Changing Houses In the Middle of the Dream

The bottom line is, too many repairs and the sellers weren't willing to come down in price enough to cover them.

Inspector Gadget

Expect Inspection Introspection

Another shot of the same room, but the dining part of it. The kitchen is just to the left and the back yard is just beyond the window.

So, the inspector report shows mold is not a problem. It also showed the problems we knew about, a couple of which are worse than we thought. For instance, not only does the roof need to be redone, it needs to be redone before winter (we'd hoped to put it off a year), the vents are leaking, and the rafters need extra support. The other possibly big problem we didn't spot is that the new furnace system not only isn't hooked up to the whole house, but it couldn't be started.

There are a lot of relatively minor things that, if it wasn't such a well built house to start with, would certainly have made us leery of purchase. But the inspector, as well as the contractor we had in earlier, both thought very highly of the structure. We'd looked at some houses that needed less work, but were not really worth the extra effort to fix up. We think this one is.

The bank just recently dropped the asking price which got more people interested in it. There are some who are already talking with the bank about buying it. We didn't have all our price quotes for repairs in yet, but we put together what we had with our bid for the house. We need to hope that it is high enough and our ability to close quickly (because we don't have to sell a house to raise the money and have already done an inspection so won't have an inspector escape clause) will be enough to get the house.

Waiting For A Go

Our real estate agent gives us hope that we might actually be able to get this place. She says the agent for the bank is keen to get rid of it, and has tried to convince the bank previously to let it go cheaply. He encourages us to get a detailed list of repairs to put with our bid to help the case. We have been pricing out some things like replacing the carpeted basement floor, but the first big thing to do is get the house inspected so we can get a detailed list of what's wrong. If there's mold, we stop and walk away. If not, we start contacting all the contractors about written estimates. Wednesday is the inspection.

Pictures this time are of the upstairs living room.

House of Blues

We heard that a previous offer of more than our maximum on the house we want had been turned down. We're going to talk to our real estate agent about strategies, including moving on to another possible house. We still might try for this one, depending partly on how long ago that bid was put in. If we do try, we're going to need to put together a detailed list of all the repairs and replacements the property needs, with estimated costs, to put in with our super low bid. Will it be more work and cost than the slim chance it will get us the house warrants? We'll see what the agent thinks.

The room pictured here is the family room in the walkout basement. The previous owners took the wood stove that was on the brick base when they left.

Is There A House Doctor In?

Our realtor finally got info on house repairs from the contractor who had gone to look at the property we are thinking about. The answers are a little vague on a couple of things, but overall, if the bank will accept a pretty low bid, we would buy it and sink about as much into fixing the house as we are putting as a down payment.