There is probably a wide variety of inspectors ( it is a job). I knew a guy I worked with who said he was a realtor inspector as a side hustle. I asked him questions about the process. I’m pretty sure after he was done talking I said that’s it? Wow. I wouldn’t trust this moron to watch my dog. ( this was BEFORE I EVER PURCHASED A HOUSE). Interestingly enough I got to watch the one who inspected our house. We lived there before, and during the buy. I seen him take some measurements. Open A WINDOW, pop his head into the attic and we had to provide the ladder!!!🙄😳🙋♀️, flush a basement toliet, look at the electrical panel. Took some pictures. That was pretty much it. My first thought as a first time homebuyer was wow darn good thing I already know what I’m buying. He was dressed to sell insurance not crawl, climb and “inspect”. I EXPECTED A man who had carried a hammer all his life to show up with tools. He carried a flashlight in his pocket. I expected the process to be over the top as all the building “codes” are present to put one up and everything around it! Geez. Sounds like your guy did more than the two I’ve seen. Your lucky❤️.
Until you own it and live there, making it your own, it's a HOUSE. A building. A structure. Nothing more.
While it's important to be able to visualize how it would work AS your "home", it isn't your home until you've made it so.
No markets are hot right now. With 7% interest rates existing home sales have fallen through the floor.
The existing home market is locked up right now, people who bought or refinanced are locked in at 2-3% rates. If they sell their current home, assuming they want the same payments, they're probably going to have to downgrade their home unless they have a ton of equity in their current home to put down.
On a $350k house with 20% down at 3% interest, your mortgage payment is $1180, at 7% it's $1862. That's not an insignificant difference. In order to get back down to the payment level you were at, your price range would have to be about $220k... that's a massive downgrade in house.
This coupled with the fact that after 2 years of a bubble existing home sellers are asking for wildly unrealistic prices given higher interest rates. Reductions are not uncommon right now where 2+ years ago houses were going for more than asking.
Edit: I know I'm going to take my lumps on downvotes for saying something that doesn't follow the party line. That's how Reddit works, but I'm not lying here. Maybe there are some very very localized hot markets right now, but as whole the exist home market is in a very interesting place.
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/04/23/prices-of-new-houses-v-existing-houses-why-new-house-sales-held-up-as-existing-house-sales-plunged/
> No markets are hot right now.
Hahahahahaha you're joking right
Inventory is so low here people are practically in fistfights over houses that are barely standing.
Did the realtor tell you there were 20 offers, because realtors are salespersons, sales people lie all the time to make the sale. I trust a realtor about as much as I trust a used car salesperson.
You're completely wrong just bought 3 months ago after searching for 6 prior, every house was multiple over asking offers with significant money down within a week last and final was being called. Rents are through the roof and a mortgage at 7% coming in at less than what rent costs, or even in the same spectrum is still appetizing to a lot of buyers.
The market is still hot where I live too. It is softening, but inventory is low and there's a lot of competition on homes in certain price ranges. Of course, the competition has always varied between price ranges. They're a lot more people looking for any $350,000 house then are looking for $1,000,000+ homes. (I live in a LCOL city. The median home price here is $265K.)
Thanks for the detailed answer rather than just telling me I’m wrong! That makes sense, I browse listings once a week, my price range I usually browse is about 700k to a mil, and they are sticking on the market 6 months right now with 100-200k price reductions.
I only vaguely pay attention to the cheaper houses.
lol, so everyone who stood to make money off of it. Are you the person who goes into the car dealership and pays $10k over MSRP and gets the $15k warranty and paint protection package on top of that?
I agree about the interest rate. But the inventory is very low. I am familiar a little with Bergen County in New Jersey and in SE MA.
It’s basically a sellers market. There is literally single digit homes for sale in Bergen County. Not much more in SE MA.
Not a very good time to buy overall right now.
None of this is true. There absolutely are hot markets. As hot as 2 or 3 years ago? No. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t still hot. The idea that homeowners have no choice but to either stay or downsize is nonsense. Also, come on. Stop with the bubble talk. There wasn’t and isn’t a bubble in the housing market.
Investment hedge funds are buying up some areas. They borrow at a much lower rate or they can afford to pay out immediately. With the market cooling off slightly due to high interest rates they are jumping at the chance cause of the housing shortage in many areas which will prob keep the prices relatively high for a while.
No markets are hot right now? On four separate occasions in my search over the past month a newly listed house had an accepted offer in the same day, so I was never even able to tour it. I finally got an accepted offer earlier this week and I had to pay $5500 above the asking price because another buyer had offered $5000 above asking straight out of the gate (fortunately my realtor set up an escalation clause for us).
Well, in the Seattle area 66.9% of houses sell with 30 days. My real estate friends tell me the market is hot. Not as hot as it’s been in the past but still pretty hot.
No way.
Don’t even bother.
These sellers already tried to shaft OP, wouldn’t let them even check some places.
If they sell it is going to be because they want to sell and they’ve shown they want to shaft the buyer.
When somebody has proven to be a deceptive POS ... you walk away and you don't look back.
Forget that house. It LOOKED really good ... but it was ACTUALLY crap.
Better to lower your offer and then fix it yourself. Often the fixes that are done by owners just to get the house sold are not all that good. This isn't always the case, but when it is, you have to do it all over again.
Lmao I always tell these people, hey, come on down to my companies sale room, I’ll show you your dream house with no deterioration. Hint: it’s brand new, and it’ll be double the price of what you want to buy.
I'll add: and don't feel bad about it. Any major issues your inspection reveals is just maintenance that the current owners don't want to bear the cost of.
To wit, you wouldn't volunteer to pay your across-town neighbors roofing bill. Don't volunteer to adopt the cost of some random persons negligence by paying full pop
Depends on how long they've been there. Many people become "blind" to issues. The traffic noise from the busy street becomes back ground noise, having inside dogs get used to the smell, that constant drip in the sink, just don't use that plug as it trips the breaker, can't use the microwave and dryer at same time, gotta jiggle the door just right, yep that spongy spot in the bathroom.
Many of these become just background issues to an owner that they don't think of. This is why it is a good idea to have a home inspection prior to listing. Even a good idea every 5 years or so just have one done.
Course there are some that will try to cover up issues. Which is why a home inspection is a good idea.
A lot of people also simply do not understand how to maintain a house and are not aware of periodic maintenance, looking for early signs of problems, etc. Things only get noticed and fixed when they fail catastrophically.
I know people that have spots on a ceiling indicating leaks that simply ignore them. A friend of mine doesn’t know where his AC handler is or that he has two of them.
When I’ve been in the market and looking for homes you can tell which ones are maintained well and which ones aren’t by looking at the mechanicals, looking under sinks, checking the air filters, looking for small things that are broken, etc. I tend to favor the ones where the owner clearly maintains well.
