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House Hunting

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  • edited September 2016
    Best of luck, may your plumbing not be unique. :P
    Post edited by George Patches on
  • That's a cool house, I assume the electric work has been redone right?

    wow, that price... sorta jealous.
  • It appears to have been, though we haven't had the inspection yet.
  • I'll be taking walkthrough video when we do the inspection.
  • edited September 2016
    It's beautiful home built 1838 has the home been marked as an historic home? Could make things difficult if you're required to maintain the home in it's original state.
    Post edited by Josh Bytes on
  • edited September 2016
    It has not been marked as an historic home and has already had many additions and changes.
    Post edited by Kate Monster on
  • Honestly, aside from paint and anything the inspector turns up, I can't see changing that much.
  • Inspection done.
    Nope.
    Moving on.
  • Inspection done.
    Nope.
    Moving on.

    Awww, that sucks. Big issues?
  • Issues so big that the house is unsaleable I'd assume. As in, they make the house so undervalue that the owners could not possibly actually sell it for that little, nor can they afford to mitigate.

    Severe wood-eating insect infestations, black mold, foundation problems, etc...

    My money is on black mold.
  • Bodies buried in the barn?
  • If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
  • Jameskun said:

    Bodies buried in the barn?

    That's easily mitigated, however. Plus, hey, free bodies.
  • Rym said:

    Issues so big that the house is unsaleable I'd assume. As in, they make the house so undervalue that the owners could not possibly actually sell it for that little, nor can they afford to mitigate.

    Severe wood-eating insect infestations, black mold, foundation problems, etc...

    My money is on black mold.

    Some mold can be remediated depending on the location. Mold in the walls, though - burn the fucker down.

    Foundation issues are nuts. We saw a couple of places with bulging, cracking foundations. Nopenopenopefucknope.

  • edited September 2016
    No mold, no bugs, and the foundation was good.
    Laundry list of big expenses:
    - With the exception of the main house and main apartment living area, ALL of the electrical was amateur work. Likely by the farmers who expanded the buildings. Needed replacement or repairing in both barns, the garage, and the workroom to not be a hazard.
    - Roof was nearing the end of its life, and was cedar shake. The entire roof of the main house and garage/attic would need a tear-off and redoing. Easily $20k issue there.
    - There had been a fire at some point, and it wasn't reported to us. It's possible the previous owners weren't aware, as it was old and only visible through a crawlspace into an attic above the main house, and had been reinforced correctly, but still...
    - There was evidence of fires in the chimneys, which needed inspection, and probably repair.
    - There was a propane wall heater in a bedroom that was not vented. BIG no-no.
    - The big blue barn was original, which meant that the wood in it was around 200 years old, which meant that it was leaning a bit and would need repair, or more likely removal. While the old wood is valuable to resell, it'd be a giant hassle, even if it might have paid for the re-roofing.
    - A mini-garage on the back side of the property was not supported. At all. By anything. Inspector said it'd likely need to be torn down, especially since it's attached to part of the barn.
    - Lots of siding needed replacing.
    - Windows needed some TLC.
    - 3 wells on the property were not properly capped.
    - Some copper piping in the basement was corroding, and would need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

    The inspection took four and a half hours, and we got a 92 page document with images, explanations, and recommendations. There's more little stuff, but basically we'd be shocked if they were willing to fix all of that nonsense in the next two months. We'd spend a lot of time and money getting it to where we'd be happy, so we walked.
    Post edited by GreatTeacherMacRoss on
  • At least you found a good inspector.
  • Definitely. He's a high-level dual-class Master Electrician/Inspector. I think he's prestige'd.
  • Definitely. He's a high-level dual-class Master Electrician/Inspector. I think he's prestige'd.

    A good inspector is worth every penny. Especially when it results in saving you tens of thousands of dollars!

  • What I want to know is, what sort of fucking scam are the sellers trying to pull here? Those are the kinds of things you disclose. An agent who's shown that house before would also be aware of them.

