Here is the home my wife and I are interested in:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1129-Fa-Lan-Ridge-Rd-Ponca-City-OK-74604/86040621_zpid/As you can see it is a foreclosure and has been on the market since September when it was listed for $155K, and is now listed at $107.9k. It is a homepath home and would most likely not qualify for a traditional mortgage because of the condition. As far as getting to the property it is about 5 miles from where town really starts, but is actually only a mile or so out side of city limits. It is however on a private gravel road with two other houses. Said road is extremely rough as in steep, in my truck I had to be careful not to spin while traveling up the hills. It sets basically at the bottom of a hill about 20ft up from the bottom flat ground below. The yard doesn't have much of a level to it other than an area about the size of the house on the south side. A majority of the yard is large rocks and large trees. Most of it hasn't been maintained in a few years. The hill/tree/rock part of the home is about 1 acre and the flat grass part of the home is the remaining 2 acres give or take.
Now onto the house, it is a large 5 bed, 3.5 bath home with just over 3,000 sq ft that was built in '81 with a flat roof. Sometime in the past couple years a pitched roof was installed over the flat roof. I haven't gotten on top of the house to determine how this was installed but know the eaves were not finished and are open for all to see and animals to roam around in. The gables were not finished either and only have foam board on them. I do know the old overhangs are in ROUGH shape, they are pretty rotten and would need to be removed, with the walls behind them looking in okay shape as far as I could tell. There is a pool in the back that has a cover and a level in it, but I don't know if it is even functional. It has central air, but heat if from a heat pump that has water running out of the garage onto the driveway so I anticipate that being a complete replacement. Also all of the exterior doors are rotten and may need to be completely replace, two sets of double doors, and two single doors.
As far as the interior goes I haven't been inside of it yet, but don't anticipate it being in any better shape than the pictures show. I was told there is evidence of water damage in the ceiling from the old flat roof. I was also told by a realtor that there is structural problems, I could only see one small crack in the brick work on the home from the outside.
So my question is this: Is this house even worth looking at or making an offer on? I am very handy and have a brother, brother-in-law, and father-in-law that owe me big time favors so the labor pool I can draw from should be pretty nice. My father-in-law is retired and would be able to put more time into it than I would, but can only work at a slow rate because of too many cigarettes over the years. We currently have a house we are living in that we wouldn't sell until we move in to a new house. It wouldn't make a great rental because of many reasons. Secondly we only have about $14K in the bank right now but that will grow by about $2,000 every month, that would be the money used for down payment and the cost to do the renovations. As for financing we would have to go through the homepath route most likely, is this a problem? Lastly, if we do decide to tackle this project and make an offer, what would a good starting point be. From talking to a realtor it doesn't sound like they have had many if any offers on the property in the past 5 months.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice,
James
