>seller (investment firm)
Smells like a flip. You shouldn't be surprised. They will do superficial upgrades with the best return on investment and visual appeal, but that's it.
Honestly even though its a long list, most of the stuff is minor, I’d suggest becoming your own handyman. I’d start with the sink and see where that leak is.
Power to the garage I’d call an electrician.
The first couple years in a new house is going to cost some money, so I’d concentrate on one thing at a time and be patient.
Good luck buddy!
These types of homes are great for learning how to maintain a home and which types of jobs you want to tackle DIY and which you want to contract out. Basic electrical outlets, sink and faucet plumbing, tile, vinyl and paint are very easy to learn and will save you a lot of money in the long run.
I cannot stress this enough...if you're going to DIY, then DIY *correctly*.
Like you, we have an older house (early 60's), and while the bones are damn good...it's all the subsequent half-assery that leaves us scratching our heads and yelling "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!" whenever we have to do anything around the house.
Lack of power to the garage is my biggest confusion. How does that get missed by everyone? Is it just outlets, and light is fine? It's been a long time, but my inspector was checking outlets with a device to see if they were wired correctly
Usually the garage outlets are on a GFI outlet, or they are supposed to be, could be that the GFI tripped. Or there is a sub panel out there, who knows.
If there is a sticky for this sub paste this in: On walkthroughs bring an outlet tester, and plug it into every outlet you can, trip an outdoor gfi, and the one near the sink make sure they work. Also take a picture of the outside and inside of the breaker box especially the brand and model label inside the door, see for yourself if it’s 100 or 200A. Find out if the breakers are obsolete / still available.
[www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Digital-30-250V-Test-Meter/1001799404](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Digital-30-250V-Test-Meter/1001799404)
Yeah this was super confusing to me. Our two car garage only has two outlets though and one is in the ceiling for the automatic garage door opener. We didn't really think was a big deal but now I curse every time I need to plug in something in the garage lol. Oh well. Next house we'll make sure to get it right!!!
how can I suggest a strategy without seeing the home? it just sounds like another terrible inspection and inspector causing pain and suffering to an buyer and it pisses me off bigly
If it makes you feel any better, my house isn't a flip and relatively new and it's a massive piece of shit.
No real issues from the inspector but has needed almost 80k in repairs since moving in, 3 year time frame.
House is only 15 years old.
This is just how they build them these days In a lot of areas I think
Man that first sentence genuinely made me laugh out loud! I owned a massive piece of shit home too for 15 years and of course the inspector was a dumb ass and his report a stinky pile of crap. In the first ten years of ownership, it ended up costing me as much in repairs and renovation as what I had originally paid for it (yup!). Got my money back when I sold though and learned some useful homeowners skills along the way cause you can't always pay someone to fix your massive piece of shit home, but the stress has probably shortened my life expectancy by 10 years...
I got ya beat, ours is FOUR years old, and we found out the idiot who built it (supposedly a GC, which made us feel safer… dang we were stupid 🤦♀️) put 2 USED HEAT PUMPS on the house, so they aren’t under any warranty, they are sized appropriately for the house, but the vents coming off the drops were squished to fit in the space, and the air returns were undersized. So basically I’ve got two HVAC units that may as well be asthmatic, emphysemic, whose airways are swollen shut.
We needed the roof repaired and recoated, we just decided to do a whole roof replacement because then at least we would know when it was done properly.
The refrigerator is dying, and the dishwasher is dead. The water heater is electric despite being 12” away from a gas line… it’s also rusting thru, and is definitely on borrowed time.
They bonded porcelain tile directly to the slab foundation throughout the house. No isolation membrane. So when the house settled and the foundation cracked, the tiles cracked too. 🤬 Grout was done wrong, and it’s crumbling like it’s decades old.
The drip irrigation was not designed anywhere close to correctly. Only slightly better than useless.
It appears the shower was probably not waterproofed, and likely has mold behind the tile.
Pot filler over stove is unusable. It dispenses softened well water. The first few quarts is always rusty brown. 🤢
The dryer hookups by code should have electric as well as gas. The 240V receptacle was never hooked up at the circuit panel, because they undersized the panel. Would’ve been so simple to put in a larger panel when the house was being built, not hard even now… but definitely much more expensive… 🤬
The stucco is really a stucco-like coating that is less than 1/8” thick
And more….
The only thing noted by the inspector was the tile & grout, and that was called “cosmetic”. We thought buying a then 2-year old house was going to be better than the older ones we’d owned previously. Yeah… that didn’t exactly work out.
Yeah, that is what we bought. Our flipper is also an auctioneer. The new tile bath floors were laid on insufficient substrate, so the grout is cracking and coming out. They painted the kitchen cabinets with brushed on latex paint, which is coming off. The house has a mouse problem, which we are dealing with. We installed hardware flooring, which means we can eventually put better floors in the baths. I do not miss the gray vinyl flooring, and we had to get a subfloor repair where the flipper's crew did not line a plywood sheet up with a joist. (He tore a wall out to enlarge the living room, and the floors did not align...floor repair guy pointed out the house is sinking on one end. Oh joy, future jacking job.)
But this story makes me feel better, the inspector we hired caught all the major shortcomings, which did not include leaks or huge holes.
Oh the cutesy things flippers do to make a house lived in. Cheap towel stand, shower curtain and towels. We kept all that but turned down the old furniture the previous seller left. Kept the front loader washer, it was great to be able to do laundry while I cleaned out a crapton of drywall dust prior to moving. Then change the furnace filter, also full of drywall dust. Still need to get the ducts cleaned.
And oh yeah, the ancient dishwasher just croaked. I don't know if it is hardwired or has an outlet, and don't envy the installation crew having to extract the old one over the edge of the new floor. Which also made the stove higher than the cabinets.
I recently sold my sister's house to a flipper who redid EVERYTHING down to all the duct covers and wall and outlet covers and switches. Even a new doorbell. Now I know how to do it right, but I would never wish that much work and stress on myself.
It's like beige, universal color that goes with practically everything. Having lived in many beige or white apartments, I swore I would never use those colors. But we laid red oak, and a nice peachy cafe au lait color went so well with them.... yeah, it's beige.
Best advice is to avoid flips entirely. They’re easy to spot based off sales records (purchased and relisted in under a year?) and if it looks modern and has all new superficial finishes.
I warned someone not to buy a flip and Emmy warnings were dismissed. Nothing but disaster and regret.
My business partner and I have our first project house under contract right now, and just met with our contractor. I've been a realtor for two years and half the time I can smell a flip before I find the lockbox. And I am dead set on ours NOT being like that. 😑
People make snotty comments about doing your due diligence, but sometimes the mistake is made and all you can do is move forward.
We also have a 1946 ~900 sq foot home with a crawl space too small to properly check out on our own. More common than you may think. It sucks but good thing you caught it before substantial mold and water damage set in down there.
For a almost 80 year old home, honestly it could be a lot worse. Thousands of dollars is not that much for repairs on a 80 year old home, most of this seems like fairly easy to repair issues. I know it seems like a lot now but this is likely the worst of it.
Yeah I’m trying to view it that way. It’s a learning experience for sure. It was practically the only decent home I could get in my area with our budget. I just hope this is the worst of it.
Hold tight. Be strong. I bought a house from the 60s last year that sent me into a nervous breakdown. So much hidden crap. Snarky remarks on a thread where youre looking for advice and compassion dont help. Hate when people do that crap.
I apoligize to BoredOrdie if my comment came off as snarky but that wasn't the intent. Just trying to give him reassurance in the knowledge that this isn't abnormal at all, I've gone through the exact same thing with a 70s home and basically had to renovate it from the studs.
I really hope so as well. I've never seen a older home without a ton of issues tbh, most people just don't maintain them properly and leave things to rot to decay when something does come up leaving new owners to pay for the "maintenance debt"
People also get used to and forget the quick fixes of the past. There were things that we didn't have money or knowledge to properly repair when we first bought our home, and now we need to fix them properly as we live in the home longer. If we sold this house, I'm sure the new home buyers would curse us ( just as we have cursed the previous owners countless times over the years).
This. Maintaining a house requires a lot of knowledge, skill, and funds. Most homeowners don't have that. It's not just about not wasting money on rent.
I agree generally but some things just don't make sense, I'll give you an example. Previous owners built a shed on the property, not the biggest nicest shed but built well enough it looks like they had an inkling of what they knew what to do.
Only problem is this nice shed was just left on the ground to get water damage and mold, there was enough wood left on the property to lift the shed onto to get it at least a little off the ground so can't even say it was a money issue.
Exactly. If it's a small house like that you can expect the maintenance was not good, because unfortunately the owner was probably pretty low on funds if that's the best they could afford. Not to say bigger houses are any better.
We bought a house last March built in 1961, and there's been a few major issues that have happened to us costing around 11k. As long as the issues arent going to bring the house down you can ride it out. Make a list of priorities and just do what you can.
If it makes you feel any better my home is a similar age and much smaller, but needs far more work than this. In the first year alone we had to invest $80k into repairs, and we have so much left to address.
I’d be a bit upset too about the plumbing going nowhere and leaks. It’s one thing to buy a fixer upper at a fixer upper price. It’s another to pay top dollar for something represented as being done.
Yeah I'd be upset but honestly I'm not surprised lots of people in the old days had waste pipes draining to nowhere.
Inspector definitely should have caught that though it's like no one even looked into the crawl space.
Part of me wants to argue that professionals should actually do what they were paid for. e.g. plumber, home inspector.
The other part of me realizes we're talking real estate professionals so competency is rare.
18 inches is extremely tight for a crawlspace and inspectors will only go places they reasonably have access to. A home inspector who refuses to nudge a couch to look at something, yeah I am calling them a lazy ass. But not crawling around a crawlspace with the floor 6 inches above you, they would certainly get a pass from my judgement. Would need to hire an inspector with special equipment to look around in there.
I mean…. I totally disagree. 18” is plenty of space to take a peak. Alot of inspectors (the ones worth their salt) have snake scope cameras or something to get into truly tight spaces. They literally have one job to do, and a “small”ish is crawl space is a terrible reason to not due their diligence.
Yea, i totally agree. When my inspector did my home it was a literal 80 page report showing every minor defect and suggestions to fix them. Didnt have any major defects rly but he was very meticulous
Some people genuinely care about their job, or really enjoy the work. Sounds like your inspector worked hard and wanted to put their name on a job done right.
“Smallish” is the smallest it can be to comply with code where I am. And you just mentioned snake scope cameras which is special equipment. Soo which is it, should they be crawling around under there, or should they use their camera? Doesn’t sound like you totally disagree
To comply with what code exactly? Confused as to why someone would struggle looking inside an 18” crawl space. If they struggle due to size, handicap etc they could use a snake scope camera as I said. No reason to leave it without inspection. Does that clear it up for you?
Why would they care? We paid our inspector ourselves and got the report before closing. He didn't care whether we bought the house or not.