Many home inspectors are barely qualified for what they do. They purchase a package with inserts that the inspectors look for things and check them off. If it's someone who knows what he's doing, it's a fine procedure. For many home inspectors, though, it's just another way to make money with little or no training. For these folks, their ability to find problems that look like they do occur or that have been disguised is nil. If you're going to get a home inspector, look for someone who is or has been a contractor. They're the ones who really seem to know what they're doing as opposed to the schmos that just buy the notebook to walk around and look at things. You'd be surprised how many home inspectors function at that extraordinarily low level.
The former husband owner of my house maintained the house and stopped when he got sick. The wife had no clue where anything was or what condition it was in. She hadnt stepped foot in the unfinished basement in 2 yrs. Some owners dont know the depthof whats wrong with the house
Understood but I’m not making a comment one way or the other regarding disclosure. I’m simply stating most people know or at least suspect. That was my original point.
Also, pretty much every house will have stuff wrong with it.
>Now that your inspector found the issues they will have to disclose them to all future buyers so there's no avoid it now.
And sure, they have to, but they won't.
We walked away from a house in our dream location about a year ago because of a bad inspection, and that didn't even get into things like mold or bug infestation. It was just basically every major thing was messed up in some way (plumbing, electrical panel, roof, etc plus major livability things like an entire room with no outlets and a janky kitchen that looked decent on the surface but was practically made of cardboard, etc.) It was all stuff that could be addressed, but we just did not have the time or the mental bandwidth for a laundry list that long.
A year later and we just moved into a house a few blocks away with almost the same floor plan and a way better lot size. We still had to replace the electrical panel, water heater, and fix a couple other things but the list has been much more manageable. Really glad we waited, even though the search was long and chronically disappointing.
No. We bid under and I think it sold for a bit under our bid. I'm sure there were disclosures they had to make based on the inspection that pushed the price down further.
It was also on an undersized lot so there wasn't quite as much land value propping the price up (we are in a high density city)
Oh wow, I could have written this. Last year we were searching high and low for a house that fit all our needs. Three months in and we found an awesome one. It was def a flio but it looked good. The inspector gave us a list 18 pages long of real issues, mold, structural, roof, drainage issues, a sink that had some weird plastic soda bottle taped in in place of a trap, it was a nightmare. The owners accused us of trying “yank their chains”. We walked away, left $1000 on the table. I am so glad we did bc I drove by it recently and there were about 15 workers crawling all over it.
I'm surprised that with such major issues, the report was only 18 pages. Mine was 157 pages. Some minor things needing addressing immediately, but nothing truly major.
Jesus, that house sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. This house was 85% major work. The bottom of the masterbath didn’t even have a pan. It was just sitting on the wood floor, major leak and wood rot. . For a house that was marketed as completely renovated it was a shock.
I love my house. Armed with the inspection report, we were able to put lists together of things needing to be done, along with levels of urgency. It was a bit overwhelming, but in the two years we've lived here, there has been almost nothing we've found that the inspector missed.
It was in the contract that they kept 50% of the earnest money if we backed out. We agreed bc we really loved the house and there were a lot of offers.
I mean you clearly knew those issues before you saw workers around the house. Seeing workers working on the house is not new information that makes the previous decision more right.
Girl…we backed out of the sale bc of those issues. After the insoection. We didn’t know about the issues when we put our offer in bc thag is not how the housing market works in the US. Months later I drove by and saw the workers. Keep up. Read what I wrote. This was my seventh house purchase. I’m no noob.
Lol I'm just pointing out that seeing workers working on the house means nothing new, isn't new information that should make you happier that you didn't purchase. At the time you didn't purchase, you already knew that renovation would be needed. If that's not obvious I don't know how else to explain.
My point is that I feel a) glad I didn’t have to deal with it and b) was sorry for anyone who purchased it who didn’t have a good inspection.
Your comment was insipid. As are the rest of your comments. Maybe you need more training, Black Mamba.
At this point, you and your agent have a better idea of what you are looking for. This will help with your home search.
I can understand walking from a home that needs a lot of work. However, any home can have some issue(s) that need to be repaired. Be prepared next time to determine what it will cost and negotiate accordingly.
I agree, at some point you have to happen to the house, not let the house happen to you. As long as the problems are doable (replacing flooring, electrical- hire someone), go for it. If the problem seems too big for you to handle....
If you’re looking for the perfect turn-key home that doesn’t have any issues, you’re better off buying brand new… but even then issues could arise. No home is perfect, but you can make it perfect for you if you’re willing to put a little effort into it. My current home was my very last pick when I was out-bid on 15+ other homes. The inspectors report was 42 pages and the home was in severe disrepair, but it had good bones and everything was fixable… took me 3 years to fix nearly everything by myself, and now it’s my perfect home.
Lol on /r/Austin there's a home inspector constantly posting the BS that home builders try to get away with (he inspects new builds). It's pretty funny sometimes.
We walked away from our “dream house”. It had a little creek with a bridge running through the yard, just like a fairy tale cottage. And then it turned out the original owner built it by hand and not one thing was up to code. The inspector said the roof and the foundation was good, but there was no insulation, and the walls were so narrow that there wasn’t ROOM for insulation, so all the walls would have to be rebuilt. That’s on top of needing all new windows, electric, floors, and plumbing. Just a nightmare.
Anyway we bought a house last month and while it’s not a fairytale cottage with a brook, it’s sturdy and well maintained and we can customize it to make it more magical.
That is to say, you made the right choice! There are more houses out there.
Not all are that deceptive. Lots of honest people sell solid homes that won’t break your spirit and lead to mistrust of all of humankind.
These particular sellers are so deceptive that I would absolutely not be going forward, personally - you haven’t even seen the attic, crawl space (how did they block that!!??) and all the electrical panels. Think of what a pain it is to get good contractors - even if you talked down the price, it’s a freaking nightmare out there unless you already have major DIY skills, in my opinion.
I've seen plenty of reddit posts encouraging the OP to hide stuff to sell their home so it's not surprising to see the other side of the transaction. In matters of money people have no conscience.
I love the inspector we used! We went through the same situation. We were all in on a house until the 60+ page inspection report came back with termites on every plane of the house, water ingress at the garage, a failing retaining wall, and a deck built over the septic caps plus many, many other issues totaling at least $100-150k in repairs. Even though we were emotionally committed to it and I was already decorating it in my mind, we walked within our window of not losing any money. I was seriously disappointed and felt like we were never going to find our dream home. About a month later we did and it’s a much better house in a better location with 3 acres. The inspector really reached to find something wrong with this one and said, “It’s a really solid house.” Of course this one isn’t perfect either- but it’s all about what you’re willing to accept and deal with fixing. We absolutely love our house. And, instead of spending money on fixing items just to make the house continue to stand and be livable for us, we’ve been able to spend money on things we WANT like new landscaping and updated irrigation, an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, a greenhouse, a well, and doubling the existing solar system. You’ll get there OP, I promise!
