Houselopnik - Bonus Round

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori) 01/31/2018 at 23:11 • Filed to: None

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Hey so I saw all of you cool people looking for houses, so I figured I’d give it a try!

Actually not really. A house popped up for sale in my neighborhood for a lot less than they usually go for. My mom has been talking about moving to town and wanted me to go take a look. Well OK I say “popped,” it has been on the market since October but the sellers recently dropped $25k off the price so it suddenly became work looking at.

Neat part was I got to see my realtor from when I bought my house 5 years ago! She is basically exactly the same except for now she dyes her hair.

The rest was kind of crap.

It was a neat house with a decent floor-plan and good originality. Unfortunately, it looks like the family that bought it were concentrating so hard on makin’ babies, they forgot that 100 year old houses (this one was built in 1917) require maintenance.

A lot of it.

The outside needs a roof, paint, and significant rot repair. On the inside the floors need a coat of poly and there is a lot of minor damage from water ingress. Also the laundry room is a nightmare, as is the garage. Did I mention they’re selling AS-IS?

My recommendation was if she wants to have the work done, she’d need to get another $40k off asking to make purchase + repairs + wiggle room = reasonable market value.

Sounds like she is going to pass.

Here are some photos, and I’ll put the email I sent to my mom after that. Sorry about the quality, I wasn’t thinking of Oppo when I took them.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Heya,

Took a look and it isn’t all bad news. The summary is it needs about $60k in work. Needs exterior paint and rot repair, a new roof, and some paint and tune up inside. Lot of water damage and deferred maintenance. I think the roof either did leak or is currently leaking.

Probably the worst part is the laundry room, which isn’t large enough for a washer and dryer. Odd, but would be very easy to expand as it’s just a small room off the kitchen as-is right now. You could consider moving it to the master closet too.

Floors are original downstairs, but need a coat of poly ASAP. Other than that they’re in great shape. Upstairs is carpet over hardwood and would need some attention.

Living room and dining room are fine, and there is a cute little nook/ solarium off the side of the living room.

Both bathrooms are small but serviceable. The half bath is off the kitchen and is a little larger than my half bath. The full bath is off the hallway and is a little smaller than mine, but has a better layout.

Kitchen is cute and well laid out. Decent size honestly, though a little light on counter space. There is some room to add additional counters and cabinets if you want to go that route. Or maybe a floating island. Nothing that needs doing immediately.

The second and third bedrooms are connected and small, so really they are just one medium sized bedroom, but there is some potential there regardless. Master is a good size and has hardwood in good shape. Good closets throughout.

Electrical is pretty standard. 150A service and looks reasonably modern. Dual HVAC and newer looking furnace, though at least one of the AC units is probably due for replacement. Didn’t get a look at the 2nd furnace, so I’d assume it needs replaced until proven otherwise.

I don’t think there has been any work done to it in 5 to 10 years.

So the tl;dr is I think it is a good little house that needs a lot of work, mostly on the outside. 

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:18

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This looks better than the house I live in now...

fintail > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:19

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Oh the fun of a charming looking old house - always needs something. And they can be haunted.

What’s the thing on the chimney? The larger tree looks really close, but maybe it’s ok.

Chariotoflove > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:23

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I like the color, and some landscaping could really help the front. The big determinant for the outside is how is the back yard. Small or big is not as important as the layout. And is that blue building behind it an associated garage, or does that go with the red house?

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > fintail 01/31/2018 at 23:24

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Yeah, this one presents well in photos but IRL the exterior work is a bit daunting.

No idea on the chimney. Cut down on drafts maybe?

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:28

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PNW vs Flyover? Honestly it is a cute house and would be great once the repairs were done. There is some worry with the rot though and the owners clearly didn’t identify and fix leaks/ problems as they came up. The amount of rot is scary and I’d bet it get scarier the deeper you get into it.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Chariotoflove 01/31/2018 at 23:29

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Blue garage comes with this house, yeah. The house has a shared driveway with the brick house next door, which is why they’re so close.

Chariotoflove > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:31

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Okay, that is a significant tick in the pros column.

ranwhenparked > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:48

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I looked at something a bit like that a few weeks ago. Attractive house in a nice neighborhood, built in 1947, and still owned by the original owner that was just moved into a nursing home and the bank’s selling it in a short sale, due to her reverse mortgage.

The plus was that it was a solidly built house with a lot of nice details that hadn’t been tastelessly renovated over the years. The negative was that not much of anything had been done at all for the last 20-30 years, to include basic maintenance and simply fixing things when they break.

The beautiful oak hardwoods throughout needed to be stripped and refinished, since they were worn down to bare wood in high traffic areas. A number of windows had the sashes completely rotted away, with just the loose glass just sitting there. The original cast iron sink and tub in the bathroom were streaked with rust, the roof looked like 25 year shingles in their 30th year, the exterior brick steps were crumbling front and back, the air conditioning (one of the few upgrades) was easily 25 years old and the compressor looked shot, the water heater was rusted out, the sump pump was in the worst part of the basement (chosen only because the original hot water heating system drained into it, and that was the most convenient spot to the furnace, but the side effect was that it didn’t do much to