Opinions on what to do with buying a house

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straightlinespeed

straightlinespeed

Sometimes I pretend to be normal
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Hello everyone!

We are in the process of looking for a new home and selling our town home. We have been out searching homes and tonight came across a bank owned home. It is everything we have been looking for in our searches.

Here is what we found when we looked at it. It needs all new carpet and paint. Not bad we can do that. They gutted some of the stuff, sure fine it can be replaced. The basement has been framed in! Great! Now the one bad thing we noticed is it has a 4 season room attached to one side of the house. It is sinking badly in 1 corner. I would say that corner has dropped about 1-2 inches. It is obvious in the trim and the window that is in that area.

That is the one thing that scares us the most about this house. I know it can be jacked up and fixed, but we have no idea who to contact or how about we find out how bad it really is! Do we need a structural engineer? Soil expert to find out why it sank. General builder to just lift it and pour a new footing? What steps do we do to find out about this?
 
Oklacarcollecto said:
Are there any foundation issues with the original structure?
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None that we could see! The house looks very well built. This sun room also looks like it is part of the original house and not added on at a later time. Its one of the far outside corners away from the house.
 
straightlinespeed said:
None that we could see! The house looks very well built. This sun room also looks like it is part of the original house and not added on at a later time. Its one of the far outside corners away from the house.
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I would definitely call someone in to see what the problem is and if it will end up affecting the whole house before it is over. The bank probably won't allow anything past a visual inspection.
 
There is a company called Ram Jack I think they are a national outfit. They will come and look and give you a price for free. I not sure if they will if you are not the owner. You are looking $10,000 to $20,000 so get it checked before you buy.
 
67cudafb said:
There is a company called Ram Jack I think they are a national outfit. They will come and look and give you a price for free. I not sure if they will if you are not the owner. You are looking $10,000 to $20,000 so get it checked before you buy.
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That seems very high priced just to lift a corner of a sun room, but it wouldnt surprise me. I was just going to ask opinions on what something like this may cost.
 
Get an engineer. It'll cost a little more right now, but man, it could save you a lifetime of issues. Too bad you don't live in my area, I could recommend one.
 
ramcharger said:
Get an engineer. It'll cost a little more right now, but man, it could save you a lifetime of issues. Too bad you don't live in my area, I could recommend one.
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We thought about doing that. Then we were thinking well we could be out say $500 for someone to look at a house and tell us it is going to cost $X amount of money and we decide its not worth it.

I suppose its like gambling and either its a win or lose situation. Although we could make a offer on the house with that being one of the things we bring up. Then I suppose the bank could say they will either fix it or they may drop the price of the house or reject it. I honestly dont even know if they know of all the issues with the house. Hell they say it has a fireplace, well technically it had 2 but the prior owners took them with them! The things people in foreclosure do.
 
straightlinespeed said:
We thought about doing that. Then we were thinking well we could be out say $500 for someone to look at a house and tell us it is going to cost $X amount of money and we decide its not worth it.

I suppose its like gambling and either its a win or lose situation. Although we could make a offer on the house with that being one of the things we bring up. Then I suppose the bank could say they will either fix it or they may drop the price of the house or reject it. I honestly dont even know if they know of all the issues with the house. Hell they say it has a fireplace, well technically it had 2 but the prior owners took them with them! The things people in foreclosure do.
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Yep, it's a gamble, you just have to weigh the risk vs. cost of the home and the engineer and how badly you all want this home and the neighborhood it resides in. You and your wife have a lot of talking to do. ;)
 
ramcharger said:
Yep, it's a gamble, you just have to weigh the risk vs. cost of the home and the engineer and how badly you all want this home and the neighborhood it resides in. You and your wife have a lot of talking to do. ;)
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I agree! We have to let it sink in some (no pun intended but yet still funny). I dont mind the hard work it will take to get the house back in good shape. The realtors only major remark on it was that the sun room scared him the most. He knows we can fix it up and when the house is all said and done would increase drastically in valve. We just dont have the money up front to fix that room unless we get a really good deal on that house.
 
Unless you're paying cash, your lender will probably want a structural engineer to have a look see, and will require somebody to pay up front to fix it before they make a loan.

Maybe keep looking?
 
64DartGTinAZ said:
Unless you're paying cash, your lender will probably want a structural engineer to have a look see, and will require somebody to pay up front to fix it before they make a loan.

Maybe keep looking?
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You have a good point. Our lender is on the list of people to call tomorrow to ask these sort of questions.
 
straightlinespeed said:
this in on piers not a solid footing type wall.
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67cudafb said:
Run Forest Run
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ramcharger said:
Get an engineer. .
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straightlinespeed said:
we could be out say $500 for someone to look at a house and tell us it is going to cost $X amount of money
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I'd either have someone who knows what they are doing, and that might just be an engineer look at it, or walk away now. This could easily be that 500 for an engineer is cheap compared to what you might get stuck with.

"On piers." Hell you might get into a "codes" situation where you have to tear half of it down to fix it.
 
You live in Minnesota where it freezes in the winter. The basement is 8' below grade and below the frost line. The porch was probably built with a 4' footing and maybe not enough for your location. A good contractor could repair the sag if the framing was in good shape. Look it over with a different view. Could you remove the room addition and rebuild with a slider and a patio? May be incorporate a fire pit area! Have a local contractor look it over and give you an idea whether it can be fixed or replaced. Offer to pay him for his time. The sinking wall problem could be a bargaining chip for a lesser price on the property.
On another note. It is very difficult to orchestrate the selling of your condo and purchasing a property at the same time. Many can't sell their present property and end up paying for two at the same time. Talk to your Realtor. tmm
 
You guys suggesting run away have never been to Texas and seen our foundation problems!........
You probably don't have as many companies as we have to come do a "no cost" quote to shore up that corner, but around here that would probably be about a $3,000 fix.
 
Well, my realtor had a structural engineer out to look at it. They dug down and found out that the pier is only about 24" deep. I guess it only dropped about 3/8" and not the 1-2 like I said. That is good news I guess and the engineer said it wouldnt be that expensive of a fix. We are now looking at a 203K loan so we can rehab this house. Trying to find out more info on this program and I have a friend that used it but she is out of the state for a month. So I have to find other info somewhere. That is my plan this week
 
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