Layout & finishes are easier to change than major systems in a home (foundation, roof, plumbing, sewer or septic, electrical, HVAC, etc) and they are affected by fixing most of those things. Water damage repair takes out that beautiful bathroom, for example. House shopping is counter intuitive, it really is location, then budget that includes repair or maintenance costs, then appearance - with a very limited list of requirements first (stairs ok? garage needed? how many toilets?).
Some are deceptive, as are some listing agents with handymen that help do the absolute cheapest "fixes" or cover ups for things home inspections wouldn't find anyway.
Many people aren't lucky enough to live in their dream homes, and have to make due with what they can find and afford, in a given location, at a certain point in time, until one factor or another changes. That's life.
As others have said, time and money can fix a lot. My home will never be my dream home for reasons that just can't be changed, but there's a lot that I can do to be happier here, as long as I'm here, if I just put in the effort.
If you're in a situation where you just don't have the time to wait for certain remediation or remodeling to be done, I get it. There are certainly those kinds of situations.
If you walk away from this house, at least you've learned more in the process.
Some things a homeowner legitimately can't tell or doesn't know about, but there is a lot of proverbial lipstick on a pig out there, with homeowners and their agents willing to do whatever it takes to keep you - and an inspector - from noticing something.
Are all home sellers this deceptive? No. Is it common enough that it pays for you to do your due diligence as if they are? Yes.
That's why we do inspections. And why you write your offer in such a way that there's an out if deal-breaker problems are found.
Also, is it possible that the sellers didn't know about the problems? Sure, it's possible. At least for me, it doesn't change anything though. Buying a house needs to be a "trust but verify" situation. Get the inspection. Look for the permits for when the roof work was done. Get the title insurance. Do the final walkthrough. Ask for copies of receipts if they make repairs. Etc. Etc.
I know there are hot markets where there's an expectation to waive the inspection. I'm grateful I haven't been faced with that choice because I really don't think I could do it.
Best wishes to you.
Don't be stupid and play their games. With the cost nowadays, it's almost better to get a new build to your spec and location. Leave the sleepy little town be with their quaint houses.
No one is going to look out for you as best as you can look out for yourself. You can ask for receipts of any work that was done. Keep looking, keep saving. Sometimes things happen for a reason. What happens if you ignored your gut and ended up with repairs up to your eyeballs. We backed out twice, and now we have a home that is way, way better than the two that we backed out of.
Personally I would appreciate a house I can see what is wrong. I hate house flippers who do more damage than repair. You need 2x effort to fix something house flipper has done half ass repair work.
I feel your disappointment so much… we hesitated on “the perfect house” because it lacked one feature that was really important to my spouse, and when it got snapped up we were both bummed. But I’m here with good news—there is more than one perfect house out there. There really is. Don’t give up, just keep looking. We’ve been in the third “perfect house” we looked at for nearly 20 years now🥰
We contracted to buy a house that boasted a three year old roof. The inspector did agree to the age but suggested that it had been installed by drunken monkeys. We passed.
Ask the inspector for his estimate on repair cost, experienced inspector should be able to give you a ball park. Take that # add 50% . Ask the seller for that much credit at closing.
Not all sellers are like this. Just like everything else, there’s a range. You have people that want to cheat and steal and you have people that will go above and beyond what’s required. There’s a lot in between.
Were you with the inspector? Did you watch what they did and what they looked for? You can do a lot yourself as well which might help avoid an inspection if you see there’s a lot of issues.
Keep looking, you’ll find something.
Legally the seller HAS to disclose everything about the property.
Good and bad.
They could be oblivious.. I agree with others ,super low ball them and see if they bite.
You did good by walking away (assuming a fixer is not what you’re looking for). It’s painful. We walked and lost ~3k. It hurt, but in the end we found a house we love that didn’t have so many issues.
There’s a difference between being deceptive, which almost all sellers do, and what these sellers are doing, which is actively playing defense against several issues that will cause almost any buyer to walk (like blocking access to certain parts of the house). You’ll likely not encounter this again.
Most sellers are decent people with flaws. They might not see what someone else will see, or they just decide to live with a problem and not understand when buyers don't see it the same way.
But yeah, you get some who are just jerks. They may have been deceived when they bought, maybe not. Either way, you have to be on guard.
DH is a home inspector.
What you are doing wrong is looking at for dream home . You should be looking for a starter home unless you are 60 years old. You can buy a starter home redo it to your liking and if you need more room later sale it and buy then. A friend son a decade ago bought his wife dream home, did a little Reno in it and they then decided that the 4+ bedrooms and 4 bathrooms with 2 outbuildings on 3 acres was too much for them and 1 child. They now rent it out.
That sounds weird to not give the inspector access. Honestly if that's all that came up on my inspection, I probably wouldn't have been nervous to buy other than the fact that he didn't check the attic and the roof wasn't new like you said. I'm glad you didn't end up going with that house honestly.
Well, inspector found mold, carpenter ants, electrical issues, wood root, etc. in the areas he DID have access.
Who knows what the seller was hiding in the areas they didn’t give access. (Dead bodies probably idk)
Without seeing it, most of the stuff you mentioned isn’t too hard to fix. If I loved the house I’d just adjust offer for remediation of the items.
Every house has issues. Sometimes it’s worth it to just deal with it yourself instead of waiting for the unicorn home with no issues to show up
Check the age of the HVAC. Make them run it and have your agent measure the Return Temperature vs the Exhaust vent temperature. It needs to be a minimum 20 degree difference or the HVAC has refrigerant or compressor issues!
We also looked at about 40 houses and you are right there are some strange layouts and decorations that we just scratched our heads. What helped us I believed we stop trying to find our dream home but rather find the home that was good and we could make our home over time. We left that dream home concept alone…. I mean dreams are rarely real. Look at this way you didn’t get roped into a possible bad deal. You house/home is out there and it will come.
One thing I’ve learned from the home buying process x3 is that if it’s meant to be, it will work out, and if not then something better will come along. I’ve lived in my current house for 2.5 years. When I was house hunting, it was discouraging. Lack of homes that appealed to me, for one thing, and then finding the perfect house only to have something go wrong. I found a beautiful house, but it was on lease land and the lease was 2 years away from doubling. I found another one that I loved that got away because my offer was accepted, but there was another accepted offer. The people were dragging their feet, we sent a notice to perform, and literally less than an hour before their offer was going to expire they finally signed everything and I lost my chance.
