What's with all the water damaged homes? (Sierra Vista, Kingman: bank owned, short sales)

[themudpuppy]

I'm finding a lot of homes that look great on the outside, but have serious water damage inside. I would expect this in TN where I live now, because we get oodles of severe storms/tornadoes, but I'm surprised to find so much water damage in Arizona. What's up with that? Do you get a lot of floods there, or is it maybe because the air conditioners are on the roof?

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by tnp

I'm finding a lot of homes that look great on the outside, but have serious water damage inside. I would expect this in TN where I live now, because we get oodles of severe storms/tornadoes, but I'm surprised to find so much water damage in Arizona. What's up with that? Do you get a lot of floods there, or is it maybe because the air conditioners are on the roof?

I've seen a lot of leaky flat roofs - but not much as far as water damage - do you have any mls numbers?

A/C on the roof can't really hurt anything - there's a condensate drip-line on them that might leave a rusty stain on the roof, or put a small amount of water in the house if it was routed wrong, but the condensate line usually only puts out a couple quarts of water a day with our humidity levels.

If the carpet is missing it may have been damaged by pets - I've seen several "cat houses"...

[themudpuppy]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

I've seen a lot of leaky flat roofs - but not much as far as water damage - do you have any mls numbers?

No mls numbers. I've been doing searches for most of Arizona from Kingman on down to Sierra Vista and most points in between, and just noticed a lot of them when I looked at the pictures. They list them as fix-ups but they don't mention water damage in the description, but in the pictures you can see water damaged walls, floors, and a few ceilings. Most of them had regular pitch shingled roofs or and a few tile roofs. Some had flat roofs.

I'm also seeing a lot of other damage to homes. I can't figure out how a house built in 2008 can already have so much damage in only 3 years, like walls busted out, cabinets half ripped out, etc. It's almost like someone purposely trashed these homes.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by tnp

No mls numbers. I've been doing searches for most of Arizona from Kingman on down to Sierra Vista and most points in between, and just noticed a lot of them when I looked at the pictures. They list them as fix-ups but they don't mention water damage in the description, but in the pictures you can see water damaged walls, floors, and a few ceilings. Most of them had regular pitch shingled roofs or and a few tile roofs. Some had flat roofs.

I'm also seeing a lot of other damage to homes. I can't figure out how a house built in 2008 can already have so much damage in only 3 years, like walls busted out, cabinets half ripped out, etc. It's almost like someone purposely trashed these homes.

Well, others may differ in their opinions, but personally, I LOVE leaky roofs, stolen cabinets & busted drywall... If you're able to secure financing, those are the properties with the highest discounts - investors are looking for easier money, and families can't get them financed without jumping through the hoops for a rehab loan. They both tend to get into bidding wars for passable-but-tired properties, or "lipstick" remodels from flippers.

The house my little bro lives in had a leaky (flat) roof in the garage - $500 to re-coat the roof & $400 to fix the drywall/paint the ceiling knocked about $15k off the value compared to comparable properties. That leaky roof and (1) one sheet of moldy drywall saved him a bundle!

[jimj]

Originally Posted by tnp

No mls numbers. I've been doing searches for most of Arizona from Kingman on down to Sierra Vista and most points in between, and just noticed a lot of them when I looked at the pictures. They list them as fix-ups but they don't mention water damage in the description, but in the pictures you can see water damaged walls, floors, and a few ceilings. Most of them had regular pitch shingled roofs or and a few tile roofs. Some had flat roofs.

I'm also seeing a lot of other damage to homes. I can't figure out how a house built in 2008 can already have so much damage in only 3 years, like walls busted out, cabinets half ripped out, etc. It's almost like someone purposely trashed these homes.

They probably did. While looking for houses last year we saw things that boggled the mind. Either the people losing the house to foreclosure or just basic thieves stole EVERYTHING. I mean there was NO kitchens left, just empty drywall. We saw houses where all the knobs were missing, cabinet and door. We saw some where all the toilets/fixtures were gone and many,many where all the fans were gone, all the wall thermometers and everything else that was easy to take and sell.
We saw one bank owned house that was literally splitting in HALF from the foundation to ceiling and it was described as a fixer and over $100k.
While you can find some qualifiers by a 'net search you really HAVE to see them in person.

