WWYD Home buying issue

[Disney Doll]

I wouldn't cut off my nose to spite my face necessarily, but I would get another inspection by a different inspector. I keep going back to the 1st inspector who missed fairly obvious mold which he would have seen had he done something as simple as move the couch. My concern would be that if he missed that, what else did he miss that might be a bigger problem.

When we bought our house the inspection took 3 hours and included things like turning on all the water at the same time to see if it held water pressure bye crawled through the attic on his hands and knees looking for issues.

My gut is to have your realtor tell the seller that he knows he's either going to have to fix that window and mold issue or he's going to have disclose it in the listing. And if the current ousting doesn't say "as is" then the sale isn't "as is" and he knows that too.

What you do depends on how badly you want THIS house. Only you can make that decision. But I think I'd be getting my money back from the 1st inspector and getting a 2nd more thorough inspection.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Just a bit of an update. We received two quotes. One for $3,200 and one for $5,200.

We sent them both quotes and asked for $252k instead of 255k.

The owner was offended. He said the house is as is (not listed this way.) He said even though they knew about it and didn't fix it they did fix some things and they'll give us a list of the things they did fix.

Like I said before, they didn't abuse the house but they didn't maintain it either. He's pointed out other things they never fixed.

He feels like the window is not his responsibility. He offered $500 towards the window.

I'm so annoyed and want to say tough luck and move on, but I think that is out of spite. The truth is there isn't anything else we really want.

I would walk. I know that you know them however this is absolutely fraud on their part.

HE KNEW the window was rotted out? That would piss me off to high heaven. I would walk from the house just because of that. I have FINALLY learned my lesson there. If someone is not taking care of something you are really going to be sorry. This house is going to be a money pit.

The mold is a deal breaker for me. That could cost hundreds or thousands and I am severely allergic to mold. RUN THE HELL FROM THIS HOUSE.

Or get a another inspection as DD stated since the first inspector MISSED the MOLD!

I know in TX you sign a mold agreement. If you have mold it is ON YOU and you cannot sue anyone (former owner, agents, inspectors, etc.).

What happens if the entire wall is rotted and it costs YOU THOUSANDS? Once you accept the disclosure you are on the hook. ANd where exactly is the water leaking to? There has to be more rot.


Good Luck with your decision! I couldn't do it. I am going to be going on house #5, just as a point of reference. Adding, I do not know if I could continue to be friends with someone so unethical. And you say he is commercial property essentially? He is trying to manipulate you with basic high pressure sales tactics. Give me a break. I call shenanigans on his "being offended" with the information he is receiving in an effort to get you to take the hit for his lack of repairs and care to the home. If this person said something to my face, I would have to lay it on the line. Lying/deceit is something I do not tolerate with friends.

 

[Andtototoo]

Just a bit of an update. We received two quotes. One for $3,200 and one for $5,200.

We sent them both quotes and asked for $252k instead of 255k.

The owner was offended. He said the house is as is (not listed this way.) He said even though they knew about it and didn't fix it they did fix some things and they'll give us a list of the things they did fix.

Like I said before, they didn't abuse the house but they didn't maintain it either. He's pointed out other things they never fixed.

He feels like the window is not his responsibility. He offered $500 towards the window.

I'm so annoyed and want to say tough luck and move on, but I think that is out of spite. The truth is there isn't anything else we really want.

He's offended? How about you being offended by him knowing about a serious problem and not disclosing it?

Time to out of the deal. I know you said this is the only house that ticks your boxes, but that's right this minute. Someone could list a house tomorrow that does all that without the mold problem!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

This is why I am wanting an inspection before we sell. That way we have no surprises and can repair those things that are necessary and as is all the rest.