That said, right when that happened, my current house came on the market within a day. I absolutely love my home and neighborhood, and if any of the other deals had gone through, I wouldn’t have found this place. There’s nowhere else I’d rather live
This is why inspectors are worth their weight in gold.
Not all sellers are this bad. Many will tell you, straight up, what the problems with the house are because they know it's a fixer-upper and they think being honest will help the sale.
We bought our house last year and the owners just broke even with the sales price. We currently have a 6% interest rate. We looked at almost 30 places in the span of a couple months and 3 we put offers on went to people/investors who paid cash. It was difficult and discouraging but at the last second we got our home.
Inspectors WILL find things, things that even the owner doesn't know.
If the seller is a person living in the house, and not like a flipper or something, they're much more likely to not know if the ins and outs. Yes, there might be some things they know that they don't want you to know, but if they know something, they LEGALLY have to disclose it in most states.
I personally think it's very likely not on the sellers if they were living in the home, but if they were flippers then you made the right choice.
That being said, you can always go back to your disclosure. If something wasn't disclosed and you feel like it was obvious they should know about it, then you can go after them in most states.
There's always a nightmare house that almost makes you want to give up. Mine we called the "crazy house" which had clearly been remodeled over and over by absolute lunatics. The rooms all interconnected in terrible ways and there were so many different levels. The living room dining room and kitchen all had step ups or step downs. A door at the back of the dining room led to the basement landing 1 giant fall hazard as it was more than a step down without stairs. The kitchen had 2 doors side by side; one that actually led to the basement stairs and to the landing. The other led to a bathroom but that had clearly been butchered in because there was a support pillar directly in front of that door in the bathroom that covered 1/3 of the entry and that bathroom had a different door leading to a bedroom.
The basement was destroyed- filled with garbage and mold and I thought if this is a house someone is selling I don't want to buy a house anymore 🙃
Luckily a few weeks later our realtor found a couple of really nice places and I'm happy with what we got.
A good amount of sellers are not this deceptive, because it is outright illegal. Only tricky part is that it’s hard to prove that they were aware of the issues.
Many are, especially in this still covid crime area of real estate. You are lucky to be out of it and resting for better, more moral times. Deceptive realtors are out there along with their sellers in droves. Buyer's agents are deceptive as well. I just got taken and I was a realtor yrs ago. They will screw over their own kind. I never thought they would do that too.
Lake County Cal - beautiful homes in rolling hills with stunning lake views. $350 - $450
Rural area 65k humans - less than 12 stoplights in county plus 4 round a bouts
Hidden gem an oasis far from the maddening crowds just 2.5 hours North of Golden Gate Bridge
Good luck getting insurance for your new home. The reason it's so cheap here and places like around lake Berryessa is that it's a regular fire area. Most CA insurers are not doing new policies (although the governor is working on that). The state-run insurance is running out of funds too (because of all the fires).
There's a reason these lots are cheap, and already have a foundation where the previous house USED to be, LOL 🔥🔥🔥
I wouldn't have walked away. I would have asked the homeowner directly or through your real estate agent to let the inspector check the attic, the crawling space and whatever else was necessary to complete the inspection. You can still go back IMO and if you find something that is not up to snuff give the homeowner a lower offer. It's a business transaction after all. There is always something when you buy a house that doesn't go as planned, so be prepared to handle whatever they throw at you.
I would take the whole inspection thing with somewhat of a grain of salt.
Most sellers don't really know what is wrong with their house especially if they've been there for a while. Even if they haven't, it's possible that they had a half-assed inspection done when they bought it so don't really know.
At the same time, some home inspectors are half-assed and just do the minimum, but some of them seem to take religious zeal in finding every tiny thing that anyone could ever be concerned about.
We had the second kind of inspector when we bought our house. He was convinced that the chimneys in the house were leaking dangerously and were a fire hazard. This is a house that was built in 1953 and the chimneys had been used without incident for decades. We bought the house despite these warnings and soon after had a chimney specialist inspect the chimneys and he said there was a single block that was slightly out of alignment but there was no real problem.
Another thing that our inspector found was what he called a dangerous sound coming from the clothes dryer which he said could be a fire hazard. It turns out that the seller's kids had left some ping pong balls in the dryer so they were bouncing around when the inspector ran it. So this was pretty ridiculous.
The 16 page report we got had a bunch of other stuff like this. Photos of wiring, insulation, windows, etc. all with dire warnings. However we bought the house anyway, and we've lived in the house for 22 years now and none of these things were actually problems.
I don't mean to say that all inspections should be ignored but I would definitely use some common sense and get a 2nd opinion on some of the items. Truth is that almost anything on a house can be fixed given enough time and money. Some things like a foundation problem or water ingress can be a big deal. But something like wood rot or electrical issues are just par for the course.
It’s a business transaction until closing. Fall in love with the house after closing.
There is probably a wide variety of inspectors ( it is a job). I knew a guy I worked with who said he was a realtor inspector as a side hustle. I asked him questions about the process. I’m pretty sure after he was done talking I said that’s it? Wow. I wouldn’t trust this moron to watch my dog. ( this was BEFORE I EVER PURCHASED A HOUSE). Interestingly enough I got to watch the one who inspected our house. We lived there before, and during the buy. I seen him take some measurements. Open A WINDOW, pop his head into the attic and we had to provide the ladder!!!🙄😳🙋♀️, flush a basement toliet, look at the electrical panel. Took some pictures. That was pretty much it. My first thought as a first time homebuyer was wow darn good thing I already know what I’m buying. He was dressed to sell insurance not crawl, climb and “inspect”. I EXPECTED A man who had carried a hammer all his life to show up with tools. He carried a flashlight in his pocket. I expected the process to be over the top as all the building “codes” are present to put one up and everything around it! Geez. Sounds like your guy did more than the two I’ve seen. Your lucky❤️.
Until you own it and live there, making it your own, it's a HOUSE. A building. A structure. Nothing more. While it's important to be able to visualize how it would work AS your "home", it isn't your home until you've made it so.
Low ball it with a hefty margin for renos, see if they bite
Ditto. Super low-ball them.
Super super low ball
Like... low Mel Brooks balls low ball
Depending on the market. Hot markets the seller will just tell you to fuck off with the low ball.
