Hi everyone,
So I’d like to give you guys an update on a house we are trying to purchase.
We saw a great house in a great neighborhood with a great school system. House priced near the lower 25% of the homes on the street. Listed for $629k, we agreed to $617.5k. House built in 1922. We are aware of the “charms” of an old house and are ok living with creaky wood floors, moldings and frames that aren’t exactly 100% level, and radiator heating systems.
What we aren’t prepared to live with are the following “issues” discovered today by our home inspector. FYI I’ve read most of the home inspector threads on this site and I have to say our inspectator was amazing. She spent 6 hours at the property with us, has a Masters in Engineering and was making our realtor cringe the entire time, and also tried to talk to us when the realtor wasn’t around as she thought realtors were basically con artists.
That said let me give you the list of the “highlights”:
1) Knob and Tube wiring discovered (owners checked no on sellers disclosure form)
2) Detached 1 car garage had heavy termite and water damage. It is cockeyed, level to the ground on a decline, and she recommended it be torn down and replaced.
3) Termite and carpenter ant damage to the house in the foyer and front door. Part in parcel to this was the fact that the front step landing is pitched towards the house, built over an older stoop, and allows water to drain directly towards the house (apparently there is supposed to be 7 1/4” step up from the landing to the front door). Floor in the foyer can be stepped on and “pushed” down easily. (owners checked no to known pests)
4) Mice droppings found in the junction box. Part of basement is a crawl space with old school vertical clay tiles. She said a mason needs to lay concrete over these tiles as she can see straight through them to the outside and that is how field mice are getting into the house.
5) In additional, oil lines were found in the crawl space going out into front yard. Permits pulled on house show that a 550 gallon tank was removed 20 years ago, however she believes she found evidence of a basement tank and that is what must have been removed. She believes there is an additional oil tank in the front yard.
5) We discovered the furnace is cracked. While she was getting ready to check out the furnace the heat kicked on and steam started shooting out of the furnace. A 6” long crack about 1/4” thick was discovered in the back of the furnace.
6) Plumbing was called a “handyman special” and needs significant work. A relative of mine is a master plumber and came by and looked and said “it’ll work but none of it is to code”. He said it needs about $20k worth of work to bring into code. He didn’t know the furnace was cracked when he gave that number.
7) Roof is end of life
8) 1st floor bathroom doesn’t have proper ventilation and is believed to be an unpermited bathroom
9) Deck is deemed “handyman special” and while it has a permit from 1983, she believes the underneath structure is original and the top part is relatively new. She recommended not using the deck until it is further inspected based on what she could see underneath and suggested a large part be ripped up as it is wood directly on dirt which is a recipe for rotting.
10) House is listed as a 5 bedroom. The 2nd floor has 3 bedrooms and the attic was mostly finished with 2 very pitched wall rooms they call bedrooms. 1 room has no radiator and no closet. She said this is an unheated room and cannot be called a bedroom.
11) Recommended all windows be replaced
WHEW I think I got all of it and am still realing from the day. Can’t wait to get the official report.
So we’re likely going to walk from this house, but in the incredible event the sellers gave us significant credits to do much of this work, would you consider it? I don’t know how they will sell this house to anyone in it’s current state at this price with all of these issues. I’m also not ready to pay $250 for an oil tank sweep but no one will buy a house in NJ with an underground oil tank after what we saw today but if the sellers say they’ll play ball I might spring for it. I’m thinking we’d probably need in the area of $60-100k worth of credits.
Thoughts? The inspectator at the end of the day did say that nothing with the house isn’t correctable, but it won’t be cheap to fix everything. I also heard the sellers have put in an offer on another house so, unless they can carry two homes, they need to sell this house relatively quickly is my guess.
Also would like to add...sellers have only lived there 2.5 years... I’m guessing they did not do due diligence and are having second thoughts about this property.