I don't blame you of you walk. We had mold mitigation on our rental due to a faulty roof repair that just cause a host of problems. We ended up filing an insurance claim and glad we did. While it cost much less than it could have--in the grand scheme, it was a "minor" issue to resolve but it was still some cash we did not have. My tenant did begin having issues due to allergy--but all was remedied. (Another reason for the insurance as we were diligent to get the roof repaired, but the roofer was incompetent. We didn't know of we Woolf have to cover a short term living situation or even medical expenses. Thankfully, all was fine in the end, but that could have been a disaster all over a "simple" leak not correctly repaired for a roof that they failed to diagnose as "failing".)

 

[lynn_s]

If you really want the house, I'd do 2 things, after telling the seller you will consider continuing negotiations if both of these find no other issues...

1) Get a MOLD inspector to review the mold situation. Mold can very quickly go from a small ("oh look, there's a spot we need to paint kilz on") to severe - house unlivable, significant repair. This mold may be trivial, but it may not (my mother house, due to a small basement water leak, had mold go from a couple spots to completely covering the house in less than 2 weeks)

2) Get a second home inspection, and be present for the inspection, so you know what they look at and what they don't....who knows what other issues may have been missed, you want to make sure you know what you are getting into so you can decide it you still want this house.

 

[RitaZ.]

Just a bit of an update. We received two quotes. One for $3,200 and one for $5,200.

We sent them both quotes and asked for $252k instead of 255k.

The owner was offended. He said the house is as is (not listed this way.) He said even though they knew about it and didn't fix it they did fix some things and they'll give us a list of the things they did fix.

Like I said before, they didn't abuse the house but they didn't maintain it either. He's pointed out other things they never fixed.

He feels like the window is not his responsibility. He offered $500 towards the window.

I'm so annoyed and want to say tough luck and move on, but I think that is out of spite. The truth is there isn't anything else we really want.

He is the current owner of the house. If he isn't responsible, then who is? The window fairy???

 

[Ceila]

If you really want the house, I'd do 2 things, after telling the seller you will consider continuing negotiations if both of these find no other issues...

1) Get a MOLD inspector to review the mold situation. Mold can very quickly go from a small ("oh look, there's a spot we need to paint kilz on") to severe - house unlivable, significant repair. This mold may be trivial, but it may not (my mother house, due to a small basement water leak, had mold go from a couple spots to completely covering the house in less than 2 weeks)

2) Get a second home inspection, and be present for the inspection, so you know what they look at and what they don't....who knows what other issues may have been missed, you want to make sure you know what you are getting into so you can decide it you still want this house.

This is excellent advice. The owner has shown that he is not trustworthy at all. If you aren't willing to walk away from this house, you need to do everything you can to protect your investment.

And, as another poster said, you should go after the first inspector. Since the owner is a real estate agent, I wonder if the inspector gets referrals from him, and that's why he didn't look too hard to find problems.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

He is the current owner of the house. If he isn't responsible, then who is? The window fairy???

Apparently!

 

[Arielle22]

I live on the water and had our home built 20 years ago. We have 2 6 foot windows in the main bedroom facing the water. They rotted within 5 years due to the salt air. New windows are vinyl clad so they have held up much longer. Unfortunately rot is a fact of life when you live next to the water.

I would go with a new inspection but if the window is the only non-disclosed issue, I would swallow my pride and buy the property.

 

[tcufrog]

If you saw mold I would walk, not run away. Last spring we found mold in our master bathroom. Basically a valve that controlled the flow of the shower head busted and we didn't know until black spots appeared on wall behind it. In the meantime mold flowed out of there and got into the vents. The mold remediation bill for this plus the cost for rebuilding my shower was insanely expensive and our homeowners insurance wouldn't cover mold. It took over a month from beginning to end to fix the entire problem.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Bottom line OP if you go through with this (which I do not recommend at all),

1) You need another inspection of someone of your choosing and you must be present without the owner for the inspection.
2) You need a mold inspector to estimate the cost of removal.
3) I would call in another estimate for window and wall repair.

What else is wrong with the house? You said that he has other stuff he ignored?

What about the roof, ac/furnace, floors? (Those are my big 3). When home buying we allow one of those things slide provided it is priced correctly and this is on a well cared for house.

