The Real Gatekeeper in Old Town Brunswick Isn't the Inspector. It's the Insurance Underwriter.

Ask most buyers what could kill a deal on a hundred-year-old house in Old Town Brunswick's historic district, and they'll say the inspection. Foundation issues. A leaking roof. Termite damage. Those are real, and they get found early, while the standard due diligence period is still open and walking away costs nothing.

The thing that actually derails these deals tends to show up later, after the inspector has already signed off, and it isn't structural. It's electrical. Specifically, it's whether an insurance underwriter will write a policy on a house with knob-and-tube wiring, and the answer to that question routinely arrives after the buyer's free exit window has already closed.

The Due Diligence Clock Isn't the Insurance Clock

Georgia's standard purchase agreement gives buyers a due diligence period during which they can terminate for any reason, or no reason, and get their earnest money back. Once that period expires without a termination, the buyer's ability to walk away narrows to whatever specific contingencies were negotiated into the contract, typically financing, appraisal, or title defects. Insurability isn't automatically one of them.

That structure works fine for most homes. It starts to strain in a district where a meaningful share of the housing stock predates modern electrical standards, because the timeline an insurer needs to make a coverage decision doesn't line up neatly with the timeline the contract gives a buyer to decide.

A general home inspection will note visible knob-and-tube wiring if it's present. It will not tell a buyer whether a carrier will insure it, at what price, or under what conditions. That answer comes from a separate, dedicated electrical inspection and a quote from an underwriter, and both can take longer to produce than buyers expect if they only start the process once due diligence is already underway.

The wiring rarely fails the home inspection. It fails the insurance underwriter, and by the time that answer comes back, due diligence has often already closed.

Why This Keeps Coming Up in This Particular District

Old Town Brunswick's National Register Historic District was originally surveyed in 2001 and 2004, and that data was later entered into Georgia's historic resources database with what the city itself describes as varying degrees of accuracy. The City of Brunswick is now funding a new, more intensive survey of roughly 500 parcels, financed in part by a 2023 Historic Preservation Fund grant from the National Park Service and administered through the Georgia Historic Preservation Division. The survey area runs from H Street on the north to First Avenue on the south, and from Bay Street on the west to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the east, which covers the core of the residential historic district.

That resurvey exists because the district's building stock is old enough that the paper trail on individual houses is often thinner than a buyer would like. Recent listings in the district bear this out directly: one home currently marketed as a "meticulously restored" property dates to 1900. Another, a Victorian, was renovated in 2024 with a new roof, HVAC system, and interior systems work. These aren't outliers. They're representative of a housing stock built in an era before grounded, three-wire electrical systems were standard, which is exactly the era knob-and-tube wiring comes from.

What the Underwriter Is Actually Afraid Of

Knob-and-tube wiring uses ceramic knobs and tubes to run ungrounded copper conductors through open air, a method common in homes built roughly between the 1880s and the 1930s. It was safe for the electrical loads of its era: a few light fixtures, maybe a radio. It was not designed for central air, multiple appliances, and the number of devices a modern household plugs in without thinking twice.

Most standard admitted carriers decline to write policies on homes with active knob-and-tube wiring at all. Buyers who want to keep the wiring as-is typically end up with a specialty or excess-and-surplus carrier, and can expect to pay 50 to 100 percent more per year for coverage than they would on a comparable home with modern wiring. Insurers that will even consider the risk generally require a dedicated electrical inspection first, separate from the general home inspection, which runs $200 to $500 and takes two to four hours, since the inspector needs access to the attic, basement, and wall cavities to assess the system's actual condition.

If the wiring passes that inspection clean, a specialty carrier may issue coverage. If it doesn't, the buyer is usually looking at a full or partial rewire before anyone will write a policy. A standard rewire for a single-story home in the 1,200 to 1,800 square foot range typically runs $8,000 to $15,000. Larger homes, multi-story homes, or houses where the wiring is hard to reach can push that to $15,000 or $30,000 and up.

One more detail that matters at closing time and beyond: failing to disclose known knob-and-tube wiring to an insurer isn't a minor omission. It's treated as misrepresentation, and it can void a policy entirely if a claim is ever filed. That cuts both ways for buyers and sellers, and it's one more reason to get the wiring question answered in writing rather than taken on faith.

The Tax Credit That Used to Help Isn't There Anymore

Old Town Brunswick's historic rehabilitation tax credits are their own program, with their own certified-rehabilitation application and their own approval timeline, and that timeline doesn't map onto a 30 or 45 day due diligence window. It isn't the mechanism most buyers picture when they hear "rewire" and "credit" in the same sentence.

The credit most people are actually thinking of is a federal one, and it's gone. The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit under Section 25C offered a tax credit for electrical panel upgrades tied to energy efficiency work. That credit expired after December 31, 2025. As of 2026, there is no federal tax credit available for residential electrical upgrades, according to IRS guidance summarized by LegalClarity. Anyone budgeting a rewire based on last year's numbers is working from a math that no longer applies. The full cost now sits with the buyer, and it belongs in the offer, not treated as an afterthought that gets solved with a credit that isn't there.

Building the Timeline Backward From Closing

The practical fix here isn't complicated. It just has to happen earlier than most buyers assume it needs to.

• Order a dedicated electrical inspection during due diligence, not the general home inspection alone. The general inspector will flag knob-and-tube if it's visible, but an underwriter wants a report built for underwriting, covering panel capacity, splices, and insulation contact.
• Get a written insurance quote before due diligence expires, not after. A verbal "we can probably cover it" from an agent isn't the same as a bindable quote.
• Ask sellers for permit records on any electrical work already done, not just a description of what was updated. Insurers want documentation, and if there's no permit on file, expect the underwriter to want its own inspection regardless of what you're told.
• Confirm the panel's amperage. A 60-amp panel carrying knob-and-tube wiring alongside central air and modern appliances reads very differently to an underwriter than the same wiring serving a few light circuits while heavier loads run on updated wiring elsewhere in the house.
• Price the rewire into the offer if the wiring is active and unclear. Whether that means negotiating on price or asking for a credit at closing, the number belongs in the conversation before you're under contract, not discovered after.

None of this makes a hundred-year-old house in Old Town Brunswick a bad buy. The City's own Historic Preservation Board recognized a Prince Street home with a 2025 Residential Excellence in Preservation Award, and the district is full of houses that have already made this exact transition from original systems to something a modern carrier will insure without blinking. The point isn't to avoid these houses. It's to stop letting the insurance answer arrive after the exit door has already closed.

A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Write an Offer

Does the historic tax credit cover the cost of rewiring for insurance purposes? Not on the timeline you need. Certified historic rehabilitation credits involve their own application and approval process, separate from a home purchase entirely, and that process doesn't move fast enough to solve an insurance problem you're facing during due diligence. The federal credit that once helped with panel and wiring upgrades directly, Section 25C, expired at the end of 2025.

The seller says the wiring was already updated. Isn't that enough? Ask for the permit. A description of work done isn't documentation an underwriter can act on, and if there's no permit on record, most carriers will still want their own inspection before quoting.

If my insurance falls through after due diligence ends, can I still walk away? That depends entirely on what contingencies are still open in your contract. A financing contingency may protect you if a lender won't fund without proof of insurance, but that's not guaranteed, and it's not a substitute for getting the insurance question answered while due diligence is still active.

If you're looking at a house in Old Town Brunswick and want someone who's already thought through the wiring, the timeline, and the paperwork before you're three weeks into a contract, Page Aiken is a good place to start that conversation.