New Homestead:

[saeb]

Congratulations sir, you will be happy with the elbow grease portion. Put it how you like it.

[Fanderal]

Be sure to apply for your homestead exemption ASAP. There is a limited window of opportunity to do this, and if you miss it, it will cost you for the rest of the time you own the property.


Fanderal

[SCinPNW]

Congratulations Grand! What an exciting step you have taken. We are just now in the process of looking for a place that we can turn into a self-sustaining farm/retreat, etc.

SC

[sjhopkins]

Congratulations! Looking forward to hearing how things go for you as you build your homestead. We are also looking at property to build our own homestead. We are hoping to find a handyman that would be willing to help us fix up a property through a barter-type situation. We're handy, but not ready to handle all the projects that we'll be facing.

[huckridge]

Congratulations Grand, being the owner of property with the opportunity to improve what's there is a great position to be in..I've been working on our 40 acres for the last 16 years and moved there 14 years ago. We have so many projects still ongoing I probably will never finish. We started with land that had never been occupied and wouldn't trade it or the experiences of being there for anything.

I recently bought a backhoe to start doing some excavating, everyone needs a storm cellar.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Grand58742]

Grumble grumble grumble...

So while I won't go into serious detail on why this house is no longer my ideal fixer upper. Let me take the time to pass on some tidbits of information that can help others if they end up looking for that idea dream home or retreat.

First piece of advice, always, always, always hire a licensed home inspector. Not some fly by night dude or dudette either. But someone who's not afraid to crawl under the house, poke and prod and actually do a complete inspection. Luckily, I had this type of person working for me on this and he found several things that would have seriously affected the structural integrity of the house in question had I bought it. I mean checking for things like the center beam sagging and being shimmed with 2x4s and plywood and being supported with a camper jack. Minor points like that. Get an inspector that isn't afraid to get under a house. If they refuse, fire them and find another. But they also discover things like bad HVAC. House in question had a really nice HVAC working UNDER the house. Maybe not so much inside...

Don't ever trust a seller to give you all the information, even another supposed licensed realtor. There are some shady people out there trying to make a buck or two and they will screw you at the drop of a hat. So when they supposedly complete repairs, termite inspect and treat, etc. Get documentation. And furthermore, run that information down to make sure it's not Billy Bob's Live Bait Shop, Hair Care and Plumbing either. Don't trust a seller an inch and you find the supposed treatment on the well house didn't really happen like it was supposed to and the termites are just having themselves a grand ol feast on the wall studs.

Always, always, always inspect the roof and have a qualified individual inspect the roof. And actually get on the roof and have them get on the roof. You can find things like the shingles are about on their last legs, a 5 gallon bucket being used in place of a attic turbine, a 30 gallon drum being used as part of a chimney. Just minor things like that.

Electrical...have a person check it over to make sure the wiring is sound. A licensed person and again, not Billy Bobs Live Bait Shop and Electrical Supply. And make sure they check the junction boxes to make sure they aren't on a national recall list for being a fire danger.

Faucets, check em. And drains as well. Great when the faucets work, not so great when the sink doesn't drain.

If there is water under your condenser unit, there is probably damage especially when the unit has been sitting for a couple of years. And when the unit starts to lean over the course of a two weeks between visits AND starting to go through the subfloor (without the later mentioned backer board) yeah, there's probably a problem.

Check tiling in the bathroom(s). If you see them start to separate, but have hastily been patched like nothing is wrong and once removed there's ate up subflooring (with a complete lack of backer board as well...but we won't get into that) from water rot. Yeah, you get the impression I'm a little steamed by this time.

Overall, interior wise, check for water damage, either recent or past. Or better yet, have said inspector check for water damage. Check electrical and make sure the positive and ground wires aren't crossed. And check to see if there are actually any outlets for the fart fans in the bathrooms and they aren't there just for show...

If there are areas of the house that cannot be inspected because the access isn't easy to get to, you have to ask yourself the question of "why isn't the access easy to get to?" But when you finally get there, you discover things like ate up wiring, plenum chambers made of drywall, wires that have been cut but cannot be traced to a junction box or an outlet. And the aforementioned 30 gallon drum as part of a chimney. Or boarded up access points for under the house that reveal minor things like center beam displacement, etc. Minor points you know.

I could go on and on, but the biggest piece of advice is GET A HOME INSPECTOR WORTH A DARN! I managed to get a really good one that probably saved me $30-40K in my first year alone. And potentially saved me from living in a nightmare. Because as soon as the center beam is replaced, it creates all sorts of new problems. So that dude is on my Christmas Card list for certain.

And furthermore, don't be afraid to point things out to said inspector. It's their job to check your concerns and sometimes they overlook some things because they get wrapped up in others. Don't feel bad about saying "hey bud, did you see this over here?"

Needless to say, I told Billy Bob's Bait Shop and Realty very politely "no" and ran like a Kenyan at the Olympics. And the search goes on for a new place and I'm heading out to look at three locations today.

P.S. If you have a tree frog living in one of your sink drains...never mind.