 

[barkley]

This is why I am wanting an inspection before we sell. That way we have no surprises and can repair those things that are necessary and as is all the rest.

I don't blame you of you walk. We had mold mitigation on our rental due to a faulty roof repair that just cause a host of problems. We ended up filing an insurance claim and glad we did. While it cost much less than it could have--in the grand scheme, it was a "minor" issue to resolve but it was still some cash we did not have. My tenant did begin having issues due to allergy--but all was remedied. (Another reason for the insurance as we were diligent to get the roof repaired, but the roofer was incompetent. We didn't know of we Woolf have to cover a short term living situation or even medical expenses. Thankfully, all was fine in the end, but that could have been a disaster all over a "simple" leak not correctly repaired for a roof that they failed to diagnose as "failing".)

we had an inspection done (2 actually-we also had a pest inspection b/c the area was prone to termites) prior to selling our last home. only found 1 issue with a couple of cracked roof tiles (very inexpensive to repair which was done prior to listing), but by having it done we were in the position at selling to have priced appropriately, and prevented a surprise costly price renegotiation discovery when the buyers did their inspection.

our realtor was very proactive on recommending it-he said he had seen way to many sellers financially disadvantaged by the discovery of a costly repair OR a few no cost/low cost repairs that a buyer used to drive down the price for thousands less (in the area we lived in if a seller accepted an offer 'contingent' for any reason-it showed on the mls, so if a buyer backed out and it was reactivated as an active home for sale the mls would show in the history that there had been a contingent offer that for whatever reason fell through-and a buyer realtor's first question would be 'what was the basis of the contingency that fell through?', and if they heard inspection you could see them mentally dropping the initial offer by thousands and thousands of dollars).

well worth the few hundred it cost.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

we had an inspection done (2 actually-we also had a pest inspection b/c the area was prone to termites) prior to selling our last home. only found 1 issue with a couple of cracked roof tiles (very inexpensive to repair which was done prior to listing), but by having it done we were in the position at selling to have priced appropriately, and prevented a surprise costly price renegotiation discovery when the buyers did their inspection.

our realtor was very proactive on recommending it-he said he had seen way to many sellers financially disadvantaged by the discovery of a costly repair OR a few no cost/low cost repairs that a buyer used to drive down the price for thousands less (in the area we lived in if a seller accepted an offer 'contingent' for any reason-it showed on the mls, so if a buyer backed out and it was reactivated as an active home for sale the mls would show in the history that there had been a contingent offer that for whatever reason fell through-and a buyer realtor's first question would be 'what was the basis of the contingency that fell through?', and if they heard inspection you could see them mentally dropping the initial offer by thousands and thousands of dollars).

well worth the few hundred it cost.

Thank you!

Any other selling tips?

We need to preserve as much equity as possible as we will use it to pay down the Florida house so it is no longer upside down. We have a little wiggle room for repairs and fixes. But not much. But basically--repairing that entire interior is out. Thankfully we had new flooring installed in the spring. And husband just night a new fridge as the old one has crappy shelving that was broken and by the time you got new ones, a new fridge was just better.

 

[Sparkleshine]

We had a water leak and had mold. While our home owners insurance covered the damage caused by the water leak Mold is not included. It cost close to $5k just for the mold remidiation. That was after the drywall and flooring had been removed all they had to deal with was the mold and all the tests to make sure it was gone.

The guy is playing hardball and is trying to strong arm you. He knows that the window will be an issue with any buyer and is seeing what he can get away with.

The question is how badly do you want this house?