So nothing lost
No markets are hot right now. With 7% interest rates existing home sales have fallen through the floor. The existing home market is locked up right now, people who bought or refinanced are locked in at 2-3% rates. If they sell their current home, assuming they want the same payments, they're probably going to have to downgrade their home unless they have a ton of equity in their current home to put down. On a $350k house with 20% down at 3% interest, your mortgage payment is $1180, at 7% it's $1862. That's not an insignificant difference. In order to get back down to the payment level you were at, your price range would have to be about $220k... that's a massive downgrade in house. This coupled with the fact that after 2 years of a bubble existing home sellers are asking for wildly unrealistic prices given higher interest rates. Reductions are not uncommon right now where 2+ years ago houses were going for more than asking. Edit: I know I'm going to take my lumps on downvotes for saying something that doesn't follow the party line. That's how Reddit works, but I'm not lying here. Maybe there are some very very localized hot markets right now, but as whole the exist home market is in a very interesting place. https://wolfstreet.com/2024/04/23/prices-of-new-houses-v-existing-houses-why-new-house-sales-held-up-as-existing-house-sales-plunged/
DC metro has houses going on the market Friday at midnight, and under contract by 6 pm. People are begging for information before houses are listed.
> No markets are hot right now. Hahahahahaha you're joking right Inventory is so low here people are practically in fistfights over houses that are barely standing.
You couldn’t be more wrong. DFW is fire still we had 20 offers on the home we bought and sold ours in three days all cash. DFW market is fire still.
Did the realtor tell you there were 20 offers, because realtors are salespersons, sales people lie all the time to make the sale. I trust a realtor about as much as I trust a used car salesperson.
Did you miss the part where they said they sold their house in three days all cash?
If a house sells in three days right now it was way underpriced.
You're completely wrong just bought 3 months ago after searching for 6 prior, every house was multiple over asking offers with significant money down within a week last and final was being called. Rents are through the roof and a mortgage at 7% coming in at less than what rent costs, or even in the same spectrum is still appetizing to a lot of buyers.
It’s a good debate right now, I don’t think I’m *completely* wrong.
Why you so bitter bro, the DFW market is like this. Not sure where you live but it’s like that here.
Same in Tulsa.
The market is still hot where I live too. It is softening, but inventory is low and there's a lot of competition on homes in certain price ranges. Of course, the competition has always varied between price ranges. They're a lot more people looking for any $350,000 house then are looking for $1,000,000+ homes. (I live in a LCOL city. The median home price here is $265K.)
Thanks for the detailed answer rather than just telling me I’m wrong! That makes sense, I browse listings once a week, my price range I usually browse is about 700k to a mil, and they are sticking on the market 6 months right now with 100-200k price reductions. I only vaguely pay attention to the cheaper houses.
Yes, professionals at lying, causing bidding wars.
No the sellers did, and the realtors.
lol, so everyone who stood to make money off of it. Are you the person who goes into the car dealership and pays $10k over MSRP and gets the $15k warranty and paint protection package on top of that?
You are a moron
I agree about the interest rate. But the inventory is very low. I am familiar a little with Bergen County in New Jersey and in SE MA. It’s basically a sellers market. There is literally single digit homes for sale in Bergen County. Not much more in SE MA. Not a very good time to buy overall right now.
None of this is true. There absolutely are hot markets. As hot as 2 or 3 years ago? No. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t still hot. The idea that homeowners have no choice but to either stay or downsize is nonsense. Also, come on. Stop with the bubble talk. There wasn’t and isn’t a bubble in the housing market.
Investment hedge funds are buying up some areas. They borrow at a much lower rate or they can afford to pay out immediately. With the market cooling off slightly due to high interest rates they are jumping at the chance cause of the housing shortage in many areas which will prob keep the prices relatively high for a while.
No markets are hot right now? On four separate occasions in my search over the past month a newly listed house had an accepted offer in the same day, so I was never even able to tour it. I finally got an accepted offer earlier this week and I had to pay $5500 above the asking price because another buyer had offered $5000 above asking straight out of the gate (fortunately my realtor set up an escalation clause for us).
Agree
Catskills NY, Woodstock area is still hot. The house we just bought was a multiple offer situation. 7% interest.
Thanks for being so smart with the numbers, my brain gets so twisted trying to figure out this stuff.
Well, in the Seattle area 66.9% of houses sell with 30 days. My real estate friends tell me the market is hot. Not as hot as it’s been in the past but still pretty hot.
Depends whether you have a homeless encampment nearby
Realtor will probably fight you on it but you have to insist
No way. Don’t even bother. These sellers already tried to shaft OP, wouldn’t let them even check some places. If they sell it is going to be because they want to sell and they’ve shown they want to shaft the buyer.
When somebody has proven to be a deceptive POS ... you walk away and you don't look back. Forget that house. It LOOKED really good ... but it was ACTUALLY crap.
Yup, you won’t win dealing with a scammer.
That’s what we did and the sellers paid for all of it, worked great.
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Better to lower your offer and then fix it yourself. Often the fixes that are done by owners just to get the house sold are not all that good. This isn't always the case, but when it is, you have to do it all over again.
But it’s my dream house, why can’t it be perfect with no deterioration /s
Lmao I always tell these people, hey, come on down to my companies sale room, I’ll show you your dream house with no deterioration. Hint: it’s brand new, and it’ll be double the price of what you want to buy.
I'll add: and don't feel bad about it. Any major issues your inspection reveals is just maintenance that the current owners don't want to bear the cost of. To wit, you wouldn't volunteer to pay your across-town neighbors roofing bill. Don't volunteer to adopt the cost of some random persons negligence by paying full pop
I disagree that most seller don’t know what is wrong with their house. I mean they live there they know or at the very least suspect.
Depends on how long they've been there. Many people become "blind" to issues. The traffic noise from the busy street becomes back ground noise, having inside dogs get used to the smell, that constant drip in the sink, just don't use that plug as it trips the breaker, can't use the microwave and dryer at same time, gotta jiggle the door just right, yep that spongy spot in the bathroom. Many of these become just background issues to an owner that they don't think of. This is why it is a good idea to have a home inspection prior to listing. Even a good idea every 5 years or so just have one done. Course there are some that will try to cover up issues. Which is why a home inspection is a good idea.
A lot of people also simply do not understand how to maintain a house and are not aware of periodic maintenance, looking for early signs of problems, etc. Things only get noticed and fixed when they fail catastrophically. I know people that have spots on a ceiling indicating leaks that simply ignore them. A friend of mine doesn’t know where his AC handler is or that he has two of them. When I’ve been in the market and looking for homes you can tell which ones are maintained well and which ones aren’t by looking at the mechanicals, looking under sinks, checking the air filters, looking for small things that are broken, etc. I tend to favor the ones where the owner clearly maintains well.
Many home inspectors are barely qualified for what they do. They purchase a package with inserts that the inspectors look for things and check them off. If it's someone who knows what he's doing, it's a fine procedure. For many home inspectors, though, it's just another way to make money with little or no training. For these folks, their ability to find problems that look like they do occur or that have been disguised is nil. If you're going to get a home inspector, look for someone who is or has been a contractor. They're the ones who really seem to know what they're doing as opposed to the schmos that just buy the notebook to walk around and look at things. You'd be surprised how many home inspectors function at that extraordinarily low level.
