Good advice, Valerie. Why buy a house that will need a new roof in 3 years? Have a roofer give you a roof cert for about $75 (I like going to the expert, if you're worried about the roof, ask a good roofer with references) Also, the lender won't lend ona home with a roof with very little life left.

Tim:

As a real estate agent who has both listed for sale and helped buyers purchase townhomes, I CANNOT stress strongly enough that IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU ABOUT A ROOF!! Before you purchase ANY home, you need to get a home inspection done, and the Inspector will let you know how close the roof is to needing repair or replacement.

Trust me on this - I recently listed a townhome for sale and my seller insisted that she had a 20-year roof on a 17-year old house. I strongly recommended that she have it inspected before we put it up for sale, because it's always better to get potential problems with roofs dealt with before you get a contract on a house, and THEN find out that your roof is a "deader" and the buyer is now demanding a $5,000 credit towards a new one. My words fell on deaf ears - TWO contracts fell through, both due to the home inspectors saying that they thought the roof was at the end of its functional life. When my seller, protesting hugely, eventually agreed to spend the $2,600 to replace her roof (after six months and a $20,000 price reduction on her house), it turns out that the shingles were so rotted, they were literally crumbling to dust as they were being removed - it actually became a serious debris and dirt issue for her, because so much dust was getting tracked into her house due to the shingles crumbling so much!! Not only had it NOT been a 20-year roof, the shingles clearly hadn't been a good grade for even a 15-year roof either!

So honestly, even if a seller has written on the Sellers Disclosure Form that it's a guaranteed new roof, you should always pay for a full Home Inspection (you're talking about $425 for a total inspection of the house you're about to spend well over a hundred thousand dollars on - you need to know things like whether the heating system actually works, whether there's any damp in the house, what the actual shape of the roof is like, etc.

And yes, to answer your original question - most townhouse roofs would have a lifespan of 15 years (after 15 years from date of construction, if you live in a townhouse you should get a roof inspection done to see if you need replacement. It's usually cheaper to replace the roof than to allow the damage to occur!)

I hope this helps. If you're in the market for a house, I would absolutely talk to a Buyers Agent as soon as possible, who should be able to help you with these kinds of questions (a good buyers agent will also have a couple of names of good Home Inspectors for you to use for your inspections). Don't forget, the Buyers Agent's fees don't come out of your pocket, they're already factored into the commission that the seller pays to his own agent - if you don't have an agent, you're simply at a huge disadvantage while the sellers agent just gets to pocket both commissions.

So make sure you have someone working for you who has your best interests at heart, and not the sellers'!

Good luck!