Put in an offer for a house....

[hepcat]

Any homeowners here want to offer some advice for a first-time homebuyer? My future wife (getting married in less than three weeks....YIKES!) put in an offer for a house in our neighborhood yesterday. Inspector on call for when they respond to our offer.

The good: Location! It's a 15-20 min commute to both of our jobs in a hot up and coming neighborhood. I've lived in the 'hood for 7+ years so I'm very familiar with the area. It's on a quiet street with a nice fenced yard. Listed about 10% below market price at asking price, but we also shaved off another 5% our offer. It was on the market for 100 days back over the summer, but they pulled it down, semi-renovated it, and re-listed. So now it has brand new windows, floors, roof, garage doors (a rare 2 car garage in a neighborhood where most houses have 1 or no garage), and updated electrical (GFCI outlets galore). AC and furnace are about 10 years old and appear in decent condition.

The bad: It's an older house with some "character". There are some minor foundation issues, but that's par for the course in this neighborhood. Nothing I'll need to fix in the next 5 years but I'll defer to the inspectors discretion on that. There are some minor cracks in the drywall and doors that don't close right which will be a perpetual problem. Honestly you can't find a house without some kind of foundation issue in this area of town, so that's not a huge deterrent because that's just how it goes if you want to live in this neighborhood. There's some flood risk. The house isn't in a flood plain, but there are no gutters and the area around the house has sunken a bit over the last 50 years. Sellers disclosure states a few years ago the back corner of the house near the laundry room flooded a bit during some heavy rains (being in Texas, not all houses are equipped for heavy rain), so they graded the backyard, put in a retaining wall by the neighbor's property line, and added in a french drain. We might add gutters in the future if we buy the place which should also help. First major fix is the driveway which needs to be repaved ASAP, since it's probably the original driveway from the 60's. Kitchen and bathrooms also need updating.

It's pretty much a blank slate of a house, a great starter home, with some issues we'll have to deal with the whole time we live there.

[thefuzz]

Go ahead and reach out to your insurance agent, and get a quote for flood coverage.

Put away more money in reserves than what you think you will need for repairs and upkeep.

I would look into a ram jack type business to gauge how much it would cost to level the house.

Take a good look at the plumbing if you can.

[PanthersBigD]

- No foundation issue is small. Make sure you grill your inspector on the possible short and long term costs for any foundation issues they find. 

- A lot of older homes had heating systems that used heating oil, and they'd have a tank, buried in the back yard. They're expensive to remove, so make sure if they had one, you know where it was, and have some type of proof that it was removed. 

[Cat]

Normally I'd say go new instead of old but the new houses they are building right now look cheap as poo (for the $$)imo. Friend bought a house for 500k and the quality and location was no better than my gfs townhouse she bought for 215k a few years back. Literally the same engineered flooring, both on slabs, kitchen cabinets were white flat paneled and not real wood. 

[hepcat]

27 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

- No foundation issue is small. Make sure you grill your inspector on the possible short and long term costs for any foundation issues they find. 

- A lot of older homes had heating systems that used heating oil, and they'd have a tank, buried in the back yard. They're expensive to remove, so make sure if they had one, you know where it was, and have some type of proof that it was removed. 

I agree foundation issues can be big. From the houses we've looked at in this neighborhood, this one seems pretty average. The house we're renting now which is about a mile away, the slab is cracked right down the middle. This one doesn't seem as bad, but I'll wait and see after the inspection.

I don't think I've ever seen an oil tank as a heater in Central Texas. 99.9% sure it's natural gas.

[PanthersBigD]

Just now, hepcat said:

I agree foundation issues can be big. From the houses we've looked at in this neighborhood, this one seems pretty average. The house we're renting now which is about a mile away, the slab is cracked right down the middle. This one doesn't seem as bad, but I'll wait and see after the inspection.

I don't think I've ever seen an oil tank as a heater in Central Texas. 99.9% sure it's natural gas.

Houses built in the 40s used oil, before the infrastructure for delivering natural gas was available. Perhaps it depends on what you consider 'old.' Maybe the house you're buying is 1970's 'old' rather than 1940's like my house. 

[hepcat]

4 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

Houses built in the 40s used oil, before the infrastructure for delivering natural gas was available. Perhaps it depends on what you consider 'old.' Maybe the house you're buying is 1970's 'old' rather than 1940's like my house. 

