Do you have a basement? Do you have a crawl space that goes below ground? If yes to either of these questions I would have to answer yes you need gutters. I would buy the house and put them on, but it isn't life or death of the house.

If you said you were buying the house you should be able to get an estimate on it before buying it. Someone might be able to give you a guess from the board if you tell them one story or two. How long the sides are. Is it square or are there a lot of turns?

Good luck,

Devildog

I think that generally, gutters are a good idea. Of course gutters come with their own drawbacks, but I think their benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

We had a new house without them once....it wasn't long before we saw the need and had them installed. The rain just pours off the roof everywhere. It causes splashback and makes ruts in the dirt. With gutters you can at least manage some of where the water ends up.

Not putting them on is (I'd say) just an obvious cost cutting move.

-k2

you know its funny how no one ever says what part of the country they are in when they ask question like this. in the south on most houses gutters keep the water from flooding the flower beds but almost always cause rot somewhere. if you where to tell where you lived and what exterior treatment of the house was going to executed then i could tell you if getting gutters or lining your perimeter of your house with gravel is a better idea.

In snow country gutters are rarely installed because they cause more problems than they solve.

As previous poster stated, it all depends upon where you are located.