 

[barkley]

op-one thing I will suggest (from personal experience-our first home was on the older end) is rather that calling a window replacement company (if that's what you used for your bids) contacting a good reputable LOCAL general contractor to look at the issue.

one of the things that can come up with older homes is when you go to pull out something like a window (or in our case-replace windows with a slider) is what you see on the outside (rot, a little mold) is discovered to have spread into the adjacent walls or under the flooring. even if that's not the case, in some places doing certain repairs requires that new building code upgrades be done to the wall the window is located on.

our first home was not subject to certain (then) building code requirements b/c it was grandfathered under the existing codes for when it was built UNLESS we did certain types of repairs/renovations. I spent the last few years praying our water heater wouldn't become unrepairable b/c if it had reached the point of needing replacement we would have been looking at many thousands to do structural changes and some plumbing and electrical outlet relocations that were required.

a good gc who works in the area will be aware of what the real potential cost of taking on this type of repair may entail (and if it may be an indicator of other issues that should be looked to).

 

[barkley]

Thank you!

Any other selling tips?

We need to preserve as much equity as possible as we will use it to pay down the Florida house so it is no longer upside down. We have a little wiggle room for repairs and fixes. But not much. But basically--repairing that entire interior is out. Thankfully we had new flooring installed in the spring. And husband just night a new fridge as the old one has crappy shelving that was broken and by the time you got new ones, a new fridge was just better.

first tip is to interview potential realtors. we had a lot in our area and we went with the one that took the time to answer our questions and really listen to us. he also had a very good reputation and sales record (sales for at or near original asking-he was very honest and accurate at pricing homes so prolonged listing days and massive price reductions wouldn't become an issue).

second tip is to think about what drew you to the home, and what advantages your home/area has over adjacent. we were commuters and knew how long it took us to get to work (an area with lots of other commuters), and knew that the extra 15-20 minutes it took to get to our home/city vs. where many of our co-workers lived afforded us with lower home prices, lower insurance rates (less crime), better schools, and a lower sales tax rate (area where some counties charged more b/c of mass transit programs we had access to but were exempt from paying for through sales tax). we talked to our realtor about how we wanted him to include in his marketing notifications of our listing to the realtors in the towns we commuted through to work. he initially said he didn't see any point to it b/c our area never saw any traffic from them-but then we told them about how our co-workers would come to visit and kick themselves for never considering looking in the area. he agreed, and sure enough the buyers ended up being a couple whose realtor had received one of the flyers and suggested they 'just take a peek' at what was 15 minutes up the road from where they were currently looking.

 

[Luvchefmic]

I would agree you need to get someone in there ( especially based on our experiences I posted previous ) to address the mold. Can't agree to go with a local general contractor though, go with a mold expert. This is serious stuff.

I have no idea where in NH you are but you have many companies up there:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=inspec...0E8732BF4BE58AF&form=CONBNT&conlogo=CT3210127


Best of Luck once again

 

[ilovefh]

Just a bit of info to answer some questions.

DH called the guy who did the inspection the day after the inspection about the moisture inside the window. He basically said it is not his job to find the complete details of what is wrong but to flag potential issues so we can have a contractor come look at it. Then he cited the laws that protect him.

The two quotes we got were from contractors.

The owners asked for the inspection so we sent that to then last night.

Our realtor called this morning to remind us that they agreed to push up the closing by a month so my husband can recover from surgery at home. This puts them storing their things and staying with their daughter for a month. This gives then extra expenses.

I still feel like the window is their responsibility.

We have until tonight so we're going to let them sweat it out and then counter with $253,500 and they leave the washer and dryer.

In the end if they will do $500 and leave the washer and dryer we'll accept.

Our other option would be to buy and then move again in 5 years because we really want to be in this neighborhood, close to my parents.

 

[Andtototoo]

Just a bit of info to answer some questions.

DH called the guy who did the inspection the day after the inspection about the moisture inside the window. He basically said it is not his job to find the complete details of what is wrong but to flag potential issues so we can have a contractor come look at it. Then he cited the laws that protect him.

The two quotes we got were from contractors.

The owners asked for the inspection so we sent that to then last night.

Our realtor called this morning to remind us that they agreed to push up the closing by a month so my husband can recover from surgery at home. This puts them storing their things and staying with their daughter for a month. This gives then extra expenses.