House was built in ‘65, probably gas but I’ll have the inspector verify 

[blackcat]

Don't use an inspector that comes recommended by your realtor and don't be pushed into buying a house you're not comfortable with.  Realtors work for themselves, not you, remember that.

[thefuzz]

19 minutes ago, blackcat said:

Don't use an inspector that comes recommended by your realtor and don't be pushed into buying a house you're not comfortable with.  Realtors work for themselves, not you, remember that.

This is bad advice.

Have your agent, if one is involved, give you a list of 3 home inspectors, you call and speak with them, and make your decision.

To the OP, please look into those foundation issues, that's not normal.

[blackcat]

16 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

This is bad advice.

Have your agent, if one is involved, give you a list of 3 home inspectors, you call and speak with them, and make your decision.

To the OP, please look into those foundation issues, that's not normal.

Nothing wrong with going with an inspector other than ones your agent recommends.

[Shocker]

Obvious but check termites.  Also, moisture under the house if it’s crawl space.

[RenoCarolina]

Probably too late for this but anyone in the market for buying a house should 100% seek out a "Buyers Only Agent".  Your agent that listed your house will tell you that is not necessary, that their agency does this all the time.  But when it gets down to the nuts and bolts, that friendly real estate agent is working for the seller, not for you.  They are obligated by law to represent the seller.

Getting a buyers only agent ensures you have someone that is involved in real estate professionally and is only obligated to look out for YOUR interests!  They are still paid by the seller at closing but are not legally obligated to them, they are to you!

Also, so many sellers list their home without doing the grunt work.  We were going to buy an older home and spent $500 for inspection only to find a laundry list of structural defects that included the need for an engineer to evaluate.  I cut my losses and ran.  I knew the seller (little old lady) so I sent her the report so she knew what to get fixed but I was not going to pay for a structural engineer to inspect her house.

You mentioned that the structural issues would not need to be addressed in the near future but they will have to be addressed eventually.  Unless you find a buyer willing to pay for those you are actually taking on the financial obligations of the current owner by not requesting repairs or credit at closing.  

Good luck.

 

[PanthersBigD]

6 minutes ago, RenoCarolina said:

Probably too late for this but anyone in the market for buying a house should 100% seek out a "Buyers Only Agent".  Your agent that listed your house will tell you that is not necessary, that their agency does this all the time.  But when it gets down to the nuts and bolts, that friendly real estate agent is working for the seller, not for you.  They are obligated by law to represent the seller.

Getting a buyers only agent ensures you have someone that is involved in real estate professionally and is only obligated to look out for YOUR interests!  They are still paid by the seller at closing but are not legally obligated to them, they are to you!

Also, so many sellers list their home without doing the grunt work.  We were going to buy an older home and spent $500 for inspection only to find a laundry list of structural defects that included the need for an engineer to evaluate.  I cut my losses and ran.  I knew the seller (little old lady) so I sent her the report so she knew what to get fixed but I was not going to pay for a structural engineer to inspect her house.

You mentioned that the structural issues would not need to be addressed in the near future but they will have to be addressed eventually.  Unless you find a buyer willing to pay for those you are actually taking on the financial obligations of the current owner by not requesting repairs or credit at closing.  

Good luck.

 

Agree on the Buyers Only Agent. We went with a dual agent on our last home sale/purchase and while it worked out for us, it was a lot of work to stay on top of things and it would have been nicer to have an agent that fought more for us on the purchase side. Luckily we bought before the current boom, so our home has appreciated a ton. Still pisses me off thinking some of the little things we compromised on for expediency's sake. 

[hepcat]

Not too worried about the agent. This was a house we picked out ourselves and checked out. Agreed that the foundation issues are definitely worth checking out. If accepted we will pay a $150 "option fee" to the seller that basically gives us a week to get the house checked out, we can pay our own private inspector and back out of the deal or accept it based on the inspection.

We got the number of an inspector that a friend of our's used when they bought their house and said he's top notch. All his online reviews are excellent and he didn't come from the agent. Definitely going to get those foundation issues looked into in depth, check for mold from the flood damage, and have the termite damage investigated. Overall the house seems in decent condition but we'll see.