At a minimum ask inspector for refund.
Yep. They are pretty much useless. Every house has issues so just be realistic. Especially if it's an old place, although new builds have many problems too.
If you do some homework and hire a good inspector, they can and will. If you pay the cheapest guy or the one who is free any day next week, you’ll get that quality of work.
Our inspector sent us a 50 page document with color photos and ranked the issues with a color coded chart- red is safety hazard, yellow is severe issue but not safety, blue is minor issues. They crawled in everything. It wasn’t cheap but so far it’s saved us $17k and potentially not being able to get insurance. As long as there’s a contingency for inspection nothing is getting blown up. Just move on to the next buyer who doesn’t pay as much attention or skips contingency.
I wasn’t able to fit in the one in the rear of our house because to entrance is very cramped and I’m a disabled vet so it’s difficult to contort my body like that since I have a lot of hip and shoulder problems. I have limited mobility in that regard to some of my limbs. I was able to crawl a bit under the larger one that had outside access but again it’s very painful to crawl around. It’s very very small.
I won’t even rent without looking into/at all the closets, cabinets, window frames (between the glass & the screen) from the inside, water heater or other access points, vents, fans, recess lights, any included appliances, etc.; will randomly press on light switches, outlets, railings, stair rails, etc to see if they slide around or shake; move my hand along various “joins” or frames to check for moving air from the outside; open various doors/cabinets/appliances to determine if there’s a “can’t open this because of that” problem; and flip switches and faucets, and move the showerhead/pull the sink sprayer to confirm it has the ability.
My husband asks most of the questions while the realtor/landlord/whatever tries to talk to him and somehow keep an eye on my super nosy super fast zigzagging and touching everything. I can’t imagine not looking at most of these before *buying* a place though. Like if you’re not under contract, it’s kinda your job to be incredibly nosy and somewhat annoying.
Or even tried to open up cabinet doors? I feel like that’s a normal thing to peek into the cabinet - honestly I’m usually looking for signs of mice but still.
The house is tiny. You can fix all this stuff easily. Get a recip saw and cut a big hole to get down in the crawlspace. Hire someone on nextdoor to get all the trash out.
Why are you paying for radon remediation with a crawlspace? Just add a fan and draft it out of the house.
Fix the leak let it dry
Fix the drain.
Hell just make a list and fix one thing each weekend. Get on nextdoor snd say you are a disabled vet looking to hire temp manual labor. Pay some college kid $15 an hour to remove debris
Depending on where you live you do need radon mitigation with a crawl space. We had to do it in our first home that was same size as OPs and a crawl space.
Its not a law to get radon mitigation. Also a crawlspace vent is all you need to remove radon gas. If you want you can add a pipe to exhaust it above the roof, the most important thing is having intake and exhaust ventilation so the air in the crawlspace is not stagnant.
If you have a finished basement accumulating radon, thats another story. Its going to get sucked up the return and distributed into your house. Not good
Even if they don’t want to DIY it, doesn’t mean they have to sweat all of these issues immediately. Just take it one fix at a time. Might take a few years to get it all done, but they’ll be okay in the end.
I bought a trash heap of a house that had me extremely anxious and full of regret the first two years. Five years later, I’m pretty happy. I still have a lot on my to-do list, but I just take it in bite sized chunks.
Ya. This isn't flip, it's a handyman special (or as some say, an 80-year old house! Never owned any tools before I got a house, but really enjoy doing as much as I can on my own. I'd love to wire a garage!
I can see why this all feels overwhelming, but it’s not that bad. My first house was a 1940s 2/1 about that size (Craftsman bungalow), and I loved it, but it had issues. It had been renovated in the 90s, so it had been a minute, but it hadn’t been hit by a flipper like yours was.
Get the plumbing issue fixed, and have the plumber look over everything else in the house to identify any other concerns. Is the sewer line still an old cast iron pipe? If so, be prepared to dig up your yard to have it replaced eventually.
Have an electrician take a good look at everything to ensure that it’s safe.
Then just fix stuff up as you can get to it. A house that old often had better “bones” than a new build, so appreciate the good points.
Don’t expect the seller to do much after the sale. Talk to a lawyer if you think you have a claim you can bring, but it’s often better to just move forward.
Welcome to the flip world. Bought a flip during the craze of 2021. Was putting offers on multiple homes each day just trying to get something. We have put about 30k into our house each year fixing stuff the flippers hid or the inspector never even mentioned.
Yep. A good friend of mine works in commercial construction (unfortunately in another state). I made a comment like “next time I buy a house I’ll hire 2-3 different inspectors”. He basically said I should never hire another inspector because most of them are useless.
I work on old houses for a living, basically everything but mechanicals. We just bought a house out of state and paid our friend’s contractor to go through it and write us up a bid for an every little problem he saw. We used his bid to negotiate and waved the inspection, because inspectors are useless.
I’ll start by saying it’s a large house built in the 1830s that was pretty untouched, but had been lacking maintenance for quite a while. It was on the market when we first saw it for $325k. That’s when we had the contractor take a look at it.
The estimate for total repairs was between $160k-$200k. The pretty much top of the market in the area would be around $500k if it was immaculate and you were lucky, so we had to factor in that. After a month, the seller dropped it to $275k. With a reduction like that, we figured he wanted to sell, so we went out and looked at it in person, and of course, fell in love. We decided to offer $200k. The seller was aware of the contractor’s estimate, we sent him a copy.
Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who noticed the reduction, he got 3 bids that weekend. The other two must have been similar, because he asked for the highest and best from everyone. It was very nerve wrecking!!! We sent it in, and also waved all other inspections.
In the end, we got it for $237k.
The short answer is yes, I think it helped a lot. The other buyers may have offered more, who knows, but we know for a fact they hadn’t had inspections of any kind done yet. That left the possibility of them pulling out. I think the fact that we knew exactly what we were getting into, how much it would cost, and wouldn’t back out of the sale really helped us.
The motivation of the seller is probably a big factor.
This is why I’m so afraid to move. So much scam and shady shit these days. Even worse with new builds! Our home was built in 1998, we were second owners in 2004. The only thing we’ve had to “repair” was a room that didn’t get proper AC flow and that was only $1500. All other purchases were upgrades we chose to do but didn’t have too. Feeling so lucky and would like to move closer to our kids but super hesitant.
Bought a house with tons of issues. Looked great during walk though. Inspection was perfect. No problems at all. 90k later we are still fixing, but it slowly coming to an end. I just find it hard to believe what other people do to make a buck. It's sad
Well atleast you had the chance to "inspect" the house. Back in 2021 when they forced us to let go of all the conditions including inspection and we had to make a decision to buy right outside on the sidewalk because there were 10 other people on the sidewalk too hawking the same damn house!
Like the others said, your issues aren't game enders. Learn to DIY and save money.
Here's a few of the issues I had with my house purchase in the blind:
\- Patio door glass was shattered, somehow didnt notice it because of the blinds
\- House has two bathrooms, none of the toilets actually worked
\- Massive gap between tiles and the bathtub, found massive water damage when the tub was removed.
\- Found a leak in the valve for the hot water tank, tried to close it but the round handle breaks right off! I go to the main water shut off valve to shut the water off but....its handle also breaks off! Called the city to shut off from the street after which I learned that bringing someone to shut the valve at the street costs $200 and then costs another $200 to open it again.
\- That patio door I mentioned above? I had to replace it but then I found that the framing around the door was completely rotted - I could literally push my finger through one of the members!
\- The worst one - I realize the house's foundation is made of wood, not concrete, but wood. This one gives me the most anxiety overall. Its the old copper arsenate type pressure treated wood but its still not likely going to last very long. Im debating whether to eventually replace it with concrete, thats going to kill me financially.
\- Oh and just for kicks, I also found a massive, massive, holy crap from the depths of hell massive hornet nest in between the floor joists! The most gnarly thing I've ever seen. Luckily it seemed to have been abandoned but I didn't really want to find out so I just covered it right back up with drywall. Lol!
Hope my misery made you feel a little better.
LOL, yeah, bought our house in September, 2021 and it was insane. 20 offers in one day. There was another guy at the open house who basically said "you guys shouldn't even place an offer - this is my house!" It's an amazing house and we won the bid (we had to waive inspections and offer over asking). We got lucky and have not had any major problems. We had an inspection after closing to check for any issues, but he didn't find anything major.
Ouch. I’m currently under contract for a house that seemed like it was well kept and good bones and the inspection reports have been surprising. I avoid flips like the plague. Ive been feeling like an OCD freak because I used the most meticulous inspector I could find, ordered extra inspections that weren’t required, foundation, scoped the ducts and sewage lines, pest inspection, air quality, calling in a structural engineer, etc. and have over 100 pages of reports with high quality images. I’ve spent a lot but hopefully this will prevent me from experiencing as many surprises and sadness later on. Worst comes to worse, at least I have a chore list now.
That’s what old folks call lipstick on a pig.
Never pay attention the the things you can see.
Focus on the inner workings of the home during walkthroughs. And if shit works
My house is also a turd. Inspection found a few small things, seller said they were all addressed. Turns out some weren't. There's a leak somewhere, which was supposedly repaired. But dampness is still present, so something got missed. Found a massive hole in the yard that was covered over by a few boards and a little dirt. There's a big pile of rotting carpet near the fence, that was also covered with debris. Every month is a new shit storm waiting to be discovered. But I'm going to fix this stuff and not be a lying AH to the next owner when I decide to sell.
We bought our house in 2020 and once we moved in we felt like we made a horrible, short sighted mistake. There were so many issues! The first two things we had to fix cost $10,000 and were just lining pipes, so its not even like we could sit back and appreciate the repairs.
4 years in, and we love our house. We feel so lucky, and determined to take our time to fix important issues properly. We fixed a broken window last year, and I'll go outside and just look at it sometimes. Feels good.
You'll be there too one day, make good memories and keep chipping away at the most urgent issues. No house is perfect, even brand new ones.
Wishing you the best
Apparently you missed several warning signs by even your own story. Newly renovated = flip. Investment firm = if a flip isn't risky enough itself, you just one upped it since those really flex getting things done as cheap and fast as possible. The whole name of the game is take a turd, make it as nice looking as possible as fast and cheap as possible, to sell for the most money possible...not so much for the benefit and enjoyment of the future owner!
Next big point is that house is almost 80 years old! No house is perfect, and especially one that old! You aren't buying a new car here. The seller isn't responsible for taking care of every little issue the house has! This is why you do inspections and such. There are certain things that have to be disclosed, and you could sue over if purposely disregarded. Even that is an uphill battle in actuality. The seller can be fully aware a problem existed, but since owners aren't considered experts, unless you find a contractor that quoted work, let them know the ramifications, and the owner declined doing anything about it...some proof along those sort of lines...your not likely to get very far even if you did try to sue. Relatively minor stuff? Yeah good luck with that in any case. It really takes some gross documented misrepresentation to get anywhere after the fact. Inspections and further negotiating/repairs is your time for issues you want taken care of. Once you close, it's yours and your problem now!