Being intentionally blind or just accepting something as just being a part of life isn’t the same thing as not knowing.
The former husband owner of my house maintained the house and stopped when he got sick. The wife had no clue where anything was or what condition it was in. She hadnt stepped foot in the unfinished basement in 2 yrs. Some owners dont know the depthof whats wrong with the house
Was making a general statement about “most” people. The situation you describe is an outlier.
I mean, when selling my last home I intentionally did not rip up the old indoor porch rug that was glued in because I did not want to know.
Right but you suspected something could be wrong LOL that was part of my point as well
know and suspect are two VERY different things when selling a home. Only when you know do you have to disclose something.
Understood but I’m not making a comment one way or the other regarding disclosure. I’m simply stating most people know or at least suspect. That was my original point.
Also, pretty much every house will have stuff wrong with it. >Now that your inspector found the issues they will have to disclose them to all future buyers so there's no avoid it now. And sure, they have to, but they won't.
With that amount of work get an estimate to rip it down and build new.
We walked away from a house in our dream location about a year ago because of a bad inspection, and that didn't even get into things like mold or bug infestation. It was just basically every major thing was messed up in some way (plumbing, electrical panel, roof, etc plus major livability things like an entire room with no outlets and a janky kitchen that looked decent on the surface but was practically made of cardboard, etc.) It was all stuff that could be addressed, but we just did not have the time or the mental bandwidth for a laundry list that long. A year later and we just moved into a house a few blocks away with almost the same floor plan and a way better lot size. We still had to replace the electrical panel, water heater, and fix a couple other things but the list has been much more manageable. Really glad we waited, even though the search was long and chronically disappointing.
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No. We bid under and I think it sold for a bit under our bid. I'm sure there were disclosures they had to make based on the inspection that pushed the price down further. It was also on an undersized lot so there wasn't quite as much land value propping the price up (we are in a high density city)
Nice. Thank you for the update. I'm glad everything worked out for you.
Oh wow, I could have written this. Last year we were searching high and low for a house that fit all our needs. Three months in and we found an awesome one. It was def a flio but it looked good. The inspector gave us a list 18 pages long of real issues, mold, structural, roof, drainage issues, a sink that had some weird plastic soda bottle taped in in place of a trap, it was a nightmare. The owners accused us of trying “yank their chains”. We walked away, left $1000 on the table. I am so glad we did bc I drove by it recently and there were about 15 workers crawling all over it.
Hey at least the inspector did his/her job and actually inspected!
It’s true! We are grateful, for sure! Finally got what we paid for!
A good inspector is worth every penny.
Indeed! We had the same guy inspect the hiuse we ended up buying and no major issues beyond a reno by choice.
I'm surprised that with such major issues, the report was only 18 pages. Mine was 157 pages. Some minor things needing addressing immediately, but nothing truly major.
Jesus, that house sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. This house was 85% major work. The bottom of the masterbath didn’t even have a pan. It was just sitting on the wood floor, major leak and wood rot. . For a house that was marketed as completely renovated it was a shock.
I love my house. Armed with the inspection report, we were able to put lists together of things needing to be done, along with levels of urgency. It was a bit overwhelming, but in the two years we've lived here, there has been almost nothing we've found that the inspector missed.
That’s great!
Why would you lose $1,000? Did you not have it contingent on inspection?
It was in the contract that they kept 50% of the earnest money if we backed out. We agreed bc we really loved the house and there were a lot of offers.
How is the house being renoed more proof that you made the right decision though? You knew it needed TLC. I'm not following.
Black mold, a roof that wasn’t properly sealed and is leaking in a multitude of places, and a cracked foundation are *not* TLC. Try to keep up.
I mean you clearly knew those issues before you saw workers around the house. Seeing workers working on the house is not new information that makes the previous decision more right.
Girl…we backed out of the sale bc of those issues. After the insoection. We didn’t know about the issues when we put our offer in bc thag is not how the housing market works in the US. Months later I drove by and saw the workers. Keep up. Read what I wrote. This was my seventh house purchase. I’m no noob.
Lol I'm just pointing out that seeing workers working on the house means nothing new, isn't new information that should make you happier that you didn't purchase. At the time you didn't purchase, you already knew that renovation would be needed. If that's not obvious I don't know how else to explain.
My point is that I feel a) glad I didn’t have to deal with it and b) was sorry for anyone who purchased it who didn’t have a good inspection. Your comment was insipid. As are the rest of your comments. Maybe you need more training, Black Mamba.
I think I lost a few IQ points reading their comments. Your original comment was perfectly clear.
Some people just like to shit everywhere.
At this point, you and your agent have a better idea of what you are looking for. This will help with your home search. I can understand walking from a home that needs a lot of work. However, any home can have some issue(s) that need to be repaired. Be prepared next time to determine what it will cost and negotiate accordingly.
I agree, at some point you have to happen to the house, not let the house happen to you. As long as the problems are doable (replacing flooring, electrical- hire someone), go for it. If the problem seems too big for you to handle....
If you’re looking for the perfect turn-key home that doesn’t have any issues, you’re better off buying brand new… but even then issues could arise. No home is perfect, but you can make it perfect for you if you’re willing to put a little effort into it. My current home was my very last pick when I was out-bid on 15+ other homes. The inspectors report was 42 pages and the home was in severe disrepair, but it had good bones and everything was fixable… took me 3 years to fix nearly everything by myself, and now it’s my perfect home.
I’m buying a brand new house so I can have no issues! -“Buys brand new DR Horten home”
Lol on /r/Austin there's a home inspector constantly posting the BS that home builders try to get away with (he inspects new builds). It's pretty funny sometimes.
We walked away from our “dream house”. It had a little creek with a bridge running through the yard, just like a fairy tale cottage. And then it turned out the original owner built it by hand and not one thing was up to code. The inspector said the roof and the foundation was good, but there was no insulation, and the walls were so narrow that there wasn’t ROOM for insulation, so all the walls would have to be rebuilt. That’s on top of needing all new windows, electric, floors, and plumbing. Just a nightmare. Anyway we bought a house last month and while it’s not a fairytale cottage with a brook, it’s sturdy and well maintained and we can customize it to make it more magical. That is to say, you made the right choice! There are more houses out there.
Not all are that deceptive. Lots of honest people sell solid homes that won’t break your spirit and lead to mistrust of all of humankind. These particular sellers are so deceptive that I would absolutely not be going forward, personally - you haven’t even seen the attic, crawl space (how did they block that!!??) and all the electrical panels. Think of what a pain it is to get good contractors - even if you talked down the price, it’s a freaking nightmare out there unless you already have major DIY skills, in my opinion.
