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We are waiting for an offer to be accepted for a property in FL. It has a pool that hasn't been taken care of in a while. We are very scared that we can't get the pool back to better shape than when it was new.. We want to convert to salt water. We heard it is much less expensive than the other kind. We need to paint, do the floors, buy a fridge, washer and dryer, bed, couch. I guess we will buy piecemeal at a time and the most important is the bed, ours is so old it is not worth hauling to the dump!!..What if we get there and find out it is the best thing we have ever done OR the absolute worst thing and we would be stuck there money wise. What if we both have meltdowns at the same time and go running down the street neeked??? I'm sure it's happened before. By the way we are on a fixed income. But we can afford this property, it is a foreclosure. Can anybody help us get our mindset right and show us an out if we feel we have made the wrong decision. I really need serious advice here please. We will know soon if out offer has been accepted. Thank you bunches..
I hope that you left some wiggle room in your offer, like "subject to a housing inspection." It doesn't sound like you have the experience to take on a fixer-upper, and that sounds like a real dog of a house for a newbie rehabber with little money.
If your offer isn't accepted, try to build up more money and skills before taking on a house. You could volunteer to help build Habitat for Humanity homes, for example.
Appliances can be bartered for or gotten second and third hand. I just saw a stove today for $50 that still had a lot of life in it. That's not a major problem.
However, re-doing floors can run into some real money and questionable results if you are inexperienced. "Just a little paint" won't fix things if the underlying problem is wetness (and mold) as it is in a lot of FL homes.
I won't even address the pool. It may be cheaper to fill it in with dirt if there are too many cracks and other problems.
In any case, pay for a housing inspection with the best inspector you can get. There is a reason this house is so cheap. Banks want to get back as much money as they can, even with a foreclosure.
Good luck with all this and try to get some counseling about stemming the melt-downs. A melt-down means someone has lost control. When you know what you are doing, there is no need to lose control!
Added: will you have enough money to pay the taxes on this house? If you rehab it, the taxes will go up.
We are waiting for an offer to be accepted for a property in FL. It has a pool that hasn't been taken care of in a while. We are very scared that we can't get the pool back to better shape than when it was new.. We want to convert to salt water. We heard it is much less expensive than the other kind. We need to paint, do the floors, buy a fridge, washer and dryer, bed, couch. I guess we will buy piecemeal at a time and the most important is the bed, ours is so old it is not worth hauling to the dump!!..What if we get there and find out it is the best thing we have ever done OR the absolute worst thing and we would be stuck there money wise. What if we both have meltdowns at the same time and go running down the street neeked??? I'm sure it's happened before. By the way we are on a fixed income. But we can afford this property, it is a foreclosure. Can anybody help us get our mindset right and show us an out if we feel we have made the wrong decision. I really need serious advice here please. We will know soon if out offer has been accepted. Thank you bunches..
tarajane2013, just wait! It gets even more nerve-wracking after it is accepted, as you have your inspections done, deal with ambivalent sellers, or whatever challenges you have to face. And then there's the move.
When you have it inspected, the inspector will tell you how bad the situation is with the pool.
I am buying a house too right now, and I am retired. Real estate makes me crazy but I am trying to deal with it one step at a time. I am forcing myself to relax several hours each day and "chill", whether I want to or not. That seems to help. Moving is a LOT of hard physical work, more than I recalled from remembering moves when I was younger.
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