Looked at a house with my wife about a month ago. We want to move to a bigger house but not leave the neighborhood
Houses in my immediate area don’t often come up for sale. The eight or so block community is in a good school district, within walking distance of a great park with a playground and youth athletics. We’re not more than ten minutes from a Wegmans or a regular grocery store and 15 from the mall on a bad traffic day. Got two Home Depots within 15 Minutes and a Harbor freight 5 Minutes.
We looked at it on a Sunday and I was to leave on Monday for what was supposed to be six to ten weeks. Got back three weeks later and decide to look again just to reasure myself it was a bad deal.
Older houses in the neighborhood run about $275-$280. They usually are on the market for less than two weeks and sell for asking or slightly ($5K) above.
This house is on the market for $250. It needs two new bathrooms, a new kitchen, new floors in every room, every window replaced and it smells very moldy. Every piece of trim would need to come out and it looks like so will every door.
Of all those things, the most troubling was the insanely poor quality work being done to the house while it’s on the market. A cast of charachters is there every day doing god knows what but all of it will have to be ripped out in addition to the work I already mentioned.
Well, that was the most troubling until I read the little fact sheet the realtor hands out at open houses.
” Seller realizes he is not in complience with the states disclosure law. Full disclosure will be made when an offer is accepted. Please include the phrase “Subject to review of full disclosure” on each and every offer.”
What do you suppose this clown is hidding? I’m betting on it being the mold smell.
A few questions revealed that the Owner was a “Real Estate Investor”.
So I have to ask, is stuff like this happening where you are? Have people watched too much Property Ladder and convinced themselves they can buy any piece of junk and make a killng by rounding up a few illegals from in front of Lowes and slapping on some new paint and a few pieces of crown? Nothing in the neighborhood breaks $300K. It’s listed for $250K and needs every dime of $80K worth of work.
My search will continue elsewhere but someone will come along and buy this dump eventually.
Replies
"Seller realizes he is not in complience with the states disclosure law"
Sounds to me like they need to be turned into the appropriate state organization.
"Nothing in the neighborhood breaks $300K. It's listed for $250K and needs every dime of $80K worth of work."
Sounds to me like you ahve your answer right there. Unless you have the money and like the house regardless of the cost....
Boss,
I long ago ruled this dump out but I wanted to be sure because it's so seldom something comes up for sale in the neighborhood.
I'm just amazed at what is going on in regards to real estate. Lots of it fails the "Reasonable man" test.
How is winter looking at the Truss plant by the way?
"How is winter looking at the Truss plant by the way?"
Right now they're freakin driving me nuts. I'm at least a week behind even though I've been working 50 hour weeks.
We're building a lot of floor trusses, which in general means that we'll have a lot of roof business in the near term. (30-60 days)
After that, who knows? During most winters how busy we are depends on the weather. Cold temps don't shut things down. But big snows sure do.
So a mild winter should keep us fairly steady. But a harsh one could make for some short weeks and/or some unpaid ones.
I don't see any reason to expect either a really slow or really busy season..
T-shirt: Mess With Me You Mess With The Whole Trailer Park
I looked at a small house earlier in the summer. BAD case of mold. Wiring was SCARY. Someone had turned a coat closet into a staircase to the 'second floor' (steps were about 14" wide and nearly like climbing a ladder). The 2nd floor had obviously been an attic conversion... that didn't have strong enough floors (you could SEE people walking on the floor from the first floor).
The kitchen had been yanked. Presumably someone was 'remodeling' it, but didn't get beyond stripping out the old one. They had tried to put reclaimed gym floor in the kitchen... but hadn't taken the lines off of it and had put it in prior to yanking the cabinets, so you had a nice 1+" dropoff where the cabinets had been.
Back bedroom was a former patio...they had carpetted over the patio concrete, which still had its outside edges exposed to the outdoors (just try to keep that room heated or dry). Also, vinyl siding was obviously covering up many sins, and the roof had some interesting contours.
The house needed to be torn down. Lot would have been worth $20k's. Well, someone bought the place for $22-23k (price of the lot), put $15k into it (numbers courtesy of a neighbor who is friends with purchaser), and is now renting it for $650+/mo. Betcha the renters don't know the death trap, mold factory they're living in... and the guy didn't gut the place, so you know its still there. Just hope he fixed the wiring.
jt8
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain
Edited 10/10/2005 11:32 am ET by JohnT8
amazing isn't it? But if you were to tell someone who wanted that house what a dump it was then you just "wouldn't know what you were talking about".
amazing isn't it? But if you were to tell someone who wanted that house what a dump it was then you just "wouldn't know what you were talking about".
Yeah, they give you the line, "I know what I'm doing..." I just sit there thinking, "thank God it isn't a family member or friend whom I'd feel obliged to help once they figure out what a PITA it's going to be."
And I will of course not admit to buying anything comparable in my young and foolish days (now I'm just old and foolish). :)
jt8
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain
Yeah,
I'm past the Fixer upper stage in life. The only way I could get talked into it now is if it was such an incredibly good deal that it would be criminal to pass it up.
A lot of my friends who have never been involved in construction always ask why I don't buy some properties in the City of Allentown and fix them up and sell them. I've tried explaining that the prices have gone beyond that point or what a pain in the #### it is or even how most people (by about 2 to 1) that I know who have tried to buy a fixer upper and make big money on it are lucky to break even after all the expenses they never figured on. No one wants to believe that so now I just tell them I'm stupid and lazy. It's a lot easier.
Our newspaper ("The Columbus Dispatch") just had a series of articles about mortgage foreclosurer, one of which highlighted a practice that is legal in Ohio. Out of state "investors" buy run down houses at foreclosurer, and then find "straw people" to purchase the house from the investor. Supposedly the straw person is not supposed to have to make a mortgage payment as the house will be "renovated" and resold before payment comes due. The purchase price is based on an inflated appraisal of what the house "will" be worth.
As you can imagine, no renovations are done, and the straw buyer is left with a mortgage they cannot pay. Lots of people make $$$ on "transaction costs" and the NYC investors make out big time.
But mortgage lending is not subject to consumer protection laws in Ohio.
I'd link you to the articles, but the Dispatch requires that you be a subscriber.
Bryan,
I actually read something about that when I was doing some research on another subject.
I'm not into being to pesemistic about the economy but when I see and read some of the things I've sen and read lately it reminds me of 1987 all over again. I sure hope not.
Are ya in Buffalo....sure sounds like it....yep, lots of cr!!##y reno work/flipping happening, & ignorant buyers eating it up.....MIL's house has been on the market now for months...has good bones, needs a roof, which we would negotiate with a buyer, priced well, great neighborhood...no takers, probably because it doesn't have granite countertops (or some other currently trendy feature....
I watched the flippers take a house half a block away, cover the rot with siding, put in (poorly) the cheapest HD cabinets, sand the floors (they couldn't be bothered to sand into the four bump out bays in the living room, so the room has a center "carpet" of bright sanded poly, & the bays are still dingy brown!), etc......it sold, for the same as my MILs asking price, in days....but it will take them years to realize how much they will need to re-do.... makes me cry....
People are stupid.
jt8
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain