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Rehabbing & House Flipping

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John Finch
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Houston, TX
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When is a house required to be brought up to code?

John Finch
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Houston, TX
Posted Mar 4 2019, 20:05

I'm looking at flipping a house within City of Houston (this would be my first). It was built in 1952, no signs of code updates (electrical, smoke detectors, etc). If I'm thinking of doing a rehab on this property (it would be upwards of $20k) what things should I consider here? Any feedback would be awesome! I've got a few specific questions too...

  1. If I pull a permit to renovate this property, would I then have to update all the electrical wiring and everything as well to make it code compliant?
  2. Would I be required to replace old galvanized piping? My understanding is galvanized piping has a life of 50 years, and this house is almost to 70 years.
  3. Is there some sort of grandfathering clause that would allow me to leave some of this stuff alone?

I'm combing through residential codes right now to see if I can address some of my own questions, but I figured I should reach out to those with more experience to hear your take! Any comments/thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks!

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