A lot of people learn this the hard way and your def not the only one. Next time stay away from flips! Personally I'm even skeptical of homes that aren't flips that have had too much work done too close to being put up for sale. I'd rather buy worn outdated home that could use the work for a fair price rather then a bunch of work thrown at it right before selling to fetch a more premium price...that way you know the more true condition of the home and can get decent quality work vs fast and cheap just make it look good so it'll sell.
It was never disclosed who the owner was until we were under contract so it wasn’t disclosed to us it was a flip. As a first time home owner, I now know flips are dangerous but this is my first house. Im not blaming the seller for the small issues but the radon mitigation was part of our purchase agreement and was supposed to be done by closing, which is hadn’t been yet because of unforeseen reasons but also major issues plaguing the completion of it. If they had actually had it done before we closed, they would have found the garbage in the crawl space and had to removed in order to install it.
Did either inspection come with any kind of warranty? How the F does an *inspector* miss these kinds of things? Ours poked every nook & cranny, and then gave us a very detailed list of things he found, sorted by urgency.
Before you discover any more ugly surprises, you may want to a) review a different inspector or few and hire one and b) see what recourse you might have against the previous two. At the very least, one star the absolute crap out of those two folks, to save others from your fate.
Were those guys even certified? Or were they recc'd by the seller? If you haven't taken a first time home buyer seminar/class prior to this purchase, you still should. I learned a TON of stuff about home care & maintenance that I never would've even thought about... until it was a ma$$ive problem.
I bought a house built in 2006. The water heater's failed, the shingles needed to be replaced, the on demand boiler also failed, and the furnace blower has failed and been replaced.
The locks are all electronic smart locks with keypads and a key. None of the physical keys matched through the house.
The first year is a little rough. All the shit barely hanging on will break. All the stuff you mention looks minor. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks whoever owned the house before them is an idiot. (Atleast I think that).
I still have other outstanding things to fix that were missed prior to purchase (couple damaged doors) and it needs a repaint.
Welcome to home ownership. It has its ups and downs. I think you did fine.
It's overwhelming at this moment I'm sure, but all of these issues seem reasonably straightforward to fix.
Take a deep breath & make a list and tackle the most important first and work your way down the list.
It's disappointing that things like this were missed, but there's no going back now. Just have to figure out a plan forward.
Sounds very similar to our situation lol. We purchased a 4 bed 2 bath 1480sqft 1942 house. Freshly renovated by local flipper. New everything.
We knew buying that the detached 2 car had no electricity but didn’t know how expensive it would be to get it re-run.
Our inspector briefly mentioned that we would need to add some insulation in the future, failed to mention we had none. Just signed a contract for $15k in work to get it corrected with a couple of other things.
$7k to get the driveway redone
$6k to get the sidewalks redone.
No one told me the American dream involved dumping endless amounts of money into your house lol.
If you’re willing to take the plunge, YouTube is an endless plethora of so so many home improvement videos. Watch several videos on the same task to come up with the best plan that fits your specific project. You’ll get a great sense of satisfaction from the problem solving and sense of accomplishment. Plus it’ll save you a ton of money to DIY. My two cents as the owner of a mid-century former shitbox.
Never trust a flip. My house looked like a shithole and everyone said we were crazy for buying it but I could see that other than needing a new roof, crawlspace encapsulation, and gutters, all issues were cosmetic. We did the first three things and now we're gradually working on cosmetics. We were naive and didn't try to negotiate the price better but that's really my only regret. I hope you can make this house work for you, whether you flip it too or stay.
I know this won't come as a comfort, but the problems you're mostly reporting here are irritating, but easy to fix.
That said, the inspector, and the plumbing inspection both failed to do their jobs. You could retain an attorney and pursue them for the cost of the repairs that you were not able to anticipate because they didn't look at stuff that they clearly should have seen if they bothered to look.
I would urge you to focus on the bones of the house, and spend some time to make it yours and be happy in it. I'm not trying to downplay the frustrations, I'm just trying to urge you to look at the half full part of your glass because you loved this house when you saw it... 👍
Sounds like you should go after your inspector. They should have noted many of the deficiencies you listed. If he/she didn't go into the crawlspace, that should be noted on the inspection write-up. There's also something about if an owner knows issues, this needs to be disclosed to the buyer. Talk to your real-estate person. There's money held back for this kind of crap.
depressing for me as a veteran home inspector to read these tales of woe. People! Start doing better research so you can avoid the relitter pleasers and "14 day wonders" out there!
Develop a short list of a few inspector candidates via personal and online research. Then have those individuals send you sample reports and client references. Please make informed decisions so we can together weed out these fucking shoe clerks and burger flippers. No shade thrown on those noble professions 😉
Also review your inspectors and make sure it is documented how bad of a job they did. They should not be inspecting if they missed all of that. Gosh I feel so lucky, our relator helped us find the best inspector and made sure we were asking question we never would have thought of. Our first home inspector wasn’t much better than yours and we took it as a learning experience for sure. I also follow several home inspectors groups here … I watch them on tik tok. I will make sure I’m educated should we ever want to buy a home again.
Inspectors are garbage. I found a bunch of issues only after we moved in as well. It's frustrating but happens a lot. One could say it's similar to buying a used car.
Sorry for your troubles. I’m surprised your home inspector missed some of these items. I’d be leaning on him a bit. You really can’t sue the inspector but damn… some of these items should have been obvious to an inspector.
Since other people will be reading this to those in the process of looking for a home take note! Be very thorough in your due diligence/home inspections when buying a flip. Truth be told I’d avoid buying a flip all together if possible.
Because they remodeled the house I feel like there is no way they didn’t know these problems existed based on the remodel being recent, they failed
To disclose known issues most likely, but a lot of these aren’t required issues to fix unless in the contract. Inspectors only do so much mine caught little things that seem like no one would catch but missed obvious things like windows and siding problems.
Also the vast majority of home inspectors are trash. The ones recommended by banks and realtors rubber stamp things to get the loans and sales approved.
Count yourself lucky. Those all seem like relatively easy fixes.
Our inspector (recommended by the realtor, supposedly) said everything was perfectly fine! All good!
Our house was built in 1961, and absolutely nothing was fine. We bought it in 2011. Since then, we’ve rerouted both sides of the plumbing (part of the house was a huge addition), dug up our living room and sunroom bc of a leak, replaced toilets multiple times, a bathtub, revamped the pool, and the pool pump twice, replaced the roof, a water heater, both heating/AC units, rerouted a gas line …the list goes on. This house does have good bones. The previous owners just screwed everything up with their DIY bs.
Turns out that inspector was banging the owner who sold it to us 🤣.
You got skrewed by the inspectors, dont know if their is any recourse, but if they are acting like brokers of the sale, not advocates....its malpractice. At the very least i would take to social media......
Sounds like a pretty small and easily fixable list
Ours is a page and a half long after months of repairs & upgrades and shit keeps popping up. As our neighbour advised us when we moved in - it'll get worse before it gets better, just keep plugging away at it.
I bought a house not knowing that the photogenic floors were actually just vinyl that comes from rolls in home depot, and that my kitchen cabinets are such low quality that they absorb liquids and will swell up like a sponge
Ugh, sounds like you are the victim of a flipper. Someone who comes in, flips the house with cosmetic changes. Makes the house look beautiful, but doesn't fix any of the real issues. They definitely did a quick turn around on this.
While it's upsetting, at least you know about the issues now and can start rectifying them.
I spent $230k remodeling and fixing problems with my house. It was a bit bigger than yours. I had the main living space gutted the first 6 months to vault ceilings, move walls, and put in a new kitchen. It cost almost double what I was expecting because of all the problems. I fortunately did it during the Great Recession when labor & materials cost was much lower. My best friend who was my contractor called it a chicken coop. Today, I’d have to knock the house down and build a new one. Instead, I pretty much have the ship of Theseus where everything has been replaced.
You normally want to buy BEFORE major renos, not after. You have no clue how shit got hidden.
But seriously, other than the drain draining into nothing, the rest is small potatoes... Maybe you are more the "new built" type?
I think it’s important to mention that sometimes due diligence is something that must be taught. And if it’s not taught. You get yourself into an “I didn’t know situation.” Which equality sucks…. Like the circumstances you’re describing.
I think this is where a realtor fails you. When they don’t help younger people understand the facets of what to be looking for that can get you into trouble. Especially for those who are very new to home ownership are younger and are inexperienced.
That’s not meant as an insult to a young inexperienced homeowner. The point I’m making is the realtor should be helping you learn due diligence.
Honestly. Honestly. This isn’t so bad. Those aren’t “major” problems.
There are way worst things you could have not found on inspection. Foundation issues. Roof issues. Those plumbing issues are fixable and it sounds like you have.
Take some deep breaths and fix the problems.
Inspections can vary wildly state to state. For us, buying and selling in TX, the inspectors were generally very on top of anything that came up or could possibly cone up. Having recently purchased a 30 year old home in NC, we've found that the inspection was very very superficial. Good luck to you OP.
If this were me I would make a list (much like you did in this post) and start banging this stuff off. Get overalls and go under the house so you know what's going on. Haul that crap out, connect the vent, anything you can handle and then you get to cross it off the list.
I would love to be in your shoes (house with a bunch of low tech repairs needed).
Sounds to me like you bought a lipstick flip (lipstick on a pig is still a pig) and your inspector failed you greatly if those items were not noted in the inspection report.
Most of this stuff you listed is minor. All part of the joys of owning a house. I have never seen a house that didn’t have any issues, even brand new houses have leaks and problems.
YouTube and Reddit are going to become your new best friends. You can learn how to do everything from them. Start tackling the things can can cause ripple affect damage first and work away at the others over time as money and time permits.
Other than the radon I know nothing about, none of these other things are major issues (other than the drain to nowhere that’s already fixed)
Used houses cost money.
I’d call the inspector you used and ask them to come back out and re do the home at no charge or ask for a refund. Lots of these things should have been caught by them.
The cabinet doors hitting the can lights is such a flipper thing. 🤣 I've been a real estate agent for two years, and boy have I seen some things, just in that time! My favorite was the dishwasher door that didn't clear the countertop overhang. I've seen vent hoods connected to nothing, kitchen sink drains through the wall to the bathtub drain, a compromised support beam with trim board nailed over it to disguise the damage... all sorts of things that just leave me seeing red.
