Okay… let’s start by developing collective amnesia concerning anything I said about liking this house. 

Please?

Mamma Always Said:

So here’s the something nice before we get rolling on the something naughty.

• Great floorplan… really nice
• Large living room
• Nice galley kitchen that opens up to a larger-than-Ikea sized dining area
• Well proportioned bedrooms bigger than MLS stated
• Kitchen cabinets are solid pine and salvageable
• Hardwood floors are in remarkably good shape… considering

The Details:

First off– I was wrong, and my agent was right– the slab’s broken in a bagillion pieces. It’s not a cracked slab– it’s a jigsaw puzzle and the dog ate half.

On to photographic evidence:

Every wall looks like this… come to think of it, this looks pretty good comparatively.

Inside the garage: blue tarps hang inside the attic from one side of the house to the other. It appears someone was trying to keep water from leaking through the ceilings… instead the tarps channeled water into the space between the exterior walls and the sheetrock.

Dessicated rat inside the laundry area. And that stuff on the wall is exactly what it looks like–black mold.

We’ve looked at dozens of houses in this area and never encountered graffiti.

This picture is typical of all the plumbing we could inspect– completely occluded by sediment.

The water damage is like this everywhere.

The kitchen cabinets aren’t too bad but might have to be pulled anyway to fix the plumbing, electric and water damage between the exterior wall and sheetrock.

Evaluation:

The mister spent lots of time prodding, poking and snooping about. He says the house needs:

• leveling
• new roof
• and then the real work could commence 

 The sheetrock needs to be removed from *every single wall* throughout including the ceilings. Mold needs remediation, wiring updated and replaced. Plumbing appears to be shot– As Mr. Brz said, this place is a gnat’s whisker from the dozer blade.

Could we fix it? Sure. Do we want to? Not on your life.

My swami says some investor will pick this up for next to nothing, patch things together with duct tape and spackle, rent for below market rate and pray the electric and plumbing don’t fail. Rough guess– maybe 12-15K to make it habitable (although I suspect that even doing the minimum, there might be some nasty, budget-busting surprises.)

Comps are running 65-70K ARV (after repair value). If the bank would take 20K and if it could be fixed to our standards for 30K, we’d still be too close to the bone on this deal. 

Bummer

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Tags: , real estate investment, rehab projects, rent houses