Need Someone 2 Flip My House (Erie: sale, insurance, loan)

[fluttery00]

I have a home in Bainbridge, PA. My husband and I purchased this house about 7 years
ago, it is 2bedrooms, 1bath and approx. 965sq.ft. A few years ago we started a major addition on the rear of the home. The outside has all new windows, doors, siding, roof, soffit, facia and shutters however,it needs a garage door and the deck built. Other then that we hear compliments all the time. The problem is the inside only has the framed walls, we have not run the electric, plumbing, etc. We have the wiring, outlets, most of the plumbing, bathroom vanity and other materials for the house, but..... due to health concerns for our son we can not finish this project. Because of this we are looking for a BUYER who would like to finish it and sell it for profit. When the house is finished it will be 2,604sq.ft. with 4 or 5 bedrooms, 2.5 or 3 bathrooms, mudroom, familyroom and the master bedroom has room for a nice window seat in the dormer with a gorgeous window, 1 car attached garage and 3 parking spots in the driveway. This house has loads of potential and could be so much more for someone who knows what they are doing.There are two other buildings on the property as well. The first is an old produce stand that the back half could be used as a shed and the front as a pavillion. There is a concrete pit next to this building that would be great for an firepit/stone or brick grill. The other is an old barn that could be extended to make an additional 3 car garage. There is approx. 30 feet on the backside of the barn to extend and add a driveway. We had an appraisal in November 2005 and the house appraised at $174,000 the way it sits
now. I recently went to zillow.com and their zesimate was $166,440 when I
added improvements my estimate was $182,287. We have had a few realtors look at the property and all of them said that finished it could be put on the market in the high 200's. We would like to get $160,000 but we are having a hard time even getting people to look at it! We have not listed with a realtor because the buyer we had fell through and now we need to sell quickly so we do not lose the house we will be buying upon selling this one! I don't understand why we can't find an investor for the property. That was our original plan and the largest expense I thought would be the lumber, windows, etc. Those things are already finished and we have alot of the materials that we are going to sell with the house. Is the FSBO thing not the way to go? Any suggestions on where to find a flipper - or even get someone to look at this house?
TIA!!!!
Upset Homeowner

[Julie Ferenzi]

Hi there. Where is your home located? I can possibly help you find an investor to purchase it.

[studer65]

any pics and is drywall already purchased?

[Honest Bob]

New houses aren't selling right now and the cost to renovate a unfinished house is astronomical. Some insurance companies will not even give you insurance on a unfinished house. I knew of one person who was building his own house and right after he was done - but not completely it burned to the ground and he lost everything.

With money tight at the banks right now, it is hard to get a loan for a new house, unless the person already has more money in the bank then what the loan is for and if they are willing to use their money as collateral, then they don't need the loan in the first place.

The other problem is - when people decides to build a house, the location of the house is not of any concern until it is time for them to get utilities and stuff and then they find out that they are off the grid. There were people in Allegheny county last winter that had no electricity for 10 or more days just because the electric company could not get back into their location to find and fix the problem.

It all boils down to a couple of things. First was that the TV show people made it look easy and it probably was for them because the TV people picked up the tab for the building materials and the labor and all the owners had to do was invest some of their money to make the whole show work. Now mind you - it was a TV show and they did not show you a bill of sale and they could tell you anything and the people watching the television believed everything they saw.

The other thing was that the companies that made the products gave those people their products free or at a reduced rate in return for their product being featured on their show.

Then you get into volunteer workers who does the contracting side of the work for less money in return they get to use the show as a selling tool in the future - they can show the video or the prospective customers might see them on the show and see that they did good work and use them because of their previous exposure.

You being a one man show, who was not willing to invest everything to complete the house and was not willing to finish the work that you started and found out that property values has decreased instead of increased. Found out that even when the home is done, it is still worth less then what you have invested in it.

I have a half a duplex that I paid $5000 for that I have already invested $36000 into that needs a bathroom addition, which the contractors wants $30,000 just to build a simple bathroom. Even when the house is completed, I would have a really hard time trying to get $30,000 out of it.

The neighbors house up the road with the same set up sold a couple of years ago for $10,000 - just what they owed the contractors when the homeowner died. So when you are dealing with depressed conditions and a old house that was set up the way you wanted it to be - but never finished - then you have to be willing to take a huge loss or you just have to walk away and let the bank figure out what they are going to do.

Just like a person that was swimming in Lake Erie and went too far away from the beach and started to panic and drowned, the first thing you do is scream and yell for help because you realize that the situation is nearly hopeless and you can't get yourself out of it. Only sometimes when the person that swims out to help you tries to help you, they end up getting sucked under the water with you.

[ReadytoRetire]

This was posted 3 yrs ago..

[Negotiator75]

Originally Posted by Little Bevis

New houses aren't selling right now and the cost to renovate a unfinished house is astronomical. Some insurance companies will not even give you insurance on a unfinished house. I knew of one person who was building his own house and right after he was done - but not completely it burned to the ground and he lost everything.

With money tight at the banks right now, it is hard to get a loan for a new house, unless the person already has more money in the bank then what the loan is for and if they are willing to use their money as collateral, then they don't need the loan in the first place.

The other problem is - when people decides to build a house, the location of the house is not of any concern until it is time for them to get utilities and stuff and then they find out that they are off the grid. There were people in Allegheny county last winter that had no electricity for 10 or more days just because the electric company could not get back into their location to find and fix the problem.

It all boils down to a couple of things. First was that the TV show people made it look easy and it probably was for them because the TV people picked up the tab for the building materials and the labor and all the owners had to do was invest some of their money to make the whole show work. Now mind you - it was a TV show and they did not show you a bill of sale and they could tell you anything and the people watching the television believed everything they saw.

The other thing was that the companies that made the products gave those people their products free or at a reduced rate in return for their product being featured on their show.

Then you get into volunteer workers who does the contracting side of the work for less money in return they get to use the show as a selling tool in the future - they can show the video or the prospective customers might see them on the show and see that they did good work and use them because of their previous exposure.

You being a one man show, who was not willing to invest everything to complete the house and was not willing to finish the work that you started and found out that property values has decreased instead of increased. Found out that even when the home is done, it is still worth less then what you have invested in it.

I have a half a duplex that I paid $5000 for that I have already invested $36000 into that needs a bathroom addition, which the contractors wants $30,000 just to build a simple bathroom. Even when the house is completed, I would have a really hard time trying to get $30,000 out of it.

The neighbors house up the road with the same set up sold a couple of years ago for $10,000 - just what they owed the contractors when the homeowner died. So when you are dealing with depressed conditions and a old house that was set up the way you wanted it to be - but never finished - then you have to be willing to take a huge loss or you just have to walk away and let the bank figure out what they are going to do.

Just like a person that was swimming in Lake Erie and went too far away from the beach and started to panic and drowned, the first thing you do is scream and yell for help because you realize that the situation is nearly hopeless and you can't get yourself out of it. Only sometimes when the person that swims out to help you tries to help you, they end up getting sucked under the water with you.

This is hilarious, someone giving current advice to someone asking something in 2007. People like this need medication, then they rant something about swimming in a lake (what does that have to do with home selling anyway?). Scary.