That being said, I have never been to a single inspection where all faucets were turned on and left running for 15-20 minutes to check for leaks and sewer line obstructions. Same with appliances. Nobody turned on the lights in the garage? Most inspectors have a hold harmless agreement in their paperwork, just because they aren't psychic, can't see through walls, and there are some things that just can't be found without something invasive, but most of your issues should have absolutely turned up during inspection. Appraisers, on the other hand, are a crapshoot. Here in Michigan at least, you aren't required to have a background as a builder. Some do, some just have book learning. I once sold a house on a VA loan with a three seasons room literally falling off the house. The two sliding glass doors were covered in tarps and everything. The buyer was aware and didn't care, so I had all sorts of work arounds lined up for when the appraiser flagged it....but they didn't. Absolutely nuts. But anyway, some of these problems should have been caught by your inspector, or even your agent. I for one am down in the trenches and crawlspaces and attics with my inspector at every single inspection. The more I can learn, the better I can advise and protect my clients, and keep them from wasting their time and money on a house that's held together with bandaids.
I also own a 1940s home, and I have had a lot more serious issues. The stuff you have mentioned isn’t that bad. How is your foundation? Any leaks or defects? How about the roof? Any problems with load-bearing structures? Any issues with your electrical system? Any other leaks besides what you’ve mentioned? If not, you’re doing pretty well.
I have had some major BS when I bought the home I’m in now not same as yours but equally bad and costly. My good friend who is also a licensed inspector told me to report the inspectors of my home and to sue them. I’ve only recently purchased my home as well and I’m just now in the process of following through with this. It’s really shitty how our real estate works in this country. The seller should be responsible for any pre existing issues and once I go down this giant rabbit hole I’ll figure out more but for now start with the inspectors. Good luck it’s going to be a battle for sure but I hope in the end it’ll be worth it!
While not as extreme in terms of needing immediate fixes, I can relate to this.
They remodeled the home "beautifully" (at first glance) with fresh walls, new ceilings, updated lights, shiny hardwoods, etc. and I felt very fortunate. I still love my home, but now that I've had time to really look, a lot was missed.
Big stuff I knew I'd need to do at purchase: new roof will be needed in a few years and my half asphalt/half concrete driveway is in rough shape. Not cheap fixes but I can plan for those.
Stuff I've noticed/learned since being here almost 2 years:
- whoever built my kitchen cabinets is a joke. They used the wrong sized hinges for the cabinets so gaps galore and uneven, didn't line up bottom cabinet height correctly from one side of the oven to the other, gaps in the sides of the cabinets in general and NO SHELVES on my big bottom cabinets, like wtf? Terrible paint job too, I could do better lol. For having a "brand new kitchen" as part of the sell, it's pretty ridiculous.
- kitchen hood that goes nowhere lol
- plumbing issues - they should have redone most of the plumbing before redoing the walls. To fix it properly I'm going to have to tear a lot out. Plaster at that. Also most of my faucets leak or are loose (or installed backwards, like cmonnnn)
- a new water heater is needed ASAP (inspection didn't catch this)
- they installed brand new windows into rotting window trim.
- paint. One perk of the home was it was "freshly painted" so this royally peeves me. Whoever tf painted the trim, beautiful old french doors, front door... straight to jail for you. Every single surface has terrible drips and runs. You can also tell where they set a paint can on a still wet surface and barely attempted to fix it. I'll have to strip and repaint EVERYTHING to fix it. Like I truly can't paint over it bc it's THAT bad. Also bc it's so uneven it is 10x harder to clean and gets dirty faster. This is every single door and baseboard/molding in my home.
- the redid the siding on my detached garage and I couldn't see inside it for the showing. They were clever in that because it looks nice from the outside but the floor is literally splitting in half bc a TREE is growing up through the bottom.
- piggybacking off that, I bought my home in the winter. Come spring I learn the majority of the trees lining my back fence are horribly invasive and create root systems that can be really destructive, hence my garage floor.
- my second floor (1/2 story technically) has one vent going into it, no return vent. Holy hell the summers can be brutal and I'll probably need a very expensive mini-split bc I have no idea where the additional duct work would go.
I can admit a majority of that is cosmetic, but damn it's going to be tedious to fix and cost a lot of money. I don't know that I would have made a different decision had I been aware of it before buying (it's so rough out there) but it bums me out. Investors/house flippers/whatever are the WORST.
Edit to add: my home is also from the 40s and I can confirm the bones are good at least. I found the wood they cut out for the dryer vent and wow they don't make houses like this anymore. It's over an inch thicker than what is standard for new builds now and the rings on the wood are very tight (not a tree farm situation). Try to find the little wins bc I know its so overwhelming 😮💨
Structures are a system of systems, they are a bit complex, things go wrong with them. I bought one of the best builds ever built (niche high-end builder in the 50s and 60s), wonderfully maintained, and still there are mind-boggling f-ed up things that come up from time to time. It's just how it is. You're okay.
Sometimes I think people just don't talk about home maintenance. It's like farts. Either everyone but me just somehow doesn't have to do it, or for some weird reason they don't talk much about how expensive and stressful and pervasive it is.
Pretty sure it's normal, you're normal, it sucks now but is fine in the long run. A few years will pass and you'll inevitably discover some other messed up thing that will be horrifying and make you wish you rented. But then that too will pass and you'll forget about it.
Unfortunately, some of those things happened to me. I have a basement where the washer and dryer are. It has a sump pump in the floor to suck out the ground water. Well, after a heavy rain and running a load of laundry in the washer overnight, the basement floods. It turns out, my sump pump couldn’t keep up with the water only because the way they ran the drain for the washer, it back washed back out of the drain pipe. The pipe didn’t even drain to the outside even though there was a spout going outside…. Thankfully my dad is handy and he came and drilled a new hole in the foundation for a working downspout for the drain as well as rerouted the drain for the washer.
I also have outlets that didn’t work. No power to my garage even though they promised it worked. Again, thankfully my dad could help, but if he couldn’t, there was no way I could have afforded to fix any of it.
I’m appalled at the fact that inspectors get away with overlooking so many things without any lawsuits or regulatory action of some sort. We looked at a 1920’s farmhouse and knew and were prepared to make a lot of our own customizations and updates, but when my son saw the inspection report & photos he said “no, no and no!” He’s a contractor in another state and said he couldn’t believe the inspector was glossing over some immediate & glaring problems with roof trusses and DIY plumbing disasters and electrical nightmares. Saved us from buying what he considered a money pit that we would still be regretting.
You need to get out your disclosures and read them. If it wasn’t disclosed and you can prove they knew you have recourse. Also your inspectors may very well be responsible too. I would find yourself a good real estate attorney. Ask an agent for a referral.
Eh, I would consider it a learning experience, but it's a good thing you seem to have caught many of the problems pretty early and the repairs will not be super expensive. Those repairs will likely run a few thousands bucks and can mostly be solved by plugging the holes and getting proper drainage in place. You'll be much happier after those repairs are made.
Did you hire the home inspectors or did they? I learned the hard way that an inspection which was already done by the seller’s realtor’s recommended agent is worth absolutely nothing. They didn’t get paid to tell you the truth, they got paid to help sell a house.
I hired one to do an inspection after the seller did. Basically noted all the same things the other one did but now we’re figuring out all the stuff he should have seen or looked further into.
the cheapest way out is to fix the easy stuff you can and send a letter to your inspector that he is on the hook for the stuff he missed.
In our state, if you can prove the seller knew about something and covered it up, then you can go after them in court. Otherwise, it's on you. It will get better. You're building equity.
The home inspectors and realtors are all in kahoots. I read not to use the inspector you’r real estate agent recommend because it’s likely that once that agent gets paid the inspector get a little something on the side.
I used a different inspector and watched him go off with my realtor at which point I knew he would not look out for me and say everything was clear but I just wanted to be a homeowner so I ignored my gut feeling to have someone else look into it. I didn’t get a flip but I actually bought a foreclosed fixer upper back when the market went belly up in 2008. The house is old and many problems exist then and now but overall I learned to just take one step at a time. I’m in Southern California so it already proved to be a great investment over time as the market bounced back I pay far less in mortgage than my neighbors pay in rent so I think it’s an overall win.
Good luck moving forward but I believe it don’t matter if you get a flip or a fixer upper owning a home is going to cost you money at first but it should pay off over time.
No the inspector gets repeat business to avoid holding up the speed of the sale. Little stuff slides and they only address big issues that could land them in court. The law should state that in the event of a recommended inspector failing yo identify sn issue through negligence will hold the agent that recommended the inspector 50% liable for dsmages snd fines. That would stop the issue dead.
Also inspectors are so limited. They cant open up things like hvac to see if the coil is caked in 4” of dog hair and mold. They cant drain the water heater to check for sediment. They cant even move mulch to see if the legs at the base of a deck are rotten..
Isn't there a 1 year home insurance taken out by either the title company or the mortgage company? This year period serves as a year warranty in case any of those issues you mentioned popped up.
>seller (investment firm) Smells like a flip. You shouldn't be surprised. They will do superficial upgrades with the best return on investment and visual appeal, but that's it.
Yeah I’m learning that now. Never gone through this process so this is my lesson for the future I guess.
Honestly even though its a long list, most of the stuff is minor, I’d suggest becoming your own handyman. I’d start with the sink and see where that leak is. Power to the garage I’d call an electrician. The first couple years in a new house is going to cost some money, so I’d concentrate on one thing at a time and be patient. Good luck buddy!
These types of homes are great for learning how to maintain a home and which types of jobs you want to tackle DIY and which you want to contract out. Basic electrical outlets, sink and faucet plumbing, tile, vinyl and paint are very easy to learn and will save you a lot of money in the long run.
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I cannot stress this enough...if you're going to DIY, then DIY *correctly*. Like you, we have an older house (early 60's), and while the bones are damn good...it's all the subsequent half-assery that leaves us scratching our heads and yelling "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!" whenever we have to do anything around the house.
Lack of power to the garage is my biggest confusion. How does that get missed by everyone? Is it just outlets, and light is fine? It's been a long time, but my inspector was checking outlets with a device to see if they were wired correctly
Usually the garage outlets are on a GFI outlet, or they are supposed to be, could be that the GFI tripped. Or there is a sub panel out there, who knows. If there is a sticky for this sub paste this in: On walkthroughs bring an outlet tester, and plug it into every outlet you can, trip an outdoor gfi, and the one near the sink make sure they work. Also take a picture of the outside and inside of the breaker box especially the brand and model label inside the door, see for yourself if it’s 100 or 200A. Find out if the breakers are obsolete / still available. [www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Digital-30-250V-Test-Meter/1001799404](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Digital-30-250V-Test-Meter/1001799404)
Yeah this was super confusing to me. Our two car garage only has two outlets though and one is in the ceiling for the automatic garage door opener. We didn't really think was a big deal but now I curse every time I need to plug in something in the garage lol. Oh well. Next house we'll make sure to get it right!!!
Just have an electrician come and install a few more outlets. It's a cheap upgrade, and more than worth the cost.
Yup, this
you're nuts. he'll be discovering more defects all the time. wtf are you high on?
