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Author Topic: Hellish home buying stories, anyone? Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 10-02-2009 09:20 PM                        So I took the leap and bought a house. (helloooo tax credit) Well, I'm under contract for one. I like the house a lot, and haggled a bit on the price, but not too much. The home inspection was on Wednesday. It went OK, BUT, it needs a new roof. It needs new valleys ASAP, and the roof probably has only a year or two left on it. I'm getting together with my realtor tomorrow to hammer out what I want fixed (A ROOF!). I fear that the lady won't fix it what so ever, or give me some sort of credit or escrow for a new one. Luckly I'm under the 'contingent on home inspection' clause. If thats the case, I'm walking. I know you may think it that thats not necassarily something she should fix, but I do. IMO, if she really wants to sell it, she should have had a home inspection before she put it on the market to tell her the roof is basically shot. So does anyone have any hellish buying stories, like seller won't fix a major problem, FHA wouldn't give you the loan because of it, etc etc?  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 10-03-2009 07:30 AM                     I would think that with the market the way it is now, if she won't fix the roof there are plenty of other houses to consider. (You may know this..) When the roof gets old you can just place another layer on top, but after the second layer gets old, both layers have to come off.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-03-2009 08:10 AM                     That is called a "rolled roof" and some insurance agencies will not insure a rolled roof. Steve  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-03-2009 08:33 AM                     Up here one can have a max of 5 layers of shingles then it must be stripped  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 10-03-2009 04:30 PM                        A new roof is probably expensive enough that you're justified in demanding a concession to cover the required improvements or that it be done on her nickel. If you have the choice of which option to take, find out what the roof will cost to do it the way you want it done, and have that amount deducted from the purchase or included as a cash disbursement to the buyer on closing. If the roof is that bad, she probably knew that it needed to be replaced and hoped that she could get away without having to fix it. Here in the Milwaukee area, two layers of shingles are the maximum. I don't know if that's code or just common sense, but either way, it's a good guideline IMO. Stick to your guns about the necessary repairs. Unless you got the house for a song, there's no reason to buy a house that needs a major repair and not have the seller be responsible for it. Congrats on the house, though, it's one of the most exciting and life-changing things a person can do!  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-03-2009 05:16 PM                     I bought my house in 2005 and it needed a new roof, but I specifically wanted to be the one to put it on. Most sellers who are willing to do any work you request as part of the sales agreement will do the cheapest, shittiest job you will ever see! Probably within ten years you'll have to redo whatever you originally wanted them to fix in the first place. I was never then - nor am I now - in love with my house. The price was right, taxes are low, and the school district is in the top 100 out of 500 in the state. The house itself was built about 1956 and somewhat updated about 1975. Construction was shoddy to begin with and the update was just as bad. Windows and electric service were replaced in 1998, the new breaker box just mounted right over the old one. Although I bought the house from the original owner, I'd say he had what my step-mother calls a "renter's mentality", that is to say he was not very intelligent in his choices and even more sloppy in his installation of those choices. So in the past four years I've had to replace the roof, the flooring in all seven rooms, all window trim and baseboards, one toilet, two sinks, part of a wall (that had mold growing on the inside), one bedroom door, several switches and non-grounded plugs, and a poorly constructed driveway and that did, indeed, nearly bankrupt me. And I wouldn't had let the guy who sold me the house touch any off it, because even though I'm struggling pay check to pay check, I at least know the work was done right.  |  IP: Logged Jarret Chessell Master Film Handler Posts: 288 From: London, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2009 posted 10-03-2009 07:07 PM                     I bought my house on the cheap a few years ago. It was a rental unit for who knows how long. I figure it was built around the 20's or 30's. Galvanized pipes.. At some point someone added a bunch of aluminum wiring to take some of the load of the knob and tube (It still has a 100amp fuse panel). Layers and layers of flooring glued down to the original hardwood on the main level (i got it back!). The kitchen was a disaster. It was a low enough tag on it that I just put the money towards new materials. It was an almost complete gut. New carpets and vinyl everywhere I couldn't recover the hardwood. Kitchen is 100% new and up to code. new walls in most rooms. All broken windows replaced (I have six more windows coming any day to replace the rest of the originals). It's a lot of work, but it really feels like home this way. I do want to see Gord's roof with 5 layers of shingles on it. I figure if I'm already on the roof I might as well grab a shovel and take off the old ones. I replaced a section of