[themudpuppy]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

Well, others may differ in their opinions, but personally, I LOVE leaky roofs, stolen cabinets & busted drywall... If you're able to secure financing, those are the properties with the highest discounts - investors are looking for easier money, and families can't get them financed without jumping through the hoops for a rehab loan.

I could deal with replacing things like cabinets, fixtures, carpet/tile, drywall and a/c, but financing is the problem. I don't have the cash to buy a house, so I need to get a loan, but these homes I'm finding in my budget don't qualify for a loan because of the repairs. If I could get a loan on one, I wouldn't mind buying a fixer that's at least liveable and slowly do repairs as I can. I draw the line at water damage though. I've dealt with hidden mold in the past and don't want to go there again.

[JRLudi]

We bought a house out here in March of 2010. It was in fair condition at the time and I could see what all need to be replaced or repaired and we based our offer on that. We couldn't move until mid August last year. By the time we got out here someone had broken in. The newish stainless steel range was gone, as was all the exposed copper plumbing. Walls had been torn into to get to other copper plumbing/wires. All the gas lines up in the attic were taken. All the pool equipment was gone. But to top it all off, someone had dumped stacks and stacks (~50) of full or mostly full, 5 gallon paint buckets, on our back porch. All in all, an empty property is easy prey.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by jimj

They probably did. While looking for houses last year we saw things that boggled the mind. Either the people losing the house to foreclosure or just basic thieves stole EVERYTHING. I mean there was NO kitchens left, just empty drywall. We saw houses where all the knobs were missing, cabinet and door. We saw some where all the toilets/fixtures were gone and many,many where all the fans were gone, all the wall thermometers and everything else that was easy to take and sell.
We saw one bank owned house that was literally splitting in HALF from the foundation to ceiling and it was described as a fixer and over $100k.
While you can find some qualifiers by a 'net search you really HAVE to see them in person.

Right, you do have to see them. And be careful of the short sales. Some of the sellers won't mention it, but when they vacate, sometime during the period the contract is being negotiated with the bank, they'll take the fans, mirrors and other things that were supposed to be there.

I had that happen to a property I was buying for myself. The owner took those things, and when I saw it, after the bank had given a verbal, I told the listing agent. She called the owner who said she didn't take them, that someone must have broken in and stolen them.

After some serious discussion about theft and fraud, the seller agreed to replace the items.

So many home buyers who will be occupants, are looking to short sales and REO's for bargains, and they aren't realizing that the majority of those properties are going to cost a lot more money above the purchase price to bring up to normal living condition.

Whereas a traditional sale home will cost a few more dollars for the purchase price, most of them are move-in-ready with the warranties contained in the purchase contract. In many cases they are a much better deal. Several of my clients have discovered that recently, after first looking at the distressed properties and analyzing the total costs.

[jimj]

One other thing, the first house we found that we really,really wanted, perfect location,perfect things "wrong" etc. and it was bank owned and listed for over 30 days so they'd at least listen to a lower offer. Obviously we'd been to see it and decided to go back a couple of days later to look at it again fully and write an offer. Well, when we looked at the side of the house it looked "funny". There were pipes sticking out and 2 condenser shells where the a/c units were supposed to be.
We checked the listing notes and it was FHA conforming so we knew it must be livable with everything there, whooopsie... We called the agent and asked and she was floored as it'd been seen just a day before. Well, long story short the bank refused to replace them and FHA wouldn't finance without them and wouldn't consider dropping the price to cover replacement so we couldn't get the loan we wanted on it.
When you find a house you want TAKE PICTURES of what's there when you make your offer, no arguments can be made against pictures and if something goes missing they have to replace it.
I do wish there was an temporary low deductible cheap insurance policy you could get during the negotiation/closing period just in case.

[themudpuppy]

Good idea about taking pictures. That's what I did with the house I'm in now. My realtor also listed nearly every item on the contract that was supposed to be part of the purchase, including fixtures, a/c and other items, and I was glad for that, because the seller tried to take things that were supposed to come with the house. For example, he had told us the nice big shed would stay, and the listing also said the shed was part of the sale, but he tried to take the shed. My realtor had the shed on the contract, and I had a picture of it, so he couldn't substitute something smaller for it either. He tried to take some of the nicer light fixtures too, and put cheaper ones in place of them, but I had pics of the light fixtures that were supposed to come with the house and they were listed on the contract, so he had to put them back. This wasn't a foreclosure or short sale either. This was a regular sale, so this can happen with type of sale.