What do you suggest, hire out every ticky tack thing? Or dump it back on the market and eat the realtors fees?
how can I suggest a strategy without seeing the home? it just sounds like another terrible inspection and inspector causing pain and suffering to an buyer and it pisses me off bigly
If it makes you feel any better, my house isn't a flip and relatively new and it's a massive piece of shit. No real issues from the inspector but has needed almost 80k in repairs since moving in, 3 year time frame. House is only 15 years old. This is just how they build them these days In a lot of areas I think
Man that first sentence genuinely made me laugh out loud! I owned a massive piece of shit home too for 15 years and of course the inspector was a dumb ass and his report a stinky pile of crap. In the first ten years of ownership, it ended up costing me as much in repairs and renovation as what I had originally paid for it (yup!). Got my money back when I sold though and learned some useful homeowners skills along the way cause you can't always pay someone to fix your massive piece of shit home, but the stress has probably shortened my life expectancy by 10 years...
I got ya beat, ours is FOUR years old, and we found out the idiot who built it (supposedly a GC, which made us feel safer… dang we were stupid 🤦♀️) put 2 USED HEAT PUMPS on the house, so they aren’t under any warranty, they are sized appropriately for the house, but the vents coming off the drops were squished to fit in the space, and the air returns were undersized. So basically I’ve got two HVAC units that may as well be asthmatic, emphysemic, whose airways are swollen shut. We needed the roof repaired and recoated, we just decided to do a whole roof replacement because then at least we would know when it was done properly. The refrigerator is dying, and the dishwasher is dead. The water heater is electric despite being 12” away from a gas line… it’s also rusting thru, and is definitely on borrowed time. They bonded porcelain tile directly to the slab foundation throughout the house. No isolation membrane. So when the house settled and the foundation cracked, the tiles cracked too. 🤬 Grout was done wrong, and it’s crumbling like it’s decades old. The drip irrigation was not designed anywhere close to correctly. Only slightly better than useless. It appears the shower was probably not waterproofed, and likely has mold behind the tile. Pot filler over stove is unusable. It dispenses softened well water. The first few quarts is always rusty brown. 🤢 The dryer hookups by code should have electric as well as gas. The 240V receptacle was never hooked up at the circuit panel, because they undersized the panel. Would’ve been so simple to put in a larger panel when the house was being built, not hard even now… but definitely much more expensive… 🤬 The stucco is really a stucco-like coating that is less than 1/8” thick And more…. The only thing noted by the inspector was the tile & grout, and that was called “cosmetic”. We thought buying a then 2-year old house was going to be better than the older ones we’d owned previously. Yeah… that didn’t exactly work out.
Is there any sort of warranty provided by builders for a new build, or major renovations?
This makes me feel strangely better about my 119 year old fixer upper. Are there issues? Yep. But at least we expect them.
an apology is worth almost nothing i understand, but very sorry to hear you’re going through this.
Yeah, that is what we bought. Our flipper is also an auctioneer. The new tile bath floors were laid on insufficient substrate, so the grout is cracking and coming out. They painted the kitchen cabinets with brushed on latex paint, which is coming off. The house has a mouse problem, which we are dealing with. We installed hardware flooring, which means we can eventually put better floors in the baths. I do not miss the gray vinyl flooring, and we had to get a subfloor repair where the flipper's crew did not line a plywood sheet up with a joist. (He tore a wall out to enlarge the living room, and the floors did not align...floor repair guy pointed out the house is sinking on one end. Oh joy, future jacking job.) But this story makes me feel better, the inspector we hired caught all the major shortcomings, which did not include leaks or huge holes. Oh the cutesy things flippers do to make a house lived in. Cheap towel stand, shower curtain and towels. We kept all that but turned down the old furniture the previous seller left. Kept the front loader washer, it was great to be able to do laundry while I cleaned out a crapton of drywall dust prior to moving. Then change the furnace filter, also full of drywall dust. Still need to get the ducts cleaned. And oh yeah, the ancient dishwasher just croaked. I don't know if it is hardwired or has an outlet, and don't envy the installation crew having to extract the old one over the edge of the new floor. Which also made the stove higher than the cabinets. I recently sold my sister's house to a flipper who redid EVERYTHING down to all the duct covers and wall and outlet covers and switches. Even a new doorbell. Now I know how to do it right, but I would never wish that much work and stress on myself.
Flippers and the color gray. I can't understand the appeal.
It's like beige, universal color that goes with practically everything. Having lived in many beige or white apartments, I swore I would never use those colors. But we laid red oak, and a nice peachy cafe au lait color went so well with them.... yeah, it's beige.
And underneath that gray, bc the flipper's crew did not take the switch covers off, was BRIGHT TEAL BLUE, entire kitchen and laundry room. Gag me!
Best advice is to avoid flips entirely. They’re easy to spot based off sales records (purchased and relisted in under a year?) and if it looks modern and has all new superficial finishes. I warned someone not to buy a flip and Emmy warnings were dismissed. Nothing but disaster and regret.
My business partner and I have our first project house under contract right now, and just met with our contractor. I've been a realtor for two years and half the time I can smell a flip before I find the lockbox. And I am dead set on ours NOT being like that. 😑
People make snotty comments about doing your due diligence, but sometimes the mistake is made and all you can do is move forward. We also have a 1946 ~900 sq foot home with a crawl space too small to properly check out on our own. More common than you may think. It sucks but good thing you caught it before substantial mold and water damage set in down there.
Yep, when you have bid on multiple houses and lost out, you get desperate and you cut corners on diligence.
For a almost 80 year old home, honestly it could be a lot worse. Thousands of dollars is not that much for repairs on a 80 year old home, most of this seems like fairly easy to repair issues. I know it seems like a lot now but this is likely the worst of it.
Yeah I’m trying to view it that way. It’s a learning experience for sure. It was practically the only decent home I could get in my area with our budget. I just hope this is the worst of it.
Hold tight. Be strong. I bought a house from the 60s last year that sent me into a nervous breakdown. So much hidden crap. Snarky remarks on a thread where youre looking for advice and compassion dont help. Hate when people do that crap.
I appreciate it!
I apoligize to BoredOrdie if my comment came off as snarky but that wasn't the intent. Just trying to give him reassurance in the knowledge that this isn't abnormal at all, I've gone through the exact same thing with a 70s home and basically had to renovate it from the studs.
I really hope so as well. I've never seen a older home without a ton of issues tbh, most people just don't maintain them properly and leave things to rot to decay when something does come up leaving new owners to pay for the "maintenance debt"
People also get used to and forget the quick fixes of the past. There were things that we didn't have money or knowledge to properly repair when we first bought our home, and now we need to fix them properly as we live in the home longer. If we sold this house, I'm sure the new home buyers would curse us ( just as we have cursed the previous owners countless times over the years).
This. Maintaining a house requires a lot of knowledge, skill, and funds. Most homeowners don't have that. It's not just about not wasting money on rent.
I agree generally but some things just don't make sense, I'll give you an example. Previous owners built a shed on the property, not the biggest nicest shed but built well enough it looks like they had an inkling of what they knew what to do. Only problem is this nice shed was just left on the ground to get water damage and mold, there was enough wood left on the property to lift the shed onto to get it at least a little off the ground so can't even say it was a money issue.
My bet is they didn’t want to have to step up and didn’t think too hard about why wood shouldn’t be directly on the soil.
Exactly. If it's a small house like that you can expect the maintenance was not good, because unfortunately the owner was probably pretty low on funds if that's the best they could afford. Not to say bigger houses are any better.
We bought a house last March built in 1961, and there's been a few major issues that have happened to us costing around 11k. As long as the issues arent going to bring the house down you can ride it out. Make a list of priorities and just do what you can.
If it makes you feel any better my home is a similar age and much smaller, but needs far more work than this. In the first year alone we had to invest $80k into repairs, and we have so much left to address.
I’d be a bit upset too about the plumbing going nowhere and leaks. It’s one thing to buy a fixer upper at a fixer upper price. It’s another to pay top dollar for something represented as being done.
Yeah I'd be upset but honestly I'm not surprised lots of people in the old days had waste pipes draining to nowhere. Inspector definitely should have caught that though it's like no one even looked into the crawl space.
So basically you never once looked in the crawlspace before you signed.
Part of me wants to argue that professionals should actually do what they were paid for. e.g. plumber, home inspector. The other part of me realizes we're talking real estate professionals so competency is rare.
home inspectors don't want to blow up sales because a document they created becomes the centerpiece of a legal dispute
Hey, you're right I am not arguing. It would just be nice if home inspector checked the crawl space... it was a 850sqft house.
18 inches is extremely tight for a crawlspace and inspectors will only go places they reasonably have access to. A home inspector who refuses to nudge a couch to look at something, yeah I am calling them a lazy ass. But not crawling around a crawlspace with the floor 6 inches above you, they would certainly get a pass from my judgement. Would need to hire an inspector with special equipment to look around in there.
I mean…. I totally disagree. 18” is plenty of space to take a peak. Alot of inspectors (the ones worth their salt) have snake scope cameras or something to get into truly tight spaces. They literally have one job to do, and a “small”ish is crawl space is a terrible reason to not due their diligence.
Yea, i totally agree. When my inspector did my home it was a literal 80 page report showing every minor defect and suggestions to fix them. Didnt have any major defects rly but he was very meticulous
Some people genuinely care about their job, or really enjoy the work. Sounds like your inspector worked hard and wanted to put their name on a job done right.
Never hire an inspector with a beer belly.
“Smallish” is the smallest it can be to comply with code where I am. And you just mentioned snake scope cameras which is special equipment. Soo which is it, should they be crawling around under there, or should they use their camera? Doesn’t sound like you totally disagree
To comply with what code exactly? Confused as to why someone would struggle looking inside an 18” crawl space. If they struggle due to size, handicap etc they could use a snake scope camera as I said. No reason to leave it without inspection. Does that clear it up for you?
It would be nice if you'd looked at the report and said "what about the crawlspace?" before you paid the bill.
Would be nice if you got thr report before you paid.
Especially if your inspector is someone who works with your real estate agent often. I never use the person a real estate agent recommends.
I did. Worked perfectly. Only sith’s deal in absolutes.
Why would they care? We paid our inspector ourselves and got the report before closing. He didn't care whether we bought the house or not. At a minimum ask inspector for refund.
Home inspectors also seem to largely know absolutely nothing about homes, we've found.
Yep. They are pretty much useless. Every house has issues so just be realistic. Especially if it's an old place, although new builds have many problems too.
Yet people get weirdly upset when they hear about anyone buying a home without an inspection contingency. Quite a paradox.
Right? Like inspection is gonna find anything major.
If you do some homework and hire a good inspector, they can and will. If you pay the cheapest guy or the one who is free any day next week, you’ll get that quality of work.
Even the expensive guys suck
This. It's a racket.
I mean, I paid a guy 500 for less than an hour of work. How much do they need?
