[toomuchtodo]

You require something akin to an FHA 203k loan, where the improvements can be financed with bank oversight. You make these specific improvements a requirement where, if not performed using the funds provided, the loan is in default. Cash transaction can still require the work be done; have the county recorder notify the permit office of the AHJ.

Lots of paths to success here.

[willcipriano]

Some codes would require you do things like tear down a addition that was perfectly legal and safe last year or moving a house back further from a road that the government expanded. Not everything in local building codes is for safety, there is a lot of aesthetic stuff in there. Imagine being forced to rip out a 100 year old oak tree because it isn't legal to have a tree in your front yard anymore. Pools are no longer allowed, fill it in. No thanks. I'd never buy in a locality like that, might as well live in a HOA.

[mindslight]

It's amazing how so many people here have no clue how building codes work. There's a new version of the NEC released every 3 years. These are physical systems, not continuously deployed software being pushed to centrally-controlled surveillance company servers. They're building codes, not occupancy codes. Building codes are focused on making sure big jobs with a lot of money/effort have sane defaults, and weren't skimped on to save a few percent. A house built X years ago is still an X year old house, and everybody knows it.

The egregious safety problems (eg knob and tube, fuses, Federal Pacific breakers) are taken care of by insurance companies. Or state laws that address the specific problem (eg septic, smoke detectors, etc). One can certainly have an opinion that something specific should be added to the regulations that apply when selling, but the out of touch comments here are far from informed.

Also some of the recent changes in the NEC are actually not beneficial to many people - eg the plastic gates in TR receptacles that tend to bind up and bend plug prongs, and shoddy overaggressive AFCIs running proprietary software. That you're generally left alone in the privacy of your own home without an inspector coming around every year and making you remodel is a feature, not a bug.

[aynyc]

How can a retiree or poor middle class person get a loan? They probably have below 650 credit. The house hasn’t seen an updated in 20 years. Any delay in construction will put them under water for years. For the poor, there is no path for success, as the house is probably the only assets they have.

My old neighborhood has a bunch of 80 year olds with houses worth a million easy without any mortgages. You would think the banks would give them loans to fix things up. Nope, not a chance. The banks are waiting for them to die and make money off the next mortgage.