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My wife and I are trying to buy our first house near Charlotte and have been through quite a hassle already on another house before we found this one.
It was a perfect house for us, good size, extra space, lots of land, good area, good schools. Basically our dream house at this point in our life and budget. It had been on the market 2 days. We placed a written offer, and the seller came back and said they "couldn't sell" our agent thinks it was something with their credit or something that would prevent them from being able to qualify for another mortgage. I let myself get emotionally attached to that house and I shouldn't have. I learned my lesson.
Sucks for us, sucks for them. Oh well, we moved on and kept looking.
We found another house, a little older(built in 1989), everything we needed, a little more expensive, but we can swing it. Placed an offer, seller counter offered, we accepted pending inspections and such.
The home inspection results came back today and some of the findings are alarming. After reading other people's inspection reports where they think there was a problem mine seem way worse. I want the house to be right, but I'm afraid there may be more underlying problems that are hidden even to the home inspector. I just don't want to buy a lemon.
-The front left corner of the living room slopes to the corner of the home and after further investigation of the crawl space in that area problems were found with the sill band and underlayment and floor joist from water damage to that area of the home.
-The right front of the porch corner is missing a brick and should be repaired to keep moisture from entering that area
-The door to the back steps as wood damage to the bottom of the jamb and brick mold that should be repaired to prevent future wood damage to that area.
-Most if not all the windows has wood damage and caulking that has failed and should be repaired and painted and caulked to prevent any future damage to those areas.
-There is damage to the crawl space door that needs to be repaired to keep any further damage to that area.
-The entire wood front columns need to be repaired at the bottom and painted as needed along the front porch area.
-The wood fascia along the front porch area needs to be repaired and painted as needed.
-Wood damage at he left side of the exterior of the home that needs repaired to prevent any future damage to the home.
-The fascia and trim boards at the left side of the front porch area has wood damage and needs to be repaired to prevent future damage to those areas.
-Cut back vegetation as need around the house and at the right side gate to prolong life to those areas.
-Gutters need to be cleaned out as needed to help with water flow to work properly and not damage wood behind the gutters.
-Caulk around sink in upstairs bathroom sink so moisture gets behind splash and causing future damage to that area.
-The light on the back porch is not coming on when tested. I recommend checking the bulb before any more action is taking.
-There is an electrical plate missing next to the refrigerator that needs to be replaced for safety concerns to that area.
-A/C Refrigerant line to outside unit is damaged and needs to be repaired to work properly when used.
Obviously some of this is little piddly stuff that I can take care of myself on weekends with little out of pocket. However, I feel like I need to ask for most of this to be repaired/replaced, but I have a strong feeling the seller is going to say "No." I'm ok with that (I kept myself emotionally detatched this time around), but should I expect them to offer to do anything? My agent has already drawn up a repair request for me to sign and send over, but I'm not sure I even want this house now. I just don't want to end up with a giant lemon. I've never been through this before as this is my first house. Anyone care to weigh in? What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Edit: Without knowing the details of the deal, how far off market value the home is, I can't give a great assessment of what you should ask to have repaired.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-The front left corner of the living room slopes to the corner of the home and after further investigation of the crawl space in that area problems were found with the sill band and underlayment and floor joist from water damage to that area of the home.
Request for this to be repaired, could be rather expensive to have it repaired properly and may even prevent financing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-The right front of the porch corner is missing a brick and should be repaired to keep moisture from entering that area
I don't really know what this is referring to, is the missing brick to the crawl space or the home or a pillar/wall on the porch? If it is to the home itself then I would request it to be fixed as it might be a problem with financing but anything else you can take care of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-The door to the back steps as wood damage to the bottom of the jamb and brick mold that should be repaired to prevent future wood damage to that area.
Mold is can be a big issue with financing and you need to have this issue addressed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-Most if not all the windows has wood damage and caulking that has failed and should be repaired and painted and caulked to prevent any future damage to those areas.
-There is damage to the crawl space door that needs to be repaired to keep any further damage to that area.
-The entire wood front columns need to be repaired at the bottom and painted as needed along the front porch area.
-The wood fascia along the front porch area needs to be repaired and painted as needed.
