So, here's my situation, and I could use some unbiased opinions!
A relative of mine owns a stucco house in rural Texas that was built in 1940. The house has been sitting empty for about 20 years, and as a result, has some serious issues. In fact, most of the family have written off the property, assuming it is too big a hassle to deal with. I guess their game plan was to just keep paying taxes on it until the city condemned it?
The other day, I was talking to my relative and the topic of the house came up. I actually have some sentimental attachment to the house, because I lived there for a time as a child (and it was a happy time), so I mentioned what a shame it was that they were just leaving it to rot. She then said, to paraphrase, "Oh, well, if you think you can make it livable, I will give it to you."
So yeah. Free house. But obviously, not entirely free due to the work needed to make it livable. :)
Here's the financial side: I work online, basically from anywhere with an internet connection, and I make decent money. If I could get this house ready to live in (and I /think/ I can, for less than the cost of buying a comparable house), the cost of living in the area is so low that I could basically save 90 percent of my income and retire in just a few years.
The taxes on the property right now are negligible (less than $100 per year), and while they'd probably go up after renovations (my sources were unclear about how Texas handles taxes), even the most expensive properties in the area aren't paying over $500 per year. The value of the property is so low that gift tax isn't an issue.
Basically, if I can make it work, it would be a perfect scenario for me and my goals. But that's a big if.
This property is going to be a LOT of work, and most of it will have to be done by yours truly. And things may come up as I go that I couldn't possibly have forseen.
Here's what I CAN see that's wrong with the house:
The stucco has weathered the neglect surprisingly well (gotta love the old ways of doing things!), but there's a stick-built addition that was built on in the 80s. Unfortunately, a tree became overgrown, the branches hit the roof, tore off some shingles, and sometime over the past year or so, a small section of the sheathing finally fell in. I poked around in that room, and the main problem seems to be mold (due to rain falling into the house). It affects one small bathroom that is largely sealed off from the rest of the house. In that room, the drywall has fallen off the walls, so I was able to see that the framing does not seem to be suffering from dry rot. (Yet! I will need to get a roof on it in short order if I decide to do this, obviously.) But yes, everything is moldy, so it will be a major operation to get it cleaned up in there.
I /think/ that they got lucky we've been in a major multi-year drought in Texas. The big hole in the roof must be recent, because the exposed framing doesn't even look weathered. I think that a new roof and cleaning up the mold will resolve the problem until I can get in and gut the bathroom... But that's assuming there's nothing nasty hiding somewhere I couldn't see it, like behind the fixtures.
Otherwise, the building seems structurally sound. It needs some new windows (that I'll have to find salvage), but there are no signs whatsoever of foundation problems, and the only signs that there /might/ be trouble in the walls are some cracks in the stucco. It's the cracks in the stucco that worry me most. I don't know whether it's concrete, wood, steel, or what behind the stucco, but if it's not concrete, I could have some serious issues inside the wall after all this time. For what it's worth, the walls do not seem to be leaning or buckling at all, and everything is square. Doors inside the house open and close just fine, so I don't think the walls are shifting. My relative seems to believe it's concrete behind the stucco, but I feel like she's just making a guess.
The good (?) news is that I can see that the actual beams holding up the roof are in good shape, because the drywall holding the ceiling fell in through most of the house. A lot of the sheathing looks salvageable from what I can see (though I may find out differently once I pull up the shingles to replace them). When I looked closely at the fallen drywall panels, there was no sign of water damage, and the insulation was all clean. I think the drywall fell down because it was poorly installed, after seeing all the evidence. (They slapped it up /over/ the existing drywall ceiling! I think the nails weren't long enough to get a good grip on the beams, and combined with humidity in the air and just general neglect, they finally just let go.) The other room in the stick-built portion of the house looks almost pristine, including the ceiling (no water spots or sagging), so I'm pretty sure the water damage was largely confined to that one small bathroom. But that one small bathroom is in seriously bad shape.
So, my question is, would you accept this offer in my position? (Assuming you would be happy living in a small, rural town indefinitely, and don't mind a lot of work?)