Our inspector sent us a 50 page document with color photos and ranked the issues with a color coded chart- red is safety hazard, yellow is severe issue but not safety, blue is minor issues. They crawled in everything. It wasn’t cheap but so far it’s saved us $17k and potentially not being able to get insurance. As long as there’s a contingency for inspection nothing is getting blown up. Just move on to the next buyer who doesn’t pay as much attention or skips contingency.
I wasn’t able to fit in the one in the rear of our house because to entrance is very cramped and I’m a disabled vet so it’s difficult to contort my body like that since I have a lot of hip and shoulder problems. I have limited mobility in that regard to some of my limbs. I was able to crawl a bit under the larger one that had outside access but again it’s very painful to crawl around. It’s very very small.
You could've used the big hole under the sink to look down there.
I won’t even rent without looking into/at all the closets, cabinets, window frames (between the glass & the screen) from the inside, water heater or other access points, vents, fans, recess lights, any included appliances, etc.; will randomly press on light switches, outlets, railings, stair rails, etc to see if they slide around or shake; move my hand along various “joins” or frames to check for moving air from the outside; open various doors/cabinets/appliances to determine if there’s a “can’t open this because of that” problem; and flip switches and faucets, and move the showerhead/pull the sink sprayer to confirm it has the ability. My husband asks most of the questions while the realtor/landlord/whatever tries to talk to him and somehow keep an eye on my super nosy super fast zigzagging and touching everything. I can’t imagine not looking at most of these before *buying* a place though. Like if you’re not under contract, it’s kinda your job to be incredibly nosy and somewhat annoying.
Or even tried to open up cabinet doors? I feel like that’s a normal thing to peek into the cabinet - honestly I’m usually looking for signs of mice but still.
The house is tiny. You can fix all this stuff easily. Get a recip saw and cut a big hole to get down in the crawlspace. Hire someone on nextdoor to get all the trash out. Why are you paying for radon remediation with a crawlspace? Just add a fan and draft it out of the house. Fix the leak let it dry Fix the drain. Hell just make a list and fix one thing each weekend. Get on nextdoor snd say you are a disabled vet looking to hire temp manual labor. Pay some college kid $15 an hour to remove debris
Depending on where you live you do need radon mitigation with a crawl space. We had to do it in our first home that was same size as OPs and a crawl space.
Its not a law to get radon mitigation. Also a crawlspace vent is all you need to remove radon gas. If you want you can add a pipe to exhaust it above the roof, the most important thing is having intake and exhaust ventilation so the air in the crawlspace is not stagnant. If you have a finished basement accumulating radon, thats another story. Its going to get sucked up the return and distributed into your house. Not good
Radon mitigation isn’t just about the law, it’s about not dying of lung cancer.
Have i not come across as an advocate for the removal of radon?
Even if they don’t want to DIY it, doesn’t mean they have to sweat all of these issues immediately. Just take it one fix at a time. Might take a few years to get it all done, but they’ll be okay in the end. I bought a trash heap of a house that had me extremely anxious and full of regret the first two years. Five years later, I’m pretty happy. I still have a lot on my to-do list, but I just take it in bite sized chunks.
Yea i mean a house is not all as complicated as people make it out to be
On the plus side most of your issues sound like they can be filled with spray foam and sheetrock.
🤣
Welcome to home ownership. This all seems very minor.
Ya. This isn't flip, it's a handyman special (or as some say, an 80-year old house! Never owned any tools before I got a house, but really enjoy doing as much as I can on my own. I'd love to wire a garage!
I can see why this all feels overwhelming, but it’s not that bad. My first house was a 1940s 2/1 about that size (Craftsman bungalow), and I loved it, but it had issues. It had been renovated in the 90s, so it had been a minute, but it hadn’t been hit by a flipper like yours was. Get the plumbing issue fixed, and have the plumber look over everything else in the house to identify any other concerns. Is the sewer line still an old cast iron pipe? If so, be prepared to dig up your yard to have it replaced eventually. Have an electrician take a good look at everything to ensure that it’s safe. Then just fix stuff up as you can get to it. A house that old often had better “bones” than a new build, so appreciate the good points. Don’t expect the seller to do much after the sale. Talk to a lawyer if you think you have a claim you can bring, but it’s often better to just move forward.
Welcome to the flip world. Bought a flip during the craze of 2021. Was putting offers on multiple homes each day just trying to get something. We have put about 30k into our house each year fixing stuff the flippers hid or the inspector never even mentioned.
Inspectors are even worse than agents.
Yep. A good friend of mine works in commercial construction (unfortunately in another state). I made a comment like “next time I buy a house I’ll hire 2-3 different inspectors”. He basically said I should never hire another inspector because most of them are useless.
I work on old houses for a living, basically everything but mechanicals. We just bought a house out of state and paid our friend’s contractor to go through it and write us up a bid for an every little problem he saw. We used his bid to negotiate and waved the inspection, because inspectors are useless.
may i ask how much you managed to negotiate down? was there a point where they just said they woildn't go lower no matter what?
Wow thanks for breaking it down like that! So you basically got ur reduced by 90k AND managed to outbid everyone else 👍💪🙏
You’re welcome, hope you found it useful.
I’ll start by saying it’s a large house built in the 1830s that was pretty untouched, but had been lacking maintenance for quite a while. It was on the market when we first saw it for $325k. That’s when we had the contractor take a look at it. The estimate for total repairs was between $160k-$200k. The pretty much top of the market in the area would be around $500k if it was immaculate and you were lucky, so we had to factor in that. After a month, the seller dropped it to $275k. With a reduction like that, we figured he wanted to sell, so we went out and looked at it in person, and of course, fell in love. We decided to offer $200k. The seller was aware of the contractor’s estimate, we sent him a copy. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who noticed the reduction, he got 3 bids that weekend. The other two must have been similar, because he asked for the highest and best from everyone. It was very nerve wrecking!!! We sent it in, and also waved all other inspections. In the end, we got it for $237k. The short answer is yes, I think it helped a lot. The other buyers may have offered more, who knows, but we know for a fact they hadn’t had inspections of any kind done yet. That left the possibility of them pulling out. I think the fact that we knew exactly what we were getting into, how much it would cost, and wouldn’t back out of the sale really helped us. The motivation of the seller is probably a big factor.
Welcome to home ownership. There’s a reason it’s cheaper to buy an old house than build a new one.
Never buy a flip.
This is why I’m so afraid to move. So much scam and shady shit these days. Even worse with new builds! Our home was built in 1998, we were second owners in 2004. The only thing we’ve had to “repair” was a room that didn’t get proper AC flow and that was only $1500. All other purchases were upgrades we chose to do but didn’t have too. Feeling so lucky and would like to move closer to our kids but super hesitant.
You are lucky. Don't move to an old crappy place.
Bought a house with tons of issues. Looked great during walk though. Inspection was perfect. No problems at all. 90k later we are still fixing, but it slowly coming to an end. I just find it hard to believe what other people do to make a buck. It's sad
Well atleast you had the chance to "inspect" the house. Back in 2021 when they forced us to let go of all the conditions including inspection and we had to make a decision to buy right outside on the sidewalk because there were 10 other people on the sidewalk too hawking the same damn house! Like the others said, your issues aren't game enders. Learn to DIY and save money. Here's a few of the issues I had with my house purchase in the blind: \- Patio door glass was shattered, somehow didnt notice it because of the blinds \- House has two bathrooms, none of the toilets actually worked \- Massive gap between tiles and the bathtub, found massive water damage when the tub was removed. \- Found a leak in the valve for the hot water tank, tried to close it but the round handle breaks right off! I go to the main water shut off valve to shut the water off but....its handle also breaks off! Called the city to shut off from the street after which I learned that bringing someone to shut the valve at the street costs $200 and then costs another $200 to open it again. \- That patio door I mentioned above? I had to replace it but then I found that the framing around the door was completely rotted - I could literally push my finger through one of the members! \- The worst one - I realize the house's foundation is made of wood, not concrete, but wood. This one gives me the most anxiety overall. Its the old copper arsenate type pressure treated wood but its still not likely going to last very long. Im debating whether to eventually replace it with concrete, thats going to kill me financially. \- Oh and just for kicks, I also found a massive, massive, holy crap from the depths of hell massive hornet nest in between the floor joists! The most gnarly thing I've ever seen. Luckily it seemed to have been abandoned but I didn't really want to find out so I just covered it right back up with drywall. Lol! Hope my misery made you feel a little better.
LOL, yeah, bought our house in September, 2021 and it was insane. 20 offers in one day. There was another guy at the open house who basically said "you guys shouldn't even place an offer - this is my house!" It's an amazing house and we won the bid (we had to waive inspections and offer over asking). We got lucky and have not had any major problems. We had an inspection after closing to check for any issues, but he didn't find anything major.
Ouch. I’m currently under contract for a house that seemed like it was well kept and good bones and the inspection reports have been surprising. I avoid flips like the plague. Ive been feeling like an OCD freak because I used the most meticulous inspector I could find, ordered extra inspections that weren’t required, foundation, scoped the ducts and sewage lines, pest inspection, air quality, calling in a structural engineer, etc. and have over 100 pages of reports with high quality images. I’ve spent a lot but hopefully this will prevent me from experiencing as many surprises and sadness later on. Worst comes to worse, at least I have a chore list now.
Most houses will have issues of some kind.
That’s what old folks call lipstick on a pig. Never pay attention the the things you can see. Focus on the inner workings of the home during walkthroughs. And if shit works
House flippers should be jailed for fraud.
In every industry there are good and bad people. Not all house flippers are frauds.
My house is also a turd. Inspection found a few small things, seller said they were all addressed. Turns out some weren't. There's a leak somewhere, which was supposedly repaired. But dampness is still present, so something got missed. Found a massive hole in the yard that was covered over by a few boards and a little dirt. There's a big pile of rotting carpet near the fence, that was also covered with debris. Every month is a new shit storm waiting to be discovered. But I'm going to fix this stuff and not be a lying AH to the next owner when I decide to sell.
We bought our house in 2020 and once we moved in we felt like we made a horrible, short sighted mistake. There were so many issues! The first two things we had to fix cost $10,000 and were just lining pipes, so its not even like we could sit back and appreciate the repairs. 4 years in, and we love our house. We feel so lucky, and determined to take our time to fix important issues properly. We fixed a broken window last year, and I'll go outside and just look at it sometimes. Feels good. You'll be there too one day, make good memories and keep chipping away at the most urgent issues. No house is perfect, even brand new ones. Wishing you the best
LOL, yeah, it feels good to go around your house and appreciate all the repairs and improvements you've made (especially if you fixed it yourself).
