Caledonia has absorbed a great deal of growth over the past two decades, and much of what changes hands there was built on former farmland within recent memory. That makes it a young housing market with a young housing market’s characteristic issues.
The first wave of that growth is now reaching the age where original components start asking questions. A subdivision built in the early 2000s is arriving at the point where roofs, water heaters and air conditioning condensers are all approaching or past their expected service lives, frequently all at once because they went in together. Knowing which of those the seller has already dealt with, and which are still original, is worth real money in a negotiation.
Newer construction still going up brings the opposite problem: not wear, but work never finished. Insulation coverage at the attic perimeter, sealing at top-plate penetrations, duct joints, and grading that reflects the finished lot rather than the original plat are all worth documenting while the builder warranty is still in force.
Caledonia is in Kent County, which the EPA places in Radon Zone 2 with a predicted average indoor screening level between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Newer, tighter houses are not exempt from radon, and a full basement built for finishing is exactly where you want a number before you finish it.
