Somebody falls in love with an old Fort Worth house, pays for the inspection, and a week later they're at the kitchen table with a 40-page report full of red text, wondering if they just fell for a money pit. Most of the time, they didn't. Here's the honest builder-and-Realtor read on what actually matters in an old Fort Worth home — the foundation questions, the cast iron plumbing myth, the sloping floors, and how to avoid the $40,000 repair that should have cost $5,000.

Fairmount craftsman bungalows. Arlington Heights Tudors. Near Southside four-squares. Pier-and-beam foundations, knob-and-tube wiring, lath-and-plaster walls, and original architectural character worth saving. Here's why historic Fort Worth renovation is 6th Ave's specialty — the construction realities of pre-1970 homes, how the city's preservation review actually works, and the approach that does justice to these houses.