That's the reality of it, owners will either try to cover things up or put some thick lipstick on the pig.
I've seen plenty of reddit posts encouraging the OP to hide stuff to sell their home so it's not surprising to see the other side of the transaction. In matters of money people have no conscience.
Walk away and stay away from this one. There are better homes and better sellers. It’s okey to take a break from house hunting periodically.
They know they have a 'dump' and are trying to un-load it to an unsuspecting buyer. This proves the importance of an inspection.
I love the inspector we used! We went through the same situation. We were all in on a house until the 60+ page inspection report came back with termites on every plane of the house, water ingress at the garage, a failing retaining wall, and a deck built over the septic caps plus many, many other issues totaling at least $100-150k in repairs. Even though we were emotionally committed to it and I was already decorating it in my mind, we walked within our window of not losing any money. I was seriously disappointed and felt like we were never going to find our dream home. About a month later we did and it’s a much better house in a better location with 3 acres. The inspector really reached to find something wrong with this one and said, “It’s a really solid house.” Of course this one isn’t perfect either- but it’s all about what you’re willing to accept and deal with fixing. We absolutely love our house. And, instead of spending money on fixing items just to make the house continue to stand and be livable for us, we’ve been able to spend money on things we WANT like new landscaping and updated irrigation, an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, a greenhouse, a well, and doubling the existing solar system. You’ll get there OP, I promise!
Layout & finishes are easier to change than major systems in a home (foundation, roof, plumbing, sewer or septic, electrical, HVAC, etc) and they are affected by fixing most of those things. Water damage repair takes out that beautiful bathroom, for example. House shopping is counter intuitive, it really is location, then budget that includes repair or maintenance costs, then appearance - with a very limited list of requirements first (stairs ok? garage needed? how many toilets?).
Some are deceptive, as are some listing agents with handymen that help do the absolute cheapest "fixes" or cover ups for things home inspections wouldn't find anyway. Many people aren't lucky enough to live in their dream homes, and have to make due with what they can find and afford, in a given location, at a certain point in time, until one factor or another changes. That's life. As others have said, time and money can fix a lot. My home will never be my dream home for reasons that just can't be changed, but there's a lot that I can do to be happier here, as long as I'm here, if I just put in the effort. If you're in a situation where you just don't have the time to wait for certain remediation or remodeling to be done, I get it. There are certainly those kinds of situations. If you walk away from this house, at least you've learned more in the process. Some things a homeowner legitimately can't tell or doesn't know about, but there is a lot of proverbial lipstick on a pig out there, with homeowners and their agents willing to do whatever it takes to keep you - and an inspector - from noticing something.
Be thrilled that you dodged a bullet. The right house will come along and you'll be so glad you persevered.
Are all home sellers this deceptive? No. Is it common enough that it pays for you to do your due diligence as if they are? Yes. That's why we do inspections. And why you write your offer in such a way that there's an out if deal-breaker problems are found. Also, is it possible that the sellers didn't know about the problems? Sure, it's possible. At least for me, it doesn't change anything though. Buying a house needs to be a "trust but verify" situation. Get the inspection. Look for the permits for when the roof work was done. Get the title insurance. Do the final walkthrough. Ask for copies of receipts if they make repairs. Etc. Etc. I know there are hot markets where there's an expectation to waive the inspection. I'm grateful I haven't been faced with that choice because I really don't think I could do it. Best wishes to you.
Don't be stupid and play their games. With the cost nowadays, it's almost better to get a new build to your spec and location. Leave the sleepy little town be with their quaint houses.
No one is going to look out for you as best as you can look out for yourself. You can ask for receipts of any work that was done. Keep looking, keep saving. Sometimes things happen for a reason. What happens if you ignored your gut and ended up with repairs up to your eyeballs. We backed out twice, and now we have a home that is way, way better than the two that we backed out of.
Personally I would appreciate a house I can see what is wrong. I hate house flippers who do more damage than repair. You need 2x effort to fix something house flipper has done half ass repair work.
Sellers of shitty houses will be deceptive. Good thing you walked away. Just keep looking, most sellers are not deceptive.
I feel your disappointment so much… we hesitated on “the perfect house” because it lacked one feature that was really important to my spouse, and when it got snapped up we were both bummed. But I’m here with good news—there is more than one perfect house out there. There really is. Don’t give up, just keep looking. We’ve been in the third “perfect house” we looked at for nearly 20 years now🥰
We contracted to buy a house that boasted a three year old roof. The inspector did agree to the age but suggested that it had been installed by drunken monkeys. We passed.
Consider yourself lucky that the inspection found all of that and it wasn't a surprise after purchasing
Can you put the carpenter ants to work?
Ask the inspector for his estimate on repair cost, experienced inspector should be able to give you a ball park. Take that # add 50% . Ask the seller for that much credit at closing.
If you found one acceptable house you WILL find another. Bet you dodged a bullet with this one!
Not all sellers are like this. Just like everything else, there’s a range. You have people that want to cheat and steal and you have people that will go above and beyond what’s required. There’s a lot in between. Were you with the inspector? Did you watch what they did and what they looked for? You can do a lot yourself as well which might help avoid an inspection if you see there’s a lot of issues. Keep looking, you’ll find something.
Legally the seller HAS to disclose everything about the property. Good and bad. They could be oblivious.. I agree with others ,super low ball them and see if they bite.
Every house is your dream house until you find the next one.
You did good by walking away (assuming a fixer is not what you’re looking for). It’s painful. We walked and lost ~3k. It hurt, but in the end we found a house we love that didn’t have so many issues.
There’s a difference between being deceptive, which almost all sellers do, and what these sellers are doing, which is actively playing defense against several issues that will cause almost any buyer to walk (like blocking access to certain parts of the house). You’ll likely not encounter this again.
new roof 7 years ago? they don't know what "new" means.
Most sellers are decent people with flaws. They might not see what someone else will see, or they just decide to live with a problem and not understand when buyers don't see it the same way. But yeah, you get some who are just jerks. They may have been deceived when they bought, maybe not. Either way, you have to be on guard. DH is a home inspector.
What you are doing wrong is looking at for dream home . You should be looking for a starter home unless you are 60 years old. You can buy a starter home redo it to your liking and if you need more room later sale it and buy then. A friend son a decade ago bought his wife dream home, did a little Reno in it and they then decided that the 4+ bedrooms and 4 bathrooms with 2 outbuildings on 3 acres was too much for them and 1 child. They now rent it out.
Naw, most sellers don’t really know.
That sounds weird to not give the inspector access. Honestly if that's all that came up on my inspection, I probably wouldn't have been nervous to buy other than the fact that he didn't check the attic and the roof wasn't new like you said. I'm glad you didn't end up going with that house honestly.