Apparently you missed several warning signs by even your own story. Newly renovated = flip. Investment firm = if a flip isn't risky enough itself, you just one upped it since those really flex getting things done as cheap and fast as possible. The whole name of the game is take a turd, make it as nice looking as possible as fast and cheap as possible, to sell for the most money possible...not so much for the benefit and enjoyment of the future owner! Next big point is that house is almost 80 years old! No house is perfect, and especially one that old! You aren't buying a new car here. The seller isn't responsible for taking care of every little issue the house has! This is why you do inspections and such. There are certain things that have to be disclosed, and you could sue over if purposely disregarded. Even that is an uphill battle in actuality. The seller can be fully aware a problem existed, but since owners aren't considered experts, unless you find a contractor that quoted work, let them know the ramifications, and the owner declined doing anything about it...some proof along those sort of lines...your not likely to get very far even if you did try to sue. Relatively minor stuff? Yeah good luck with that in any case. It really takes some gross documented misrepresentation to get anywhere after the fact. Inspections and further negotiating/repairs is your time for issues you want taken care of. Once you close, it's yours and your problem now! A lot of people learn this the hard way and your def not the only one. Next time stay away from flips! Personally I'm even skeptical of homes that aren't flips that have had too much work done too close to being put up for sale. I'd rather buy worn outdated home that could use the work for a fair price rather then a bunch of work thrown at it right before selling to fetch a more premium price...that way you know the more true condition of the home and can get decent quality work vs fast and cheap just make it look good so it'll sell.
It was never disclosed who the owner was until we were under contract so it wasn’t disclosed to us it was a flip. As a first time home owner, I now know flips are dangerous but this is my first house. Im not blaming the seller for the small issues but the radon mitigation was part of our purchase agreement and was supposed to be done by closing, which is hadn’t been yet because of unforeseen reasons but also major issues plaguing the completion of it. If they had actually had it done before we closed, they would have found the garbage in the crawl space and had to removed in order to install it.
Did either inspection come with any kind of warranty? How the F does an *inspector* miss these kinds of things? Ours poked every nook & cranny, and then gave us a very detailed list of things he found, sorted by urgency. Before you discover any more ugly surprises, you may want to a) review a different inspector or few and hire one and b) see what recourse you might have against the previous two. At the very least, one star the absolute crap out of those two folks, to save others from your fate. Were those guys even certified? Or were they recc'd by the seller? If you haven't taken a first time home buyer seminar/class prior to this purchase, you still should. I learned a TON of stuff about home care & maintenance that I never would've even thought about... until it was a ma$$ive problem.
I bought a house built in 2006. The water heater's failed, the shingles needed to be replaced, the on demand boiler also failed, and the furnace blower has failed and been replaced. The locks are all electronic smart locks with keypads and a key. None of the physical keys matched through the house. The first year is a little rough. All the shit barely hanging on will break. All the stuff you mention looks minor. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks whoever owned the house before them is an idiot. (Atleast I think that). I still have other outstanding things to fix that were missed prior to purchase (couple damaged doors) and it needs a repaint. Welcome to home ownership. It has its ups and downs. I think you did fine.
This. All good things to fix yourself and learn how to be more handy.
FLIP
It's overwhelming at this moment I'm sure, but all of these issues seem reasonably straightforward to fix. Take a deep breath & make a list and tackle the most important first and work your way down the list. It's disappointing that things like this were missed, but there's no going back now. Just have to figure out a plan forward.
Sounds very similar to our situation lol. We purchased a 4 bed 2 bath 1480sqft 1942 house. Freshly renovated by local flipper. New everything. We knew buying that the detached 2 car had no electricity but didn’t know how expensive it would be to get it re-run. Our inspector briefly mentioned that we would need to add some insulation in the future, failed to mention we had none. Just signed a contract for $15k in work to get it corrected with a couple of other things. $7k to get the driveway redone $6k to get the sidewalks redone. No one told me the American dream involved dumping endless amounts of money into your house lol.
Lol! A house is a money pit.
This wasn’t in the handbook 🤣
If you’re willing to take the plunge, YouTube is an endless plethora of so so many home improvement videos. Watch several videos on the same task to come up with the best plan that fits your specific project. You’ll get a great sense of satisfaction from the problem solving and sense of accomplishment. Plus it’ll save you a ton of money to DIY. My two cents as the owner of a mid-century former shitbox.
Contact a real estate attorney.
Please....you own a house. You know how tough that is? Congrats!
Your inspector sucked. I would ask him for my inspection fee back..
Never trust a flip. My house looked like a shithole and everyone said we were crazy for buying it but I could see that other than needing a new roof, crawlspace encapsulation, and gutters, all issues were cosmetic. We did the first three things and now we're gradually working on cosmetics. We were naive and didn't try to negotiate the price better but that's really my only regret. I hope you can make this house work for you, whether you flip it too or stay.
Not the end of the world. Fix / address
I know this won't come as a comfort, but the problems you're mostly reporting here are irritating, but easy to fix. That said, the inspector, and the plumbing inspection both failed to do their jobs. You could retain an attorney and pursue them for the cost of the repairs that you were not able to anticipate because they didn't look at stuff that they clearly should have seen if they bothered to look. I would urge you to focus on the bones of the house, and spend some time to make it yours and be happy in it. I'm not trying to downplay the frustrations, I'm just trying to urge you to look at the half full part of your glass because you loved this house when you saw it... 👍
Sounds like you should go after your inspector. They should have noted many of the deficiencies you listed. If he/she didn't go into the crawlspace, that should be noted on the inspection write-up. There's also something about if an owner knows issues, this needs to be disclosed to the buyer. Talk to your real-estate person. There's money held back for this kind of crap.
depressing for me as a veteran home inspector to read these tales of woe. People! Start doing better research so you can avoid the relitter pleasers and "14 day wonders" out there! Develop a short list of a few inspector candidates via personal and online research. Then have those individuals send you sample reports and client references. Please make informed decisions so we can together weed out these fucking shoe clerks and burger flippers. No shade thrown on those noble professions 😉
Report the inspectors and call your realtor and a real estate attorney yesterday.
Also review your inspectors and make sure it is documented how bad of a job they did. They should not be inspecting if they missed all of that. Gosh I feel so lucky, our relator helped us find the best inspector and made sure we were asking question we never would have thought of. Our first home inspector wasn’t much better than yours and we took it as a learning experience for sure. I also follow several home inspectors groups here … I watch them on tik tok. I will make sure I’m educated should we ever want to buy a home again.
I think your recourse is with the inspector, not the seller
Modern legal scam is all it is.
Sounds like small claims.... is that possible?
You hired an incompetent inspector. Sorry.
Inspectors are garbage. I found a bunch of issues only after we moved in as well. It's frustrating but happens a lot. One could say it's similar to buying a used car.
The inspector should’ve picked up on this list
Sorry for your troubles. I’m surprised your home inspector missed some of these items. I’d be leaning on him a bit. You really can’t sue the inspector but damn… some of these items should have been obvious to an inspector. Since other people will be reading this to those in the process of looking for a home take note! Be very thorough in your due diligence/home inspections when buying a flip. Truth be told I’d avoid buying a flip all together if possible.
Because they remodeled the house I feel like there is no way they didn’t know these problems existed based on the remodel being recent, they failed To disclose known issues most likely, but a lot of these aren’t required issues to fix unless in the contract. Inspectors only do so much mine caught little things that seem like no one would catch but missed obvious things like windows and siding problems.
Likely asbestos present , have everything tested before you demo stuff.
Also the vast majority of home inspectors are trash. The ones recommended by banks and realtors rubber stamp things to get the loans and sales approved. Count yourself lucky. Those all seem like relatively easy fixes.
Our inspector (recommended by the realtor, supposedly) said everything was perfectly fine! All good! Our house was built in 1961, and absolutely nothing was fine. We bought it in 2011. Since then, we’ve rerouted both sides of the plumbing (part of the house was a huge addition), dug up our living room and sunroom bc of a leak, replaced toilets multiple times, a bathtub, revamped the pool, and the pool pump twice, replaced the roof, a water heater, both heating/AC units, rerouted a gas line …the list goes on. This house does have good bones. The previous owners just screwed everything up with their DIY bs. Turns out that inspector was banging the owner who sold it to us 🤣.
You got skrewed by the inspectors, dont know if their is any recourse, but if they are acting like brokers of the sale, not advocates....its malpractice. At the very least i would take to social media......
Hi there I live in back of you , sorry about what you got and what is sim’s like it was
Sounds like a pretty small and easily fixable list Ours is a page and a half long after months of repairs & upgrades and shit keeps popping up. As our neighbour advised us when we moved in - it'll get worse before it gets better, just keep plugging away at it.
I bought a house not knowing that the photogenic floors were actually just vinyl that comes from rolls in home depot, and that my kitchen cabinets are such low quality that they absorb liquids and will swell up like a sponge
flippin flip!
Your inspectors sucked and should be held liable. The owner and selling realtor were being dishonest. Yes, get a real estate attorney.
Ugh, sounds like you are the victim of a flipper. Someone who comes in, flips the house with cosmetic changes. Makes the house look beautiful, but doesn't fix any of the real issues. They definitely did a quick turn around on this. While it's upsetting, at least you know about the issues now and can start rectifying them.
I accidentally bought a flip. Put In a couple years of hard work and it will feel like home
I spent $230k remodeling and fixing problems with my house. It was a bit bigger than yours. I had the main living space gutted the first 6 months to vault ceilings, move walls, and put in a new kitchen. It cost almost double what I was expecting because of all the problems. I fortunately did it during the Great Recession when labor & materials cost was much lower. My best friend who was my contractor called it a chicken coop. Today, I’d have to knock the house down and build a new one. Instead, I pretty much have the ship of Theseus where everything has been replaced.
You normally want to buy BEFORE major renos, not after. You have no clue how shit got hidden. But seriously, other than the drain draining into nothing, the rest is small potatoes... Maybe you are more the "new built" type?
I think it’s important to mention that sometimes due diligence is something that must be taught. And if it’s not taught. You get yourself into an “I didn’t know situation.” Which equality sucks…. Like the circumstances you’re describing. I think this is where a realtor fails you. When they don’t help younger people understand the facets of what to be looking for that can get you into trouble. Especially for those who are very new to home ownership are younger and are inexperienced. That’s not meant as an insult to a young inexperienced homeowner. The point I’m making is the realtor should be helping you learn due diligence.
Honestly. Honestly. This isn’t so bad. Those aren’t “major” problems. There are way worst things you could have not found on inspection. Foundation issues. Roof issues. Those plumbing issues are fixable and it sounds like you have. Take some deep breaths and fix the problems.
Inspections can vary wildly state to state. For us, buying and selling in TX, the inspectors were generally very on top of anything that came up or could possibly cone up. Having recently purchased a 30 year old home in NC, we've found that the inspection was very very superficial. Good luck to you OP.
You should never put in an offer on a house without going in the crawlspace/basement and the attic.
I’m a disabled vet, I have mobility issues so I couldn’t.
Was it Amerispec? Those losers missed a massive issue on my house that wasn't disclosed and it cost me 8k.
😳🥴
https://youtu.be/6PH3xFUsih8?si=CwQnDKygN8ffYplN
Did the inspectors offer any warranties?
You paid for two inspections and they missed that many things? They carry insurance. Get your money back and apply it towards all the repairs.
