The reason this county looks the way it does is cotton. Mills went up along the Haw River and the railroad from the 1840s onward — the Granite Mill in Haw River was built in 1844 and is the oldest mill building in the county still standing in use — and around each one a village of small, solid houses was built for the people who worked there.
You will see them in Burlington, in Haw River, in Glencoe, around Saxapahaw and in Gibsonville. They tend to be modest, well proportioned and close together, on streets that were laid out to be walked. A lot of them have been renovated. Many are still the most affordable way into a neighbourhood with real character.
What an older house asks of a buyer is a different inspection, not a more nervous one.
The systems are what age: the roof, the wiring, the plumbing, the heating. A house that has been updated properly is often a better buy than something twenty years newer that has not. Find out what has been replaced and when, and ask for the paperwork where there is any.
Foundations and crawl spaces deserve attention. Look for moisture, for old repairs, and for whether the crawl space has been encapsulated or vented and left alone.
Windows are the negotiation. Original wood windows can be repaired and are often better than their reputation, but the cost of doing that, or of replacing them properly, belongs in your numbers before you offer.
Insulation and what it costs to heat. Ask to see a year of utility bills. This is the cheapest diligence there is and almost nobody does it.
Then the two questions that are specific to these houses. First, is the property in a historic district, and if so, is it a National Register listing or a local one? A National Register listing is largely honorary; local district rules can genuinely affect what you may do to the outside. Second, if a renovation is the whole point of the purchase, get a builder through it during due diligence, not after.
Alamance County's mill housing is the most characterful stock we have, and it is disappearing into renovations one house at a time. Bought with open eyes, it is still the best value in the county.