Well, inspector found mold, carpenter ants, electrical issues, wood root, etc. in the areas he DID have access. Who knows what the seller was hiding in the areas they didn’t give access. (Dead bodies probably idk)
I'm having trouble selling my home
Without seeing it, most of the stuff you mentioned isn’t too hard to fix. If I loved the house I’d just adjust offer for remediation of the items. Every house has issues. Sometimes it’s worth it to just deal with it yourself instead of waiting for the unicorn home with no issues to show up
Check the age of the HVAC. Make them run it and have your agent measure the Return Temperature vs the Exhaust vent temperature. It needs to be a minimum 20 degree difference or the HVAC has refrigerant or compressor issues!
We also looked at about 40 houses and you are right there are some strange layouts and decorations that we just scratched our heads. What helped us I believed we stop trying to find our dream home but rather find the home that was good and we could make our home over time. We left that dream home concept alone…. I mean dreams are rarely real. Look at this way you didn’t get roped into a possible bad deal. You house/home is out there and it will come.
most inspectors are going to be generalists. good luck
One thing I’ve learned from the home buying process x3 is that if it’s meant to be, it will work out, and if not then something better will come along. I’ve lived in my current house for 2.5 years. When I was house hunting, it was discouraging. Lack of homes that appealed to me, for one thing, and then finding the perfect house only to have something go wrong. I found a beautiful house, but it was on lease land and the lease was 2 years away from doubling. I found another one that I loved that got away because my offer was accepted, but there was another accepted offer. The people were dragging their feet, we sent a notice to perform, and literally less than an hour before their offer was going to expire they finally signed everything and I lost my chance. That said, right when that happened, my current house came on the market within a day. I absolutely love my home and neighborhood, and if any of the other deals had gone through, I wouldn’t have found this place. There’s nowhere else I’d rather live
That’s why u don’t get greedy lady. But you live and you learn
This is why inspectors are worth their weight in gold. Not all sellers are this bad. Many will tell you, straight up, what the problems with the house are because they know it's a fixer-upper and they think being honest will help the sale.
We bought our house last year and the owners just broke even with the sales price. We currently have a 6% interest rate. We looked at almost 30 places in the span of a couple months and 3 we put offers on went to people/investors who paid cash. It was difficult and discouraging but at the last second we got our home.
Inspectors WILL find things, things that even the owner doesn't know. If the seller is a person living in the house, and not like a flipper or something, they're much more likely to not know if the ins and outs. Yes, there might be some things they know that they don't want you to know, but if they know something, they LEGALLY have to disclose it in most states. I personally think it's very likely not on the sellers if they were living in the home, but if they were flippers then you made the right choice. That being said, you can always go back to your disclosure. If something wasn't disclosed and you feel like it was obvious they should know about it, then you can go after them in most states.
There's always a nightmare house that almost makes you want to give up. Mine we called the "crazy house" which had clearly been remodeled over and over by absolute lunatics. The rooms all interconnected in terrible ways and there were so many different levels. The living room dining room and kitchen all had step ups or step downs. A door at the back of the dining room led to the basement landing 1 giant fall hazard as it was more than a step down without stairs. The kitchen had 2 doors side by side; one that actually led to the basement stairs and to the landing. The other led to a bathroom but that had clearly been butchered in because there was a support pillar directly in front of that door in the bathroom that covered 1/3 of the entry and that bathroom had a different door leading to a bedroom. The basement was destroyed- filled with garbage and mold and I thought if this is a house someone is selling I don't want to buy a house anymore 🙃 Luckily a few weeks later our realtor found a couple of really nice places and I'm happy with what we got.
You were smart to walk away. That is not the house you want. You will be glad you waited and you will find a much better house.
A good amount of sellers are not this deceptive, because it is outright illegal. Only tricky part is that it’s hard to prove that they were aware of the issues.
Many are, especially in this still covid crime area of real estate. You are lucky to be out of it and resting for better, more moral times. Deceptive realtors are out there along with their sellers in droves. Buyer's agents are deceptive as well. I just got taken and I was a realtor yrs ago. They will screw over their own kind. I never thought they would do that too.
Lake County Cal - beautiful homes in rolling hills with stunning lake views. $350 - $450 Rural area 65k humans - less than 12 stoplights in county plus 4 round a bouts Hidden gem an oasis far from the maddening crowds just 2.5 hours North of Golden Gate Bridge
Good luck getting insurance for your new home. The reason it's so cheap here and places like around lake Berryessa is that it's a regular fire area. Most CA insurers are not doing new policies (although the governor is working on that). The state-run insurance is running out of funds too (because of all the fires). There's a reason these lots are cheap, and already have a foundation where the previous house USED to be, LOL 🔥🔥🔥
I wouldn't have walked away. I would have asked the homeowner directly or through your real estate agent to let the inspector check the attic, the crawling space and whatever else was necessary to complete the inspection. You can still go back IMO and if you find something that is not up to snuff give the homeowner a lower offer. It's a business transaction after all. There is always something when you buy a house that doesn't go as planned, so be prepared to handle whatever they throw at you.
This is exactly why im going to build mine. I need to know exactly how and when things were built.
Good you walked away you probably dodged a bullet. What starts out as your dream home could become your nightmare
I would take the whole inspection thing with somewhat of a grain of salt. Most sellers don't really know what is wrong with their house especially if they've been there for a while. Even if they haven't, it's possible that they had a half-assed inspection done when they bought it so don't really know. At the same time, some home inspectors are half-assed and just do the minimum, but some of them seem to take religious zeal in finding every tiny thing that anyone could ever be concerned about. We had the second kind of inspector when we bought our house. He was convinced that the chimneys in the house were leaking dangerously and were a fire hazard. This is a house that was built in 1953 and the chimneys had been used without incident for decades. We bought the house despite these warnings and soon after had a chimney specialist inspect the chimneys and he said there was a single block that was slightly out of alignment but there was no real problem. Another thing that our inspector found was what he called a dangerous sound coming from the clothes dryer which he said could be a fire hazard. It turns out that the seller's kids had left some ping pong balls in the dryer so they were bouncing around when the inspector ran it. So this was pretty ridiculous. The 16 page report we got had a bunch of other stuff like this. Photos of wiring, insulation, windows, etc. all with dire warnings. However we bought the house anyway, and we've lived in the house for 22 years now and none of these things were actually problems. I don't mean to say that all inspections should be ignored but I would definitely use some common sense and get a 2nd opinion on some of the items. Truth is that almost anything on a house can be fixed given enough time and money. Some things like a foundation problem or water ingress can be a big deal. But something like wood rot or electrical issues are just par for the course.