Homes to AVOID Buying in Modesto California | Things to Check Before Buying a House in California

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]If you're thinking of buying a home in Modesto, California, these following list of homes are ones that you might want to reconsider before making that purchase.

[00:00:08]>> [music] [music] >> Welcome back to the Living in the Central Valley channel. I'm your host Alex Souza, and today we're going over some different types of homes that you may want to reconsider buying before making that big purchase. [music] Now, when people walk through homes here in Modesto, a lot of times they think of, you know, does it need updating or some of the big ticket items out? But besides that, there's a lot of factors you want to take into consideration that maybe aren't even about the home itself before buying. So, let's just get into eight of the different things to maybe consider before buying a home. The first home that I warn people about are homes that are coming up to that 30-year mark. And the reason 30 is such a significant number is that's because a lot of systems seem to fail or need to be replaced around that time. So, the biggest one is your roof. A standard composition roof usually lasts around 30 years or so with good maintenance. And if you're coming up to around that 30-year mark, expect to have to replace a roof. You're not going to get much time out of it. And roofs can be pretty expensive. Besides the roof though, I usually always list out your other big ticket items, which are your HVAC and your water heater. HVAC and water heater usually should have been replaced before that 30-year mark. If they haven't, then they definitely will need to be. And if any of these three items are super outdated and old, be prepared for costs like that because there's no way around having to replace them or repair them in the near future. Now, I have people buy homes that, you know, some of these big ticket items are older, and that's completely okay as long as you're budgeting for it and expect [music] it.

[00:01:40]But if you come into a home, you know, and think that you're not going to have to do any work to it, and we see that those three items need replacement or repairing, expect to pay thousands in the near future. Now, kind of going off that last one, and another one is older homes with deferred maintenance. Now, older can be a multitude of things. It could be that 30-year mark, it could be 100-year-old homes. It just depends how the maintenance has been deferred. And by deferred maintenance, I mean just different things that probably needed updating and repairing over time that the owners and current sellers just didn't do. Either they didn't financially have the means to do it or they just kind of neglected it over time for a multitude of reasons. So, when we usually see, you know, there's a ton of overgrowth in the trees and yard, look for that. Cuz those can be pretty expensive to remove or trim trees. We want to see if there's like a lot of dry rot around the home. Um home inspection on these types of older homes is probably going to pull up a lot of stuff, so expect that. Any agent when they're walking through you with the home should be able to point out, "Hey, this is deferred maintenance. This clearly hasn't been serviced." I walked through me through a home the other day where it looked like their AC hadn't been serviced in probably since they ever repaired it or replaced it over 20 years ago. And you know, things like that just, you know, put more cost on you as the buyer in the future. Another thing to look out for, especially in older older homes, are different things that might be a considered a hazard by home insurance and they're not going to cover you. So, big one that we see here in the Central Valley are electrical panels that are considered safety hazards due to more um fire issues. Um and that's usually, I believe, Zinsco and Federal Electric.

[00:03:19]So, if you have those types of panels on the home, expect to have to replace them because your home insurance will not cover you. So, that's just a few examples, but just look out for these older homes. Now, I absolutely love older homes. I love the charm and the look to them and all the character, but just make sure that whoever was living in it before you was keeping good maintenance of the property or else it's going to be a lot of work when you move in. Now, another one that a lot of people don't think about is buying a home near phase one new construction.

[00:03:46]So, phase one in new construction essentially means it's the very beginning of construction for a new build community. Now, it can be really exciting buying a new build home, but if you buy at the very beginning stages of that, expect for there to be construction for months or even years after you purchase. Now, not only if you're living within the community, but if you're buying a home super close to new build community, you can still expect a lot of noise, construction materials, trucks constantly driving by, um and [music] dust too being kicked up from them driving on these roads that haven't been paved yet. So, just be prepared for that. Again, new builds can be a really good opportunity, and there's quite a few new builds coming up here in Modesto, especially in North and East Modesto. But, again, if you're at the very beginning stages of it, it's probably going to be a few years before construction's finished on the entire community.

[00:04:36]Now, another area you have to think about because of noise is living near the Modesto airport. I have some clients interested in the area, but when they hear just the planes coming and going, it can be a little bit noisy. Now, the Modesto airport, fortunately, it's more of a private smaller airport, so you're not constantly having major airway traffic like out of San Francisco or San Jose. But, if you're super close to it, you can hear planes throughout the day with the different type of flight patterns that they have.

[00:05:01]>> [music] >> If you do choose to move there, I highly recommend visiting at different day so you can see how loud it is when the planes are coming and going, as well as make sure you have upgraded dual pane windows in your home. If you have single pane windows, you're going to be able to hear everything. Having upgraded dual pane windows will help block out most of that noise, and then you probably won't hardly even hear the planes. Now, another type of home, not specifically just to Modesto, but in general here in the Central Valley, is buying quick flips from investors that are from the Bay Area or Southern California. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with buying from an investor, and I think it can actually be a really good opportunity to buy something that's move-in ready for you, especially if you're first-time home buyer and maybe you don't have the means to come into a home and have to do all these repairs and remodeling.

[00:05:45]Just be aware though, sometimes we get these investors from the Bay Area and Southern California that come to the Central Valley because we our homes are cheaper here, and they do a really quick job flipping them and reselling them.

