Sheree Chalfant
05-09-2012, 10:25 AM
We live in a neighborhood known for its tall oaks, mature landscaping and privacy—the homes were built from the mid-sixties through mid-eighties. A few days ago my husband and I toured a house for sale down the lane that has been on the market quite a while, but was recently drastically reduced from 179K to 129K—in one shot.
Built in 1973, it's a full-brick, 3,300 sq ft ranch nestled in the middle of one acre. The lot gradually slopes upward about 1/3 acre to where the house sits—so it's a decent distance from the street; the house and back yard remains flat until a three-foot stone retaining wall expands the entire width of the rear property.
Thanks to the bursted housing bubble nationwide, homes in our neighborhood have dropped in value over the past few years. Yet even so, nothing in this area has sold for less than $200,000 over the past six months—I'd say the average has been around $255,000—and all three houses were less square footage and lot size than the house I'm writing about.
Reducing a house fifty thousand dollars—dropping it by almost 30% at one clip says: "GUESS WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!" Or....it could be screaming, "OPPORTUNITY of a LIFETIME!."
So we went to see it and here's the problem as explained by the 85 yr old original owner:
YEARS ago there was a water leak under the house. Apparently a faulty A/C unit in the crawl space, saturated the floor joists of the room(s) above. What I don't follow is how an A/C unit (or whatever the apparatus was that leaked water) could cause such extensive joist damage as to be evident in the living room, entry foyer, both front bedrooms and master bedroom at the end of the hall/house. (All locations lie in line with each other on the frontside of the house except the M/B at the end and the damaged floor seems to be on the backyard side of the M/B).
The slope of the floor is noticeable and walking over the damaged areas is weird, weird weird. (My husband straddled a floor joist a couple years ago while building a deck, so I suggested he should perhaps walk with each foot directly infront of the other—insuring if he fell through maybe this time he wouldn't pass out on impact.)
He didn't see the humor and instead lightly bounced here and there pointing "See"....or...."Look at this. Unbelievable." In the entry foyer his bouncing seemed to cause an interior wall to move. I'm not convinced however that the wall actually swayed, but that the vibration from his bouncing jostled the pictures similar to what can happen anytime there's heavy banging in a house.
Regardless, there's no question the house has serious issues. But....BUT, aside from having a structural engineer inspect the crawl space and floor joists, sills and walls. . .what else should we consider IF we move forward and make an offer?
Who best can determine not only the extent of the damage, but also the estimated cost and feasibility of removing and replacing rotted joists, and laying new sub-flooring and hardwood?
Unbelievable opportunity? Or Asinine Contemplation?
Thanks everyone.
Built in 1973, it's a full-brick, 3,300 sq ft ranch nestled in the middle of one acre. The lot gradually slopes upward about 1/3 acre to where the house sits—so it's a decent distance from the street; the house and back yard remains flat until a three-foot stone retaining wall expands the entire width of the rear property.
Thanks to the bursted housing bubble nationwide, homes in our neighborhood have dropped in value over the past few years. Yet even so, nothing in this area has sold for less than $200,000 over the past six months—I'd say the average has been around $255,000—and all three houses were less square footage and lot size than the house I'm writing about.
Reducing a house fifty thousand dollars—dropping it by almost 30% at one clip says: "GUESS WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!" Or....it could be screaming, "OPPORTUNITY of a LIFETIME!."
So we went to see it and here's the problem as explained by the 85 yr old original owner:
YEARS ago there was a water leak under the house. Apparently a faulty A/C unit in the crawl space, saturated the floor joists of the room(s) above. What I don't follow is how an A/C unit (or whatever the apparatus was that leaked water) could cause such extensive joist damage as to be evident in the living room, entry foyer, both front bedrooms and master bedroom at the end of the hall/house. (All locations lie in line with each other on the frontside of the house except the M/B at the end and the damaged floor seems to be on the backyard side of the M/B).
The slope of the floor is noticeable and walking over the damaged areas is weird, weird weird. (My husband straddled a floor joist a couple years ago while building a deck, so I suggested he should perhaps walk with each foot directly infront of the other—insuring if he fell through maybe this time he wouldn't pass out on impact.)
He didn't see the humor and instead lightly bounced here and there pointing "See"....or...."Look at this. Unbelievable." In the entry foyer his bouncing seemed to cause an interior wall to move. I'm not convinced however that the wall actually swayed, but that the vibration from his bouncing jostled the pictures similar to what can happen anytime there's heavy banging in a house.
Regardless, there's no question the house has serious issues. But....BUT, aside from having a structural engineer inspect the crawl space and floor joists, sills and walls. . .what else should we consider IF we move forward and make an offer?
Who best can determine not only the extent of the damage, but also the estimated cost and feasibility of removing and replacing rotted joists, and laying new sub-flooring and hardwood?
Unbelievable opportunity? Or Asinine Contemplation?
Thanks everyone.