my roof this year for only a few hundred bucks because I did it myself. I'd still try to get discounts over expensive things that need to be done to a home, but remember, a case of beer and some friends can usually get a new roof put on for a fraction of the cost of contracting. This technique applies to most home reno's  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-03-2009 07:23 PM                     I tend to agree with the idea that it would be better to get the price lowered and the money applied towards you contracting for the new roof. The seller is going to take the "low-bid" to heart and that is the roof you are going to have to live with or pay to replace anyway. Homes are going to forever need something. My personal nightmare has been plumbing...which is amazing considering how basic the plumbing is here. Just a couple of weeks ago I got so POed with the pin-hole leaks, me and a friend ripped just about all of the copper out and replaced with CPVC. And this is on a house we want to bulldoze to replace with a "real" one once the money is there. Steve  |  IP: Logged Jarret Chessell Master Film Handler Posts: 288 From: London, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2009 posted 10-03-2009 08:36 PM                     Ha ha, old pipes... always replace them.... This was my dinning room last winter. I didn't replace the cast iron drain pipes for my bathroom... one of them started to leak from the shower down into the room below. I strapped over the plaster and put drywall on, so I had to cut down two ceilings... two very wet mucky ceilings. I replaced all the piping in the bathroom while i had the ceiling open. It's all aquapex and PVC now. That hardest part was putting drywall back up and making it look seamless with the rest of the ceiling.  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 10-03-2009 08:38 PM                        I think I'm going to take everyones advice and ask to take some off the purchase price. I got with the realtor today and told her my main concern was the roof. At least have the seller replace the valleys. So I made my tiny list of repairs and we'll see whats next. If the seller comes back and flat out says NO on the valleys, we're going to get an estimate on the roof, then I will ask for it to be deducted from the p.p. If fixing the valleys is under $1000, then I'm going to ask for my earnest money back. There are hardwood floors through out the house, but they are a mess. But I one of a few people that enjoy carpet so thats what I'm putting in the living room. Oh, and I'm more than happy to get to restore these little air vent gems: And not to mention repaint this door (i LOVE this door!)  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-07-2009 08:29 PM                     Back in 2004, we bought a house that was built in 1964. It's a little ranch and it needed some work but the foundation was solid, the basement had been waterproofed and the neighborhood is great. This is a neighborhood with a lot of old people who are nearing death (two across the street died within the past few years) most of which are the original owners who built these homes. Two more right near us were just recently admitted to retirement homes and don't have much time left I'm afraid. Since we moved in here we have seen an abundance of young people our age move in and have kids since these are nice starter homes. Ours is 1,100 square feet and most are just like ours since they were built by the same builder. Anyhow, we bought ours knowing that it would need a new roof and water heater and furnace. We still have the water heater and furnace (had to fix the furnace last week and it's still hobbling along) but we replaced the roof around 2006. We had the old attic fan removed and they installed ridge vent as well as replaced a lot of plywood. It was two layers and they had to do a tear off but I would have insisted they do that anyways since I am the most anal person you will ever meet. We just had all of our doors replaced this past summer and we replaced the garage door several years ago. Three years ago we had our kitchen completely redone. They vaulted the ceiling, put in two skylights, added recessed lighting and knocked out half of a wall. I did the gutting but we hired someone to do the rest. There are things I see everyday that drive me nuts in their workmanship. Cabinets not set straight, drywall seams splitting and bad patch jobs that you see when the lights are on. If you hire anyone to do work on your new home, research the heck out of them and don't be afraid to kick them in the ass if they do it lousy. They don't care what it looks like because it isn't theirs so you have to watch them like a hawk. That is the best advice I can give any new homeowner. When we moved in I swore to never let a contractor touch my house since I am so anal and most people in today's world take no pride in their workmanship and could give a rat's ass. Reality set in not long after though when I undertook the main bath remodel because my wife doesn't have the patience for my progress or lack thereof. I had to replace stud walls and subflooring due to a leak the previous owner didn't fix and I had to completely gut it. It took almost three years to complete it because I would never want to work on it because I was tired from my job all the time and I hate doing house work. These past two weekends I spent in my attic in the garage installing a ladder, laying down plywood and running wiring for lights so we could have storage space to clean out the basement so I can build my screening room. We had a tree removed this past summer that died and we have over an acre of land so yard work is time consuming and expensive! I am also in the