I still feel like the window is their responsibility.

We have until tonight so we're going to let them sweat it out and then counter with $253,500 and they leave the washer and dryer.

In the end if they will do $500 and leave the washer and dryer we'll accept.

Our other option would be to buy and then move again in 5 years because we really want to be in this neighborhood, close to my parents.

The bolded? NOT your problem. At all. Why is your realtor reminding you of the seller's problems? What about YOUR problems if you buy a house with mold?

 

[bunkkinsmom]

Please note all replies are based on NC Real Estate practices..... Different states may have different rules.

They knew about the damage, and it's still their house. They'll have to fix it no matter who buys it, so the responsibility falls on them. If you feel like being generous, offer to split the cost down the middle, but if they say no walk away and find another property. It's risky getting into a financial transaction of this magnitude with someone you know in the first place.

They don't have to fix it no matter who buys it. They can refuse the request.

JMHO but since the home inspection revealed a problem with the window, even if the sale doesn't go through for you, I believe that they have to disclose it to anyone else who wants to buy the home. They can't state that they didn't know about it.

Yes, it has to be disclosed, but that doesn't mean they have to do anything about it. In NC the offer contract states that the home is for sale AS IS.

Thanks everyone! I'll reply later because it's hard to reply on my phone.

The contractor came to give us a quote yesterday. The window measured 7 feet wide by 12 feet high. I think the cost that the window company quoted was because it is so big and it would be a custom made window.

When he moved the couch from in front of it we also discovered that there was moisture and what appears to be mold on the inside of the window. We were a bit upset that the inspector didn't move the couch so he didn't find this. The contractor did say that the rot goes pretty high up so we'd have to replace the whole window. We're just waiting on him to mail us the quote now.

Instead of custom panes for the whole thing we decided on doing 3 panes at the top, then 3 double hung windows below it and doing away with the 3 windows that open out at the bottom. This will make the window a little smaller and give us a bit more privacy but we'll still be able to see the lake.

Both during the inspection and while the contractor was there the homeowners said they knew about the window and had been meaning to fix it. Our agent is mad that it wasn't included in the disclosure.

In my state Inspectors are not allowed to move ANYTHING. Even if it's a baker's rack in front of a breaker box. They will indicate on the report what areas were not checked due to things being in the way.

Just a bit of an update. We received two quotes. One for $3,200 and one for $5,200.

We sent them both quotes and asked for $252k instead of 255k.

The owner was offended. He said the house is as is (not listed this way.) He said even though they knew about it and didn't fix it they did fix some things and they'll give us a list of the things they did fix.

Like I said before, they didn't abuse the house but they didn't maintain it either. He's pointed out other things they never fixed.

He feels like the window is not his responsibility. He offered $500 towards the window.

I'm so annoyed and want to say tough luck and move on, but I think that is out of spite. The truth is there isn't anything else we really want.

IMHO, you frankly just have to decide how much you like the home.

I just had a client walk away from a contract for a similar reason. Home priced at 499,00 and we were in a multiple offer situation. Seller asked for highest and best. We offered 489 and we were the highest, but she still wasn't happy. I along with the selling agent agreed to cut our commissions to 2% each instead of 3% to give the seller the same net. DISCLOSURE: UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES I WOULD NEVER .... NEVER DO THIS, BUT BUYER IS MY FATHER. We had inspections done and it was discovered that the roof was currently failing with a replacement cost of $25K. Neither HVAC was working correctly, with the upstairs one not being sufficient to cool the expanded square footage so both would need to be replaced. The inspection also had a laundry list of minor issues (electrical boxes wired backwards, etc.) that would be easy to fix, so the only real issue was the 40K that would need to be paid upfront for the roof and HVAC. We asked for 15K and she was horribly offended, said very nasty things. We walked, and my dad LOVED this home. So what did the seller do? She took it off the market and is now relisting it for 30K HIGHER. There really is just no explaining things to some people.