What should I check in a house built in the 1970s?

Check the systems, not the finishes. A house built in the 1970s usually has good bones and old mechanicals, and the money is entirely in the second half of that sentence.

The kitchen you can see. The sewer line you cannot. Buyers walk a 1970s house and negotiate over the countertops, then discover in year two that the real number was under the floor. How the frame is attached to the foundation belongs on that list, and it is one of the things that decides whether earthquake insurance is worth it in Utah for a particular house.

The six things that carry the money

System	What to ask for	Why it matters in a 1970s house
Electrical panel and wiring	Age, brand, whether it has been upgraded	Capacity was designed for a 1970s household, not for a household with an electric vehicle and a shop
Plumbing supply lines	What material, and whether any has been replaced	Supply piping from this era varies a lot, and the material determines the risk
Sewer line	A sewer scope, as a separate service	The most expensive surprise available, and not part of a standard inspection
Furnace and air conditioning	Install date, not manufacture date, plus service history	Equipment this old has usually been replaced at least once — find out when
Roof	Install date, tear-off or layover, permits	The single biggest line item on most houses
Insulation and windows	What is in the attic, what the windows are	This is the comfort and utility-bill answer, and it is the cheapest to improve

Two established neighborhoods where this is the main question: White City on the east side and Oquirrh Shadows in West Jordan.

If you are looking at this era on Sandy’s east bench, Quail Hollow is where the question comes up most, and the full set of neighborhoods is under neighborhoods.

Work that list and you have a real picture. Skip it and you are buying on faith.

Start with the panel

The electrical panel is where I would look first in a house of this age, and not only because of safety.

A panel sized for a 1970s household is a constraint on everything you might want to add later: an electric vehicle charger, a hot tub, a heat pump, air conditioning where there was none, a shop in the garage. You can find out it is undersized now, while you are still negotiating, or you can find out later when you ask an electrician for a quote.

Ask the age and whether it has been upgraded. If the answer is that it is original, that is not automatically a problem, but it is a number you should be carrying in your head when you decide what to offer.

Some panel brands from this general era have known histories and are treated differently by inspectors and by some insurers. You do not need to learn which ones. You need your inspector to tell you what is in the house and whether it is one of them, and you need to ask your insurance agent before your due diligence period closes. That second call is the one buyers skip.

Plumbing: ask what the pipes are made of

The question is not “does the plumbing work.” It is “what is it made of, and how much of it is original.” Windows are worth knowing the names of, and what a tilt-turn window is covers one worth asking a builder for.

Different supply materials from this period age very differently, and some have had enough problems that insurers ask about them. Your inspector can usually tell you what is there by looking at exposed runs in the basement, the crawlspace and under sinks. What they cannot tell you is what is inside the walls, so ask the seller directly whether any repiping has been done and whether there are permits for it.

Drain lines are a separate question from supply lines, and both are separate from the sewer lateral that runs out to the street.

The sewer line is the one people skip

A sewer scope is not part of a standard home inspection. It is a separate service, and on a house of this age I would not skip it.

The reason is simple: it is the one defect that is invisible, expensive, and entirely predictable from the age of the house. A camera run takes well under an hour and tells you whether you are buying a functioning line, a line with root intrusion, or a line that needs replacing through a mature front yard.

What a home inspection actually covers is worth reading so you know what is included by default and what you have to ask for separately. The sewer scope is squarely in the second category.

Asbestos and lead, handled calmly

Two materials come up with houses of this age, and both get discussed more dramatically than they deserve.

Federal law requires sellers of housing built before 1978 to disclose known lead-based paint and provide an EPA-approved pamphlet, and gives buyers a period to conduct an assessment (EPA and HUD, 24 CFR Part 35 and 40 CFR Part 745). That disclosure is a normal part of the paperwork on a house this age, not a red flag.

Materials containing asbestos were used in various building products through part of this period. The practical point for a buyer is that intact, undisturbed material is treated very differently from material you are about to tear out. If your plan involves removing popcorn ceilings or old flooring, that is a question for a qualified professional before you start, not after.

Neither of these is a reason to walk away from a well-built house. Both are reasons to know what you have before you pick up a crowbar.

What a 1970s house usually gets right

I want to be even-handed, because the list above reads as a catalog of problems and that is not the whole picture.

Houses from this period are frequently on larger lots than new construction, in neighborhoods with mature trees and streets that have long since settled into what they are going to be. The framing is often heavier than current production building. And crucially, you are buying a known quantity: the house has been standing through decades of weather, and anything structurally wrong with it has had plenty of time to show itself.

That last point is underrated. A thirty-year-old problem is visible. A new house’s problems are still in the future.

If you are weighing old against new generally, whether to build or buy goes through that trade in the south valley specifically, and what to ask a builder covers the other side of it.

How the Utah contract gives you room to check all this

Everything in this post belongs inside your due diligence period, and that window is shorter than it feels.

Under the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract, you may cancel for any reason by written notice before the Due Diligence Deadline and your earnest money is returned. After that deadline passes, canceling forfeits it unless a remaining contingency such as financing or appraisal still applies.

So the sequence that works is: go under contract, book the general inspection immediately, book the sewer scope at the same time, and send your written list of age questions to the seller on day one rather than on the last day. Specialists get busy, and the deadline does not move for you.

What due diligence actually means in a Utah contract covers the mechanics, and what a seller has to disclose covers what you are entitled to ask for.

What is a negotiating point and what is not

This is where buyers of older houses most often go wrong.

A system that is broken or unsafe is a defect, and defects are negotiable. A system that is old but working is not a defect — it is a schedule. Asking a seller to replace a functioning twenty-five-year-old furnace because it is twenty-five years old is a request that tends to go nowhere and costs you goodwill you may want later.

You do not get everything on the inspection report fixed, and on a house of this age that is especially true. The better use of the information is your own planning: price the replacements into your reserves, not into your offer, and decide whether you can still afford the house with that assumption baked in.

A home warranty is sometimes worth considering for the first year on a house like this, with clear eyes about what it does and does not cover.

Check the permit record yourself

A 1970s house has usually had work done to it, and the question is whether that work was permitted.

Call the building department for the city the house is in, or look for their online portal, and ask what permits have been pulled on the address. This does not require the seller’s permission and it can happen before you are even under contract. A permitted reroof or panel upgrade is good news. A finished basement with nothing attached to it is a different conversation, and one worth having before you write.

What I would actually do

Book the general inspection and the sewer scope together. Send the seller a written list asking for the age of the roof, furnace, air conditioning, water heater, electrical panel and sewer line, plus permits for any work done. Call your insurance agent with what the inspector finds on the panel and the plumbing. Then decide.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and the clients who are happiest in older houses are the ones who went in with the list and a reserve fund, not the ones who got a price reduction and no information.

Separately from condition, establish what actually comes with the house — which appliances stay is a contract question rather than a convention.

If you want the written version of those questions to hand to a seller, the answer sheet is the place to start. If you want someone running this process for you, get in touch.

Note: General information, not legal advice. Contract terms and deadlines vary, and your own transaction may differ — read your actual purchase contract and speak to a Utah real estate attorney about any specific situation.