    I suppose it's possible you're the first people who ever seriously tried to buy the home, and it's the first independent inspection ever. But god damn.
  • edited September 2016
    Most of those don't actually require disclosure. New York's disclosure requirements are pretty good, but there's a lot of information they just don't cover.

    Fire does require it, though, which is a big big red flag if it wasn't on the property disclosure. We saw a house that had undisclosed flooding; that was something that the sellers eventually admitted to when our agent pressed their agent for more information. It made it basically impossible for us to trust anything else they said, so it pushed us towards walking away.

    Chimney damage, IIRC, is on the list of "this can get you out of the contract" repair items, independent of the $1500 threshold for general health and safety stuff.
    Post edited by TheWhaleShark on
  • Literally everything can get you out the contract.
  • Cremlian said:

    Literally everything can get you out the contract.

    Not in New York, at least. There's a specific list of items that can get you out no matter what, and a threshold of $1500 for a single repair item otherwise.

    If you find 5 things that each cost $700, you can go back to the plate to negotiate who pays for what - but it doesn't allow you to back out. Unless your lawyer managed to get that in there.
  • I'm just saying any house you buy if you wanted to pull out of it, you can find 1,500 dollars for a single repair on literally any house unless it's a new construction.
  • edited September 2016
    Rym said:

    What I want to know is, what sort of fucking scam are the sellers trying to pull here? Those are the kinds of things you disclose. An agent who's shown that house before would also be aware of them.

    I suppose it's possible you're the first people who ever seriously tried to buy the home, and it's the first independent inspection ever. But god damn.

    No one had put in a bid before, it was the first time it got to inspection, and it had been in the market for 150 days.

    As to the contract, Scott is correct. A smart lawyer will put in clauses that will let you bail for almost any reason, up to the actual signing of the papers.

    I'm relatively certain that the previous owners had no clue there was ever a fire, as it was in the upper attic crawl space, and people rarely go in those. It had been properly repaired, but no one seemed to know it had happened.
    Post edited by GreatTeacherMacRoss on
  • A smart lawyer will put in clauses that will let you bail for almost any reason, up to the actual signing of the papers.

    Standard bid agreements have such clauses; they are not just put in by especially 'smart' lawyers. Also, replace "signing of papers" with closing. Technically, we signed the bidding agreement.
  • Saw a house that was so close to being perfect, but the owner occupied space was around 1000 sqft and just not big enough. Another place we wanted to look at suddenly went off the market after an inspection. Another we wanted to see was in an area our buyer's agent said was rapidly declining in home values. A recent viewing at another propery let us know the detached rental had something going on in the foundation, and there had clearly been flooding in the basement of the main home.

    There are two more in Brighton our agent is reluctant to show us because she thinks they're too expansive for what we've been approved. A home in Webster that has a detached rental unit she is also reluctant about because she thinks the rental has been empty for "a long time".

    Several other homes we've looked at would require way more work and updating that would be worth the cost. Still others have obvious issues which the sellers don't mention (carpeted bathroom with a really, really slanted floor? Gag me.), and end up wasting our time. Some people have done inexplicable things to their homes too.

    One home in Honeoye Falls (very desirable neighborhood) had clearly not been well cared for, doors off hinges, large holes (like someone put a foot through) in drywall, and a carpeted room that reeked of dog pee. The home would have been a beauty if any care or thought had been given to it in the last 20 years.

    This is getting increasingly irritating.
  • Stay strong. It's a hard, stressful process.

    You ever need a break, you know where our guest room is.
  • It took us a year of looking for find a house with the right price/space. With a collection of horribly frustrating situations. The good part is if you are not rushed the power tends to be with you.
  • Stay strong. It's a hard, stressful process.

    Yeah. It was a rough challenge for me and I even ended up bailing on the whole idea and walking away from the contract!

  • I literally sat on the couch and cried after signing the closing paperwork. About an hour later, I realized I'd pretty much had a constant headache for about a solid month - because it started lifting, and I could actually feel the difference.
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