Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's wrong with this house?

looks to me that the front roof is slightly sagged -rotton rafters ??

i've done renos in older homes ,its a crap shoot,most people loose at craps,,,unless you can do it all yourself ,and live in the mess for 2-3 years ,,,trouble with renos once you start WHERE DO YOU END????????????????????????????????

norm

As noted by many of the above posts, you NEED a through inspection.

Hey! You stole the smart-azzed comment I was gonna make.

Sheesh, renters think they know everything...

Well, that certainly explains a lot...

Maybe it's built over an ancient Indian butial mound! ?

"Get Ouwwwt!"

Rotten roof? Call the landlord!

After living and remodeling my own homes for ten years straight, it's sure been nice to rent for awhile.

Burnt out lightbulb? Call the landlord!

Our house (3 bedroom townhouse, nice area of MD, 1930s construction, plumbing trashed) was originally listed at $170,000.

Then it dropped to $130,000.

Finally it dropped to $99,900. Then I bought it.

So right there, in an 8-month period after a year and a half on the market, is a @ $70,000 drop in price.

Our house was structurally sound and a good buy at $99k but at $170k, no way.

They'll keep dropping the price until it sells. It may take months to get them to accept your offer (in our case, @ 4 months from the offer of listed price) but in many cases they are losing their tail. I pulled the documents on our house and the bank lost @ $45,000 when they signed it over to me.

I told my dad, next time I rob a bank, I'll wear a mask.

As soon as I see this in an ad...



...I get very suspicious, and would be looking very closely to find out what prompted the "as-is" designation.

Yep, it's haunted for sure! Possessed by the most evil type of demons.

Yeah, I've been watching " A Haunting" on cable also. Don't worry, demons are just like any other pest.

Having walked through quite a few of these types of properties before we found our house (also as-is listed!) I can say they vary widely. Some are solid but need work, others really are basket cases.

Buyer beware, and bring a friend that knows remodeling/construction/something similar if you don't.

Not necessarily. I've sold most of my homes as is. They're in good shape. The buyer has opportunity to exercise due diligence just as I did when I purchased it.

Reliance on the word of realtors and inspectors is an excellent way to wind up with a nightmare on your hands.

About 13 miles from the PT ferry terminal.

Besides those things others have already mentioned another thing I would be concerned about with older homes, especially those built prior to the 1940's, is does it have any insulation inside all the exterior walls, and if so, what kind and how much. While it's usually not too difficult or costly to add insulation above the ceiling and below the floor, adding it behind the walls can be a very different matter.

It also can be hard to tell with older houses that have been remodeled just what deficiencies may have been covered up to save money, time and work. Sometime you may even be dealing with multiple partial remodeling and/or room addition jobs spread out over a good number of years by several previous owners.

Relatively inexpensive "eye-catching" aesthetic improvements can add "wow" factor where as correcting more serious deficiencies can get very expensive and add extra work without adding much, if anything, to the overall aesthetic appearance.

Most homeowner's or house flipper's have limits to how much they can or are willing to spend on a remodeling job and often times are more concerned with being able to see and show off to others the attractive changes and upgrades.

Bank owned property is almost always "as is".
You can beat them up on price, but they ain't gonna fix a thing.

I have wetlands on two sides of me and love it. I don't worry about someone building next door!

Maybe it's the dead guy staring down from the top floor window?

I'd say first problem is location, it's not close to any major city with a economy or medical care.

Second problem is age and cost of maintenance or repair. Most older homes I've looked at would be better off burnt down so you can start over unless you have a love for fixing up old houses and investing money you will never get back out of it. In that region you can be almost guaranteed to have some rot, probably lots of it. That old of a structure is going to hard or impossible to finance and expensive to insure.

You can find all kinds of cheap property in SW Washington and Western Oregon if you don't mind living in an area without much of an economy or medical care. Twenty years of diminished logging and mills jobs has damaged at lot of those areas. I used to live in the region and most of the old cheap places are what I would consider a "burner".

A couple of concerns. 1) You would be going from a generally conservative gun freindly region to a region rife with liberal thought and likely niehbors 2) I bought a home built in 1910 once and its construction methods were awful and even unsafe in areas. Insualtion? What was THAT? Nope, none in that old place 3) I would HATE to be the one who had to re-roof that monstrosity, clean its gutters, or its windows! 4) the region is known for producing lots of mold and moss die to wet weather and a damp climate

I could have worked and moved to Western WA when I chose Walla Walla 18 years ago. Never been sorry about thqat decision.

If you decide that you can handle living in a wet, overcast region filled with Liberal Weenies then I would definately donate the house to the local fire dept. for a pracitce burn. You might be able to salvage some old antiquey fitings, lights, windows, etc from it first and sell them for a profit. The rest of the house? I would watch it burn then build a modern home.

Should add, many people who move from sunny climates suffer from depression when they move to Western Wa or Oregon due to too many overcast days and rain. A real issue and one to seriously consider. My wife would go freakin nuts on that side of the mountains with that little sunshine. I would be right behind her to the nut house after I snapped and evaporated several liberal weenie niehbors in a flurry.