My house-hunting continues apace, and I actually have 3 possibilities that I’ll be looking at more closely when my realtor gets back from her vacation. Two are very good possibilities, one just hit the market this weekend and I’ve not even seen it. I’ll be driving by its neighborhood today sometime, to decide if I want her to get us inside it when she gets back. I’m not in a major hurry – still a couple months left on my current lease. I firmly believe that if a house sells before I offer on it, it wasn’t supposed to be my house.

Here is my next set of questions.

One house has polybutylene pipes throughout. Is this good or bad? (I prefer copper). We’re in the Atlanta area, so not much concern about freezing pipes in the winter.

One house has a heat/cool system original to the home (27 years old). Is it acceptable to reduce my offer by the estimated 6K it will take to replace those (estimate based on what it cost to replace the one in San Antonio)?

One house has the washer/dryer in the hall bathroom. I’ve never encountered that before. It seems odd to me, but not a deal-breaker. Has anyone ever experienced that before? In that house, the water heater is in a room off the garage that is plenty large enough for a laundry room, and has a pipe that could be hooked into. Would it be feasible to move the washer/dryer to that room? If yes, how would I re-purpose the extra space in the hall bath?

One disclosure lists “some delaminating of siding on middle section of home.” What does that mean? The siding is pulling away from soemthing, or the veneer is pulling away from the siding? Is this something that should worry me? What causes delaminating?

I’ll likely be making an offer on one of these homes, the week after next (subject to inspections, etc)

Whoops – knew there was another question. One house has a room in the back corner of the garage that could easily be turned into a mudroom if we add an outside door to it. How much hassle is it to add an exterior door after the fact?