Buying a forclosed home

[Jim Oaks]

What an ordeal.

Vanessa and I have been house hunting for a while now and finally entered in to a contract to buy a forclosed home. The bank (current owner) just put in a new furnace along with new carpet and paint to give the inside more of a 'neutral' look. The house has a (2) car attached garage with a (4) car heated detached garage. The house is a good deal and is perfect for us.

The contract is contingent on the home inspection. We had the home inspected and found that the breaker box is overloaded with some breakers double tapped. There were also some loose wires in there. There was a cut live wire in the basement hanging between the floor joists (ceiling) and some of the outlets don't work .

So, we've asked the bank to fix the electrical because it's listed in the inspection as unsafe.

Then, my agent sends me a waiver from the health department to waive the septic inspection due to snow. They'll let the house be sold, but it has to be inspected within 60 days of occupancy and any problems have to be fixed. Oh, I don't think so. The seller has paid for the inspection, but I want it inspected BEFORE the sale so I don't get stuck paying for something in the event there is a problem.

What's pissing me off is Vanessa and I are renting. We've rented this house for over 3-years. The house is suppose to close on March 10th, but we don't know if everything is going to go through. I don't want to move out without giving my landlord notice. My concern is that if I tell him, he may rent the house and we'll be stuck moving out whether we have a house or not.

Plus, we have to be under contract by the end of April to get the new homebuyer tax credit. I hope were not wasting our time on this.

It really annoys me that they haven't said yet if they'll pay for the electrical repair. Yet, my agent called me last week because the title company wants to know how we want our names listed.

The whole ordeal is starting to stress me out.

I need a

 

[adsm08]

Isn't house hunting fun

 

[Will]

Just buy it. Those are minor issues. Lots of people on here can walk you through the electrical stuff. It's important to do it right, but it isn't difficult. The septic will be fine. They run the water for a while and see if the yard gets wet. It sounds too good to let go for minor stuff.

Edit: major stuff is like a foot of water that has been in the crawl for 20 years and you can tear the joists to pieces with your bare hands. Or the concrete block foundation has dissolved. You have had a zero-problem home inspection. In fact, I'm dubious--I would have expected much more, so it must be a pretty new house.

 

[adsm08]

You def are already better off than my parents were. They bought their house a little over 20 years ago, and it seemed ok at the time. Later we found out that the building permit never should have been approved. The top soil is only 13 inches deep before you hit pure, red clay.

The two main consequences of that were major septic problems because the soil couldn't absorb the water fast enough after a good rain, and some foundational issues.

They put a second floor on about 10 years ago and because the clay wasn't firm enough to support the extra weight the foundation went from | | to \ /. Now they have huge bolts in the basement walls holding the walls in place.

 

[Epixstar]

I went threw the same thing around this time last year but the bank who owned my house would not fix any of the repairs i had to do them all.

 

[Captain Ledd]

Basic house wiring is actually pretty easy all in all. I'm in the middle of redoing the 2nd floor of my parents house (built in 1914, and the 2nd floor was ALL ORIGINAL WIRING).

It's only 3 wires, and they're color coded.

I just wouldn't mess with anything between the box and the pole. Make sure that's all good. Otherwise it's relatively easy.

 

[powerranger262]

I'm doing the same thing right now, actually looking at two tommorrow. Foreclosed is such a great way to go, move in and you already made a bunch of money. Sounds like a sweet garage setup too. Good luck to you both on the purchase!

 

[pyro4fun]

Jim,
I have herd that the government is trying to extend the home buyers tax for another 4 month's.

Senate Bill S1678 extends the existing first-time homebuyer tax credit to June 1, 2010. It makes no changes to the requirement that one must be a first time buyer (defined as not owning a home in the last three years) or to income limits that currently exist in the current law.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1678:

From what i have herd it should pass.

Hope it relieves a little stress

 

[powerranger262]

^ I wish they would make up their minds and just say it already instead of "maybe". It really would be nice to look around a little more when spring comes around.

 

[chittybangbang]

Jim- A couple of things.1st.A home inspector will not blow a sale if the realtor is paying for it.2nd Watch out for the septic system.Up in Geauga county they are failing septic systems that are off lot systems and making homeowners install airation(sp) systems.Once a house is not lived in for 30 days the county's test is slanted for your system to fail.We made that mistake and our realtor didn't bother to tell us.That move cost us 15k and sold the house as is.So what is happening now is that homeowners are putting cheap septic systems for the sale and sticking future owners with a system that is crap(no pun intended). The 2 choices are-buy the house as is(get a discount)or have the bank put money in escrow(10-15k)The electrical issues are minor-just get that repaired

 

[koda6966]

The box issue may be as simple are re-routing a few things and adding in more breakers or a secondary box. The hardest part will be finding what wire goes to the dead outlets. If I was close by I'd help you out. I strongly recommend going through the whole house (even if they fix the electrical themselves) and figuring out what outlet/light/etc goes to which breaker. That way, if you ever want to add something in you not only know where stuff is to turn it off, but you also know what's on a circuit and won't have issues with overloading.

Anyway, the four car detached garage sounds perfect for TRS1 and TRS2. Maybe even a TRS3 and some shop space.

 

[erocka1982]

i agree with Will. those seem like minor issues. of course you dont want to rush into anything. but with the government rebate, and the sweet garage set up, and seems like the old lady likes it too, i would jump on it. you could use the money you get from the gov. to put into the house and fix the electrical issue and the septic issue and whatever else you might come across. i always say, if its meant to be, it will happen! im looking for a second house right now to put in my girlfriends name. why would you not want to take advantage of the government offering to give you money..hahah i hope your deal works out man!

 

[MrE_Powers]

hell you probably could get someone to do the work for lifetime premium member status on the website.

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

Yep. Sounds like the exact same thing I went through buying my house (a foreclosure) about a year ago. Just remember that it's a huge buyer's market. Make the bank realize they are just going to have to fix this stuff if they want it off their books. I offered the full asking price (which was still a great deal) and they were very willing to fix anything the inspector wrote up (which ended up being a new water heater, a minor roof leak, and various other small details required for the loan to close).

Since then I've had to replace both boiler feed pumps (at $90 each), repair the boiler compression tank (free with my mig welder ), and hire a plumber to clear tree roots from the main drain line to the sewage header at the street (cost about$240).

Foreclosure is definately the way to go. My house is an all brick 3 bedroom built in 1937 (lots of character!) with 4 car attached garage and a new kitchen sitting on 1.3 acres across the street from a golf course. I got it for about 2/3 of it's market value. And the 8 grand from the government only makes it sweeter.

 

[TheBeast]

I've been keeping my eye out for some property myself. I feel your pain. At only 19/20 years old I'm a little over whelmed by all of it.