The Old House Game

I made good on a promise to a coworker that I could find her a cool house in Dallas for cheap. What I found was this lovely 1940 Austin stone cottage that sits in the rolling hills of the Oak Cliff neighborhood of the city. It's got a huge open green area on the side of the house and a creek running behind it. So I took my coworker to go see this place yesterday and she freaked out --- she loved it so much. Who wouldn't? It's got nice hardwood floors, black and white tile in the bathroom, an art deco-tiled gas fireplace and a metal roof that probably sings when it rains. My coworker was ready to write up a contract on the house that day. Whoa Tonto. Unfortunately, cheap always has a cost when dealing with old houses. Hours later we discovered that the electrical system in this house is completely shot, the foundation needs work, the plumbing leaks and the roof needs repairs. Total bill for all of this? Probably around $30,000 for repairs if I had to guess. All of the sudden, it doesn't seem like such a cheap house anymore. But it's still a cool house. So what do you do?