process of redoing all of our closets, we remodeled a bedroom before my son came and upgraded the electrical panel to 200 amp when the kitchen was done. My next project is to replace all of the attic insulation as most of it is original and has flattened over time to about 1/2" thick. Someone tried covering it with newer stuff but did a shoddy job. That is my fall project after building my kids play system. A house is a huge money and time pit. We are quickly outgrowing ours. Experienced homeowners always tell me that right when we get it where we want it, we will move. A young guy I work with is trying to buy a foreclosed home right now to get the tax credit and I have warned him that life as he knows it will change forever. Financially and time wise. Some of my remodel pics: Kitchen Before Kitchen nearing completion. Not sure why I never took a completed one. Will have to do that. Bathroom Before Bathroom nearing completion. There is now a drawer under that counter (you can see the slides for it), There are also shelves under the counter and there is a towel holder on the wall. Attic Storage was my latest project. Still need to add the trim. More Attic  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-08-2009 05:50 AM                     So what is with the salad bowl type sink? I just don't get the "on-the-counter" sinks...esthetically or functionally. One has to reach higher (already tough on young ones) and I find that the water is more likely to splash out. We do have the same oven though. And yes, a house is a money pit...there is always SOMETHING to do to or with them. Then again, they are nice places to live too. Steve  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-08-2009 08:27 AM                     We are both tall people so the height of the sink is great for us. I'm 6'-4" and she is 5'-10". I actually have back problems because I am always having to bend over or slouch due to everything being made for "average height people". All of the shelves and workbenches I built at work are made higher since I was the one using them the most. My coworkers complain about it a lot. I just tell them, now they know what it is like for me to live in their world. My wife really liked the vessel sinks and I liked the way they looked too since they were more modern. We always sit our son in the sink when we need to wash his hands and he loves to play with the water. I do agree with you though about the water splashing. Since we have had it I have found it aggravating to have to clean off the mirror and counter all the time because the water splashes out so easily. I have also found that when I shave, the stubble does not go down very easily and I have to wipe the sink out afterward. The kicker is that this sink cost two to three times the price of a normal sink and the faucet was around three to four times the price of a normal faucet. If I had to do it again I probably would have just installed a normal sink. Our house is like yours Steve in that there is always something needing to be done. Sometimes it can get overwhelming to look around and see all the projects and not know where to start. They say a house is a good investment, but I doubt we will be able to recover the money we have put into ours even if the housing market does go back up. Then again, that is partly our fault because we did opt for higher quality building materials that you don't normally find in a house of this price range. We bought solid wood cabinets, granite countertops and travertine floors. I think most people go down to Home Depot or Lowe's and just buy the generic vanities or cabinets off the shelf with a laminate countertop. My wife is the frugal one and she would have been happy with that, but since I am a spender and value quality, we spent more than we needed to. We went WAY over budget on the kitchen.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-08-2009 12:32 PM                     Check this out...we just replaced all of the copper plumbing in our house (me and a co-worker one Sunday) and I plan to bulldoze the house as soon as I can afford its replacement. So any $ spent is definitely not coming back. So my goal is to spend the least on the current place and put a really nice new house on the same property. In the end, I hope to only need to borrow to cover the new house. That house with the land will always, even in these troubled times, be worth about twice what we will owe once the loan begins. Presuming we pay it off on-time or early, we should do pretty well. The savings on energy and a bunch of other stuff should also make my month-to-month payments hold pretty steady despite having a much larger place (I'm hoping for double the size we currently have). Steve  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 10-08-2009 09:44 PM                        Seller had someone go out to make a 'bid' on the roof today, not sure what came of it. Hope to hear about it on Friday. Joshua, LOVE the bathroom color scheme, I may have to steal that Steve: Do you plan on renting a place if/when you bulldoze your house and rebuild? Do you still have to pay a mortgage when you bulldoze, or just the property taxes? My mortage with property taxes + insurance is going to be $100 less than the tiny house I'm renting now. The house I'm buying is 1300sq feet, which is about 3x the one I'm at now. I'm planning putting A LOT of sweat equity into the place over the next few years. Plus I'm a mid-century nerd so I'm hoping the second-hand store gods will be good to me and give me some cheap furniture. The road it's on is full of older couples. I had no 'comps' to compare with because no one moves out of this area!  |  IP: Logged

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