Dobson Ranch Home Inspection (Phoenix: bank owned, short sale, real estate)

[Endurance]

Dear friends,
Yesterday evening, our real estate agent informed my husband and I that our offer was accepted and contract executed. He told us the next step is the home inspection.
So these are my concerns and questions:
- If the house fails in the home inspection are we still bound to buy it?
- Can a house in Dobson Ranch fail home inspection? After all, this is a well reputed residential area with beautiful homes.
The one we just bought is beautiful outside; inside, however, looks neglected and totally "unloved." Whoever lived there before took even the ceiling fans and light fixtures, there are creaks in the ceiling and on the deck, the pool looks shabby, and the family room has 2 horrible white column propping the ceiling (I mean there must be a better way of holding the ceiling from falling, right?).
Please don't get me wrong. We do not have second thoughts. The main reason we want this house is that it is in Dobson Ranch. As I mentioned in my previous posts we have been living in Montclair, VA, which is one of the best suburban neighborhoods in Washington, DC Metro area (Our Community | Montclair, Virginia) for a long time. We know the huge pluses of living in such a community. So naturally we wanted to live in a similar kind of environment in Phoenix – in a small, family-like community, safe and clean. The price of the house is the next reason for buying it and this brings me to the beginning of my request. There must be a serious flow in this house (structural damage maybe?) to have those creaks. Please advise. Thank you for your time and patience with my qualms.

[rjrcm]

It's best to get advice directly from your agent as correct answers will depend on the terms of your specific contract. It sounds like you may have purchased a bank foreclosure which typically will have terms added to the contract by the bank which will modify the inspection requirements.

If you used the standard AAR contract and you disapprove of the home inspection within the inspection period, you may cancel and get earnest money back. Again, the seller may have modified the inspection requirements so you need to read your contract and check with your agent.

A house in Dobson Ranch or anywhere can have inspection issues. It's up to you to decide whether or not if they are "failing" problems. You can then either cancel or negotiate with the seller for corrections (again, depending on your contract terms).

[Captain Bill]

rjrcm gave you good information.

Your Realtor needs to explain the contract and terms of any addendum to you. We don't know what is in your contract.

Houses don't "fail" inspections.

It sounds like you have purchased a bank owned or a short sale, in which case you would have signed an As Is addendum, meaning that the seller will not make repairs.

Also, when you made the offer to purchase, you saw all of the cracks and other issues. Your offer price should have considered your cost of fixing those issues.

Cracks in ceilings and floors "may" signal that the home is on expansive soil and has settling issues. There could be more cracks in the foundation that are under carpets.

The inspector notes all of the issues that he finds, and you determine if the price you offered is sufficient to cover the cost of repairs that you'll make.

If there are too many repairs, then during the due diligence period you can reject the property. However, you must confirm this with your Realtor. Your Realtor should have been selected for his/her ability to provide you with knowledge and counsel.

[dura]

Originally Posted by Endurance

If the house fails in the home inspection are we still bound to buy it?

As others have said, it depends on what is in your contract. Look for that inspection period clause.

Originally Posted by Endurance

Can a house in Dobson Ranch fail home inspection?

Really any house, even a new build, can have serious problems. Make sure your inspector is reputable.


Now on to something I'm curious about... Do you mean creaks as in squeaks, or did you mean to write cracks? Given it has a deck, am I safe to assume that you are buying a two-story house, and that you hear creaks on the second floor and deck/balcony? If you hear creaks on the second floor, it could be something as simple as adding a screw to hold down the sub-floor so it doesn't squeak when you walk on it. OTOH it could be something else. Same goes for the deck.

Given you say that the pool looks shabby, my guest is that it is a plaster pool that might need to be resurfaced, or it might be that the plaster just took stain but is fine otherwise. You could have a pool company take a look and give you an opinion. Our pool is plaster and took stain, but we have had it evaluated by a pool company, and we still have a couple years of plaster life left. Once it is time for a resurface, we are considering pebble sheen or something like that.

Meh, ceiling fans and light fixtures are easy enough to replace. For us personally, we wouldn't consider that alone as a deal breaker, and it doesn't sound like you are either. We did see a few homes when house hunting that were trashed with water damage, painted graffiti, drywall holes, and broken windows. Those trashed homes can be anywhere too, and then there are stories of the soon to be ex-owner pouring cement down the toilets. Such damage really starts to $add up.

Onto those two horrible white columns propping the ceiling... This makes me think again that you hear creaks upstairs, with the columns holding up a ceiling about to (o.m.g run! lol) cave in or something. Now most of the two stories around here have the first floor living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room setup. Guessing again, but what you see as pillars might have been those wide or arched doorways that have since been redesigned into pillars.

All of these things are concerns you can bring to the attention of your inspector. I'm only throwing out some thoughts, so of course do your due diligence. If you want, you can private message me the address, and we can take a drive by. Who knows, maybe we know someone in the neighborhood that has some information about the house. Then again, there are some 5000 single family homes around here, so maybe not. Try to relax, and good luck with whatever you decide.

[Cinara]

I bought a townhouse in Dobson ranch, it passed inspection and for the most part is is in good condition on the surface. I do believe it was built by drunken monkeys though. I have light switches that don't operate anything (yes I have checked the outlets), nad when I removed part of the ceiling to see if they operated a fan or light in the livingroom I found beams going in all 4 directions and no wiring. And when I had the stairs recarpeted what a sight, it looks like they used scrap wood and there were gaps everywhere. Also check the grouting in any tiling mine is coming up, hopefully the foundation is not heaving