[snarlbuckle]

For exactly those reasons, my dream is to save up and build a house from scratch. The real advantage being that you can build in features that make the building more sustainable. Also, you get a brand spanking new house of the deal.

Best of luck to you grand, I hope you find a way to get what you are looking for.

[Rmplstlskn]

Yep, with a seller, never take their word for anything, check it yourself. The OTHER realtor is NOT working for you, they are working for the SELLER, and they will do and say about anything to make the deal and get their commission. And 100% agreement on a good inspector not afraid to get into places and dirty...

I consider myself pretty knowledgable about construction and have a good eye for problems, and thought about getting further training to be an inspector, but to do it correctly, I'd have to be in attics and under houses every day with the black widows, so I got into computers instead... LOL!

[rockriver]

great end of the story. thanks for the inspection report.
--
let me add a real life recent event.
bought a house. got some storage space sheds.
saw lots of elect stuff and asked "what kind of elec bills do you have?
i began to notice this question got played down.
--
i persisted. thought i was doing right. he presented the bill.
it was an avg bill that is recalculated each year. it was higher than i'm used to
but less than i'd figured for all the electricity i saw.
we bought the house.
recently got our first elect. bill. !!!!! ahhhh.
there were two meters. one for the house and one for the sheds and other stuff!!!
ahhhh.
so...
see above notes about trusting the seller.
looking for ways to cut stuff off. looking for ways to turn the a/c higher and the refrigerator higher.
cutting off the x and the y.
trying to learn about solar!!!
this bill isn't sustainable.. on our budget.

[Grand58742]

The OTHER realtor is NOT working for you, they are working for the SELLER, and they will do and say about anything to make the deal and get their commission.

To compound matters, the other realtor IS the seller. He's trying for a flip home and is failing miserably. The longer he waits to fix some of the problems, the more money he will end up spending. Sucks to be him...

I consider myself pretty knowledgable about construction and have a good eye for problems, and thought about getting further training to be an inspector, but to do it correctly, I'd have to be in attics and under houses every day with the black widows, so I got into computers instead... LOL!

Apparently here in OK, all you have to have is like a two day course and pass a test to be a licensed "inspector." No real practical knowledge needed from what the dude was telling me. But I got lucky in the draw.

[610Alpha]

Ditto on the Inspector. Mine didn't even lift up the ceiling tile in the basement...wish he would have it would have saved me some serious dough. Live wires were cut and left hanging :mad: :mad::mad:

Owner lied about water in the basement..."it only happened once when it rained for 5 days straight" Bravo Sierra. First good rain and we have water all over the basement, the basement de-watering system had failed...even more green backs to get that fixed. :mad::mad:

In IL they won't move stuff out of the way....bowing block wall was hidden behind owners junk...keeping an eye on it for now until i get the moolah to fix it.

[Yeti]

Sorry to hear about the troubles Grand, at least you caught it all.

Home inspectors being a toss-up, are one of the reasons when I was shopping I had my dad with me. Ex & I would look at the place if we liked it, he would come on the second visit with us and start looking at it with an appraising eye of one who would be helping me fix everything. All before we even start the inspections on the house.

Best of luck on your continued search.

[RVN11B]

Grand! I absolutely know and FEEL your pain!

Damned near the exact same load of crap happened to us. All of the same issues you are experiencing plus both the seller and Realtor were total scum bags. The seller was being fore closed on and the Realtor was in scam mode to get the sale. complete with Cousin Bubba's construction and night time stealing company. The 'fixed' problems found by the 'inspector' and we got the place for a song. Seven acres, workshop/garage, barn, and large old country farm house.

Right about the time I noticed an article in the local paper about that same Realtor being convicted for fraud and such, we started having issues. Roof, sewer, electrical, you get the picture.

We are slowly setting things right. Tomorrow a new metal roof and siding. Next month LP furnace and kitchen stove. Then a couple of new wood burning fire places and stove for the front room/hobby shop for me.

That very loud and profane yelling from the north of you will be me dealing with the bills.

[brokedownbiker]

Sorry to hear about the house, Grand. Best that you caught it BEFORE the sale, though. Keep up your search, your patience will pay off in the long run. Most people forget that their house is the biggest, most important investment; not to mention it will be your home for many years and you want to spend your time and money on preps and improvements, NOT repairs ! !

Good luck!!!!

[SCinPNW]

Grand, I am sorry to hear about all of your frustrations. I hope things turn around for you. I have mentioned before that I am looking for some property for us as well, but my frustration is that I cannot even find a realtor who wants to work with me. I talked to one guy who completely understood my objective, but he does not live in the immediate area I am looking in and so he referred me to a woman who clearly knew her stuff but she was "too busy" to help me. Then he referred me to another realtor and I spoke to the guy on the phone but he really did not sound terribly interested, however, we exchanged a couple of emails and I have not heard from him since. He recommended one property that his company was actually representing and when I mentioned that I did not think it was exactly what I wanted and listed out the properties I was interested in he clearly was not interested in helping me. Oh well, I will keep pursuing it--at some point I will find someone who is willing to help me and earn a commission.

Good luck with your property search.

SC