quality; big houses are starting to be seen as white elephants that no one wants - it's the beginning of the "suburban ghetto" syndrome that planners and architects have been warning us about for years.  There is a huge glut of "super-sized" homes throughout the country and they are losing value fast.

My advice to your is to spend your $400k on the best quality home, in the best quality neighborhood, that you can find.  Think about how you really live, rather than about how homebuilders want you to live, and buy a home that fits who you and your family really are.

Get a copy of Sarah Susanka's "The Not So Big House" to learn more about getting more living out of less square footage - you might find it very enlightening and useful.

Best wishes - I hope this will be of some help to you!

Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtaplans.com
www.rtastudio.blogspot.com