-Wood damage at he left side of the exterior of the home that needs repaired to prevent any future damage to the home.
-The fascia and trim boards at the left side of the front porch area has wood damage and needs to be repaired to prevent future damage to those areas.
Any one of these items by themselves would be of little concern but all of it together is a sign of neglect to the outside, most of the items would be avoided by regular painting. You may want to just hire people to take care of it but you could expect to pay a few thousand to get it all addressed, no more than $5k I would imagine on a 1500 sq ft home. Because of the neglect here I would be cautious of any areas indoors that the inspector might not have had access to, did he get full access to the attic and crawl spaces? It wasn't mentioned but how did the roof look?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-Cut back vegetation as need around the house and at the right side gate to prolong life to those areas.
-Gutters need to be cleaned out as needed to help with water flow to work properly and not damage wood behind the gutters.
-Caulk around sink in upstairs bathroom sink so moisture gets behind splash and causing future damage to that area.
-The light on the back porch is not coming on when tested. I recommend checking the bulb before any more action is taking.
-There is an electrical plate missing next to the refrigerator that needs to be replaced for safety concerns to that area.
All of that is DIY stuff, caulking is cheap and easy as are outlet plates and light bulbs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jh32589
-A/C Refrigerant line to outside unit is damaged and needs to be repaired to work properly when used.
This depends on what the actual problem is. If it is just the insulation the line is wrapped in then this is a fairly common problem and easily fixed yourself, they sell strips you wrap the line in at Lowes/HD.
Last edited by AZ Manager; 09-29-2015 at 02:31 AM..
I would almost always cut back shrubs, etc, rather than ask the seller to do so.
Too many people butcher shrubs when a simple pruning is all they need.
May you could get a licensed carpenter to come look at all the "wood" problems that need to be repaired and get a quote. With the exception of the floor joist problem, I'm not sure of the severity of the other ones but a carpenter should be able to fix most of that in a day. You could then request that amount of money at closing to make sure it's all repaired properly. The carpenter may even be able to address the sloping issue for you.
I agree that these are mostly signs of lack of maintenance; folks that let the gutters overflow to the point where the sill plate is damaged on a house just over 20 years old are clearly not on top of things.
If the place is priced $10k or so less than homes in better shape you really can't ask for too large a price cut. If their are houses in better shape for the same price you should consider them...
If you have the time and skills to do this work on your own it would be much cheaper than hiring contractors and it'll be done better than relying on the "cheap, fast, & shoddy" repairs the seller might attempt...
The property has some water management issues and maybe inadequate maintenance - make sure a full review of probable causes of the water related issues and possible hidden damage of each water related comment are included in any contractor opinions and bids.
I read that this place is a stretch on your budget? Based on the inspection report there is some deferred maintenance going on, but nothing too major besides the joist issue.
It does sound like the place has original windows. Are you planning on replacing those too? All these costs are going to add up and may go well beyond your budget.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I'm an experienced home owner and I'd be concerned with the first item. The other stuff is fairly routine maintenance that they deferred. You'll likely be doing the wood repairs during your time of ownership anyway. I'd still try to use it to negotiate.
Re the shrubbery/vegetation: Was the inspector able to access the areas of the house where the vegetation was overgrown? I'd definitely want to see that.
I'm an experienced home owner and I'd be concerned with the first item. The other stuff is fairly routine maintenance that they deferred. You'll likely be doing the wood repairs during your time of ownership anyway. I'd still try to use it to negotiate.
Re the shrubbery/vegetation: Was the inspector able to access the areas of the house where the vegetation was overgrown? I'd definitely want to see that.
What about the roof?
What about the electrical system?
Plumbing?
HVAC?
Well or public water?
Sewer?
Age of appliances?
These are the things that could concern me.
THIS! Also make sure the foundation is not damaged which would cause water seepage.
-The front left corner of the living room slopes to the corner of the home and after further investigation of the crawl space in that area problems were found with the sill band and underlayment and floor joist from water damage to that area of the home.
Most of it is piddly stuff that I could take care of myself.....except this.
This one might be make or break for me. I'm not sure if I would request this one to be fixed, or walk away.
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