The benefits of good inspectors

[jducoeur]

It's been a busy week on the house front. Looking back, it's downright astonishing that, as of this writing, it's yet a few hours shy of a week since the first time we looked at Mill St.

The thing about having really good house inspectors is that they efficiently disabuse you of the notion that you have found The Perfect House, which you must buy at all costs. Mill St. went much better than Edmands Rd. did -- there wasn't anything obviously devastating. The house has been decently maintained, and is in generally fair shape. But the roof of the addition is going to have to be ripped off and reworked (obvious ventilation problems), and the Masonite siding is at the end of its lifespan (Mike Scaduto sniffily refers to the stuff as "cardboard", and explained that it was pulled from the market not long after this house was resided). So we're about to drop the offer price a bit to compensate -- we'll see if the sellers bite.

Mike pointed out a few structural issues that made him nervous, so I brought in Rene Mugnier, a structural engineer he recommended, to look it over. The conclusion seems to be that there are some issues, but nothing clearly devastating. The chimney is ever so slowly and majestically falling off, but that can be fixed for a reasonable amount of money. The main beam over the garage seems to be slightly insufficient, so it'll be another few grand to reinforce that. There is some ongoing settling and related minor foundation cracking, but that looks more like a mild maintenance nuisance than a severe problem. There are some other matters of concern, but it seems to be manageable.

So far, the deal's still on. If they accept the revised offer, we continue to run at high speed. In the meantime, today is another day of gradually packing up the house. We've finally begun to really empty out and move some bookcases, which goes a long ways towards making it feel like we're making progress...

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Roofs may not have to be removed to improve ventilation. Check with a professional roofing carpenter. Eave and peak vents can be installed without redoing everything. (On the other hand, if it is year 18 on a 20 year roof...)

If you offer them a copy of the inspectors report, they'll find themselves in a bit of a pickle - they have to report to all potential buyers anything they "know about". They know a lot now...

That's how I managed to keep the deal alive for my home after discovering issues with the property. Partially it was because their first buyer had already withdrawn and I was the second, and partially it was because with the laundry list my inspector found, they would be stuck telling new buyers about a very long list of issues indeed.

On the other hand, expect some push-back. And be cautious if they offer to merely fix things themselves in return. That would be "lowest bidder" stuff. I got bitten by that with this house, too.

[jducoeur]

Roofs may not have to be removed to improve ventilation.

This may be true, but for the moment it behooves me to be pessimistic. What we know is that the addition is only 12 years old, and the plywood is notably warping in some places, which means that there are some *serious* heat problems up there. It may just be a matter of poor top vents (the ridge vent in the main attic is poorly cut, so there's precedent there), but it might be that the insulation is blocking the vents, or even that the vents weren't run right. (There are skylights on both sides, so it would be fairly easy to screw up the ventilation.) Optimistically, we're looking at reshingling and replacing some of the plywood. Pessimistically, we're looking at tearing the whole thing off and redoing it.

For the moment, I'm assuming the worst, but not insisting on that from a price POV. I'm insisting on knocking $10k off the agreed price, each side taking some of the pain. I think they were honestly ignorant of most of the problems, which are still fairly subtle -- the *obvious* bits of the house are quite well-maintained, but they've missed some details. So I'm inclined towards a fair compromise. (OTOH, that's not open to haggling. It's a generous offer; if they don't take it, we walk.)

If you offer them a copy of the inspectors report, they'll find themselves in a bit of a pickle

Yaas. I don't think they realize that yet. My suspicion is that they'll agree to our revised offer -- they really do want to sell, and would be foolish to decline this modest negotiation. They might try to weasel around, given that there were some other potential buyers, but the simple fact is that they need to sell more than we need to buy; that gives us the strong bargaining position.

And be cautious if they offer to merely fix things themselves in return. That would be "lowest bidder" stuff.

Oh, I'm well aware of that. Indeed, the problems that we have with the house mostly point to them having poor taste in contractors, so I specifically *don't* want whoever has been doing their work. (I mean, that Masonite siding really is junk.) That's part of the reason for the compromise offer. If we demanded a full $20k reduction, they'd probably push to have someone do the work upfront. I'd rather eat some of the cost and do my own interviewing for contractors, especially since none of this is an *immediate* crisis -- it's just stuff that needs to happen soon...