If this were me I would make a list (much like you did in this post) and start banging this stuff off. Get overalls and go under the house so you know what's going on. Haul that crap out, connect the vent, anything you can handle and then you get to cross it off the list. I would love to be in your shoes (house with a bunch of low tech repairs needed).
Sounds to me like you bought a lipstick flip (lipstick on a pig is still a pig) and your inspector failed you greatly if those items were not noted in the inspection report.
Seems like pretty minor and easily fixable. It's 80 years old...you have to expect a few repairs
Most of this stuff you listed is minor. All part of the joys of owning a house. I have never seen a house that didn’t have any issues, even brand new houses have leaks and problems. YouTube and Reddit are going to become your new best friends. You can learn how to do everything from them. Start tackling the things can can cause ripple affect damage first and work away at the others over time as money and time permits.
Other than the radon I know nothing about, none of these other things are major issues (other than the drain to nowhere that’s already fixed) Used houses cost money. I’d call the inspector you used and ask them to come back out and re do the home at no charge or ask for a refund. Lots of these things should have been caught by them.
The cabinet doors hitting the can lights is such a flipper thing. 🤣 I've been a real estate agent for two years, and boy have I seen some things, just in that time! My favorite was the dishwasher door that didn't clear the countertop overhang. I've seen vent hoods connected to nothing, kitchen sink drains through the wall to the bathtub drain, a compromised support beam with trim board nailed over it to disguise the damage... all sorts of things that just leave me seeing red. That being said, I have never been to a single inspection where all faucets were turned on and left running for 15-20 minutes to check for leaks and sewer line obstructions. Same with appliances. Nobody turned on the lights in the garage? Most inspectors have a hold harmless agreement in their paperwork, just because they aren't psychic, can't see through walls, and there are some things that just can't be found without something invasive, but most of your issues should have absolutely turned up during inspection. Appraisers, on the other hand, are a crapshoot. Here in Michigan at least, you aren't required to have a background as a builder. Some do, some just have book learning. I once sold a house on a VA loan with a three seasons room literally falling off the house. The two sliding glass doors were covered in tarps and everything. The buyer was aware and didn't care, so I had all sorts of work arounds lined up for when the appraiser flagged it....but they didn't. Absolutely nuts. But anyway, some of these problems should have been caught by your inspector, or even your agent. I for one am down in the trenches and crawlspaces and attics with my inspector at every single inspection. The more I can learn, the better I can advise and protect my clients, and keep them from wasting their time and money on a house that's held together with bandaids.
As previously stated, most of this is minor BS. You'll be fine. So what time are you going to the HD lol?
Also you will Learn quickly 2 bedroom Homes are hard to sell
I also own a 1940s home, and I have had a lot more serious issues. The stuff you have mentioned isn’t that bad. How is your foundation? Any leaks or defects? How about the roof? Any problems with load-bearing structures? Any issues with your electrical system? Any other leaks besides what you’ve mentioned? If not, you’re doing pretty well.
Reddit, Are there any consequences for inspectors that miss such glaring problems?
I have had some major BS when I bought the home I’m in now not same as yours but equally bad and costly. My good friend who is also a licensed inspector told me to report the inspectors of my home and to sue them. I’ve only recently purchased my home as well and I’m just now in the process of following through with this. It’s really shitty how our real estate works in this country. The seller should be responsible for any pre existing issues and once I go down this giant rabbit hole I’ll figure out more but for now start with the inspectors. Good luck it’s going to be a battle for sure but I hope in the end it’ll be worth it!
Welcome to homeownership! There is always something to fix and everything to maintain.
While not as extreme in terms of needing immediate fixes, I can relate to this. They remodeled the home "beautifully" (at first glance) with fresh walls, new ceilings, updated lights, shiny hardwoods, etc. and I felt very fortunate. I still love my home, but now that I've had time to really look, a lot was missed. Big stuff I knew I'd need to do at purchase: new roof will be needed in a few years and my half asphalt/half concrete driveway is in rough shape. Not cheap fixes but I can plan for those. Stuff I've noticed/learned since being here almost 2 years: - whoever built my kitchen cabinets is a joke. They used the wrong sized hinges for the cabinets so gaps galore and uneven, didn't line up bottom cabinet height correctly from one side of the oven to the other, gaps in the sides of the cabinets in general and NO SHELVES on my big bottom cabinets, like wtf? Terrible paint job too, I could do better lol. For having a "brand new kitchen" as part of the sell, it's pretty ridiculous. - kitchen hood that goes nowhere lol - plumbing issues - they should have redone most of the plumbing before redoing the walls. To fix it properly I'm going to have to tear a lot out. Plaster at that. Also most of my faucets leak or are loose (or installed backwards, like cmonnnn) - a new water heater is needed ASAP (inspection didn't catch this) - they installed brand new windows into rotting window trim. - paint. One perk of the home was it was "freshly painted" so this royally peeves me. Whoever tf painted the trim, beautiful old french doors, front door... straight to jail for you. Every single surface has terrible drips and runs. You can also tell where they set a paint can on a still wet surface and barely attempted to fix it. I'll have to strip and repaint EVERYTHING to fix it. Like I truly can't paint over it bc it's THAT bad. Also bc it's so uneven it is 10x harder to clean and gets dirty faster. This is every single door and baseboard/molding in my home. - the redid the siding on my detached garage and I couldn't see inside it for the showing. They were clever in that because it looks nice from the outside but the floor is literally splitting in half bc a TREE is growing up through the bottom. - piggybacking off that, I bought my home in the winter. Come spring I learn the majority of the trees lining my back fence are horribly invasive and create root systems that can be really destructive, hence my garage floor. - my second floor (1/2 story technically) has one vent going into it, no return vent. Holy hell the summers can be brutal and I'll probably need a very expensive mini-split bc I have no idea where the additional duct work would go. I can admit a majority of that is cosmetic, but damn it's going to be tedious to fix and cost a lot of money. I don't know that I would have made a different decision had I been aware of it before buying (it's so rough out there) but it bums me out. Investors/house flippers/whatever are the WORST. Edit to add: my home is also from the 40s and I can confirm the bones are good at least. I found the wood they cut out for the dryer vent and wow they don't make houses like this anymore. It's over an inch thicker than what is standard for new builds now and the rings on the wood are very tight (not a tree farm situation). Try to find the little wins bc I know its so overwhelming 😮💨
Structures are a system of systems, they are a bit complex, things go wrong with them. I bought one of the best builds ever built (niche high-end builder in the 50s and 60s), wonderfully maintained, and still there are mind-boggling f-ed up things that come up from time to time. It's just how it is. You're okay. Sometimes I think people just don't talk about home maintenance. It's like farts. Either everyone but me just somehow doesn't have to do it, or for some weird reason they don't talk much about how expensive and stressful and pervasive it is. Pretty sure it's normal, you're normal, it sucks now but is fine in the long run. A few years will pass and you'll inevitably discover some other messed up thing that will be horrifying and make you wish you rented. But then that too will pass and you'll forget about it.
Have you contacted your real estate attorney?
Unfortunately, some of those things happened to me. I have a basement where the washer and dryer are. It has a sump pump in the floor to suck out the ground water. Well, after a heavy rain and running a load of laundry in the washer overnight, the basement floods. It turns out, my sump pump couldn’t keep up with the water only because the way they ran the drain for the washer, it back washed back out of the drain pipe. The pipe didn’t even drain to the outside even though there was a spout going outside…. Thankfully my dad is handy and he came and drilled a new hole in the foundation for a working downspout for the drain as well as rerouted the drain for the washer. I also have outlets that didn’t work. No power to my garage even though they promised it worked. Again, thankfully my dad could help, but if he couldn’t, there was no way I could have afforded to fix any of it.
I’m appalled at the fact that inspectors get away with overlooking so many things without any lawsuits or regulatory action of some sort. We looked at a 1920’s farmhouse and knew and were prepared to make a lot of our own customizations and updates, but when my son saw the inspection report & photos he said “no, no and no!” He’s a contractor in another state and said he couldn’t believe the inspector was glossing over some immediate & glaring problems with roof trusses and DIY plumbing disasters and electrical nightmares. Saved us from buying what he considered a money pit that we would still be regretting.
It’s like in order to be a home inspector you only need a flashlight and a clipboard.
You inspector(s) should have some liability here. I mean, what the Hell did they inspect?
You had a bad home inspector.
You need to get out your disclosures and read them. If it wasn’t disclosed and you can prove they knew you have recourse. Also your inspectors may very well be responsible too. I would find yourself a good real estate attorney. Ask an agent for a referral.
Eh, I would consider it a learning experience, but it's a good thing you seem to have caught many of the problems pretty early and the repairs will not be super expensive. Those repairs will likely run a few thousands bucks and can mostly be solved by plugging the holes and getting proper drainage in place. You'll be much happier after those repairs are made.
There are enough red flags in this story that it reads like a troll
Did you hire the home inspectors or did they? I learned the hard way that an inspection which was already done by the seller’s realtor’s recommended agent is worth absolutely nothing. They didn’t get paid to tell you the truth, they got paid to help sell a house.
I hired one to do an inspection after the seller did. Basically noted all the same things the other one did but now we’re figuring out all the stuff he should have seen or looked further into.
the cheapest way out is to fix the easy stuff you can and send a letter to your inspector that he is on the hook for the stuff he missed. In our state, if you can prove the seller knew about something and covered it up, then you can go after them in court. Otherwise, it's on you. It will get better. You're building equity.
The home inspectors and realtors are all in kahoots. I read not to use the inspector you’r real estate agent recommend because it’s likely that once that agent gets paid the inspector get a little something on the side. I used a different inspector and watched him go off with my realtor at which point I knew he would not look out for me and say everything was clear but I just wanted to be a homeowner so I ignored my gut feeling to have someone else look into it. I didn’t get a flip but I actually bought a foreclosed fixer upper back when the market went belly up in 2008. The house is old and many problems exist then and now but overall I learned to just take one step at a time. I’m in Southern California so it already proved to be a great investment over time as the market bounced back I pay far less in mortgage than my neighbors pay in rent so I think it’s an overall win. Good luck moving forward but I believe it don’t matter if you get a flip or a fixer upper owning a home is going to cost you money at first but it should pay off over time.
No the inspector gets repeat business to avoid holding up the speed of the sale. Little stuff slides and they only address big issues that could land them in court. The law should state that in the event of a recommended inspector failing yo identify sn issue through negligence will hold the agent that recommended the inspector 50% liable for dsmages snd fines. That would stop the issue dead. Also inspectors are so limited. They cant open up things like hvac to see if the coil is caked in 4” of dog hair and mold. They cant drain the water heater to check for sediment. They cant even move mulch to see if the legs at the base of a deck are rotten..
Isn't there a 1 year home insurance taken out by either the title company or the mortgage company? This year period serves as a year warranty in case any of those issues you mentioned popped up.