[00:05:58]I have seen some with my own eyes where we're looking at this home, and it looks great at first, but when you look a little bit closer, you can see they literally just painted over dry rot.

[00:06:07]They just painted over spider webs in the closet. That's from a real life example I saw literally just the other day. So, you just watch for that stuff because sometimes there's going It looks super move-in ready and brand new, but when you start doing inspections and looking deeper into it, there's more problems that come up. A lot of times they're not really They want to hit a certain profit margin, and they're not willing to work with us when it comes to repairs or different credits to make up for those repairs. So, be cautious of that, but I'm not saying steer away from it completely.

[00:06:38]Um but if you are, you know, a lot of times I find that sometimes the local investors seem to do a better job um just because it's their name and brand being out here, and they're more just smaller companies, but it's It's always these big Bay Area and Southern California companies that come in, flip something within a couple of weeks, and try to resell it. So, just make sure you're looking for things on your first initial tour, and your agent's looking very closely as well. Now, the next set of homes you should be cautious with are some different areas in Modesto that don't have sidewalks or any curbs. Now, there's quite a few different areas looking in war Western Modesto, and then kind of like the Bystrom area getting close to Ceres, where they're older communities, and they don't have sidewalks or curbs. And I say either or because either are fine as long as you have some type of, you know, cement in front of the house, it it's okay. But a issue with a lot of these areas not having sidewalks and curbs is [music] flooding and drainage issues. So, during the rainy season, especially if we get a heavier rainy season like we did this past year, there's going to be a lot of flooding problems, and it can get very muddy and very dirty really quickly. So, just this past year, I went to go pick someone up that lived in a community or staying with a family member that lived in a community where there were no sidewalks, and it had just rained pretty heavily about a week, maybe 5 days before. It was still so flooded that you couldn't even see half the road anymore.

[00:07:59]There was probably at least a 4-ft wide puddle that we had to jump over to get and access the home. So, just be careful of it and be aware that um you might have those problems. And if you are looking at some of these homes that are in areas that don't have sidewalks or curbs, I highly recommend doing this during the wintertime when it has been raining, so you can see what the funny flooding or drainage looks like. Some of the areas aren't as bad just because of the drainage is better, but just be aware of especially if you're looking in summer when there's been no rain at all, it's going to look great. Second winter wintertime comes and there's rain, you're you might be regretting it just a little [music] bit.

[00:08:34]Now, the next area a lot of people don't think about buying in are areas that are in flood zones. Now, it comes to a surprise to a lot of people that Modesto doesn't even have any flood zone areas at all. It's not a ton, but we do have some because of the river that runs through in Modesto. So, if you're near the river, there's a good chance you might be within a flood zone. And that can impact your monthly payment, flood insurance costing you around $100 extra a month or so, depending on your insurance carrier. And it is required to have a loan to get that flood insurance.

[00:09:02]There's no work way around it. If you are located within a designated FEMA area, you have to get flood insurance, or else your loan won't close. Now, if you're already shopping at homes that are kind of pushing your budget a little bit, this is going to push you completely outside of that if you have to get flood insurance, cuz that's counted towards your monthly payment. I highly recommend before looking at homes, you can always you or your agent go on to the designated FEMA map zone.

[00:09:27]There's a website for it, basically it's FEMA, um and you can type in it a specific address and it'll tell you if it's in or out of the flood zone. Now, the last home to reconsider buying here in Modesto are certain pocketed areas that are on septic instead of city sewer. Now, it comes as a surprise to a lot of people that there's certain areas in Modesto that are on septic and not city. Now, this is expected if you're living out more towards the country, you are going to be on septic and that's completely fine. But there's certain areas that some of them aren't even that old. They were built in the '70s or even a little newer that are just kind of a little almost like county island within the city where it's on septic, but maybe like two streets over they're on city sewer. So, you just have to check that in advance. Your agent can check that for you. But the reason I bring this up is because being on septic can just be a lot more expensive than being on city sewer. So, you have to first off, during um you have to get inspections for it. You don't have to, but I highly recommend getting it inspected when you're going to purchase the home to make sure there's nothing wrong with it. Cuz if there is anything wrong with the septic, it can be really expensive to do any repairs or to replace it. Now, you also have to do regular maintenance of the septic with um just different pumping and inspections to make sure everything's working properly. And if you ever do have to replace it, there's a really good chance that the city of Modesto might require you to connect to the city sewer. I've seen some situations where if you're located within city limits and your home's on septic, but you have to replace it for whatever reason, they're forcing you basically to have to connect to city sewer cuz they're trying to get away from these septic systems. Now, that can cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to have to have the city come out and connect to their sewer system instead.

[00:11:09][music] So, be aware of this in advance.

[00:11:12]It's completely up to you if you want to buy a home with septic. And again, if you're out in the country, that's that's a given. But being right in town, I think it's more beneficial to buy something that is on city utilities versus having a septic system. Now, as you can see, there are a lot of different factors you should be considering buying a home here in Modesto than just looking at the inside and what the house itself looks like. I hope this was helpful to give you an idea to help you narrow down your search [music] and see what is or what isn't important to you. If you are thinking of buying a home here in Modesto, all of my contact information is linked below.

[00:11:41]Feel free to send me a text, give me a call, or send me an email. I get calls from people just like you every single day looking to make a move here to the valley. So, whether you're moving here in 2 months or a year from now, feel free to reach out to me. I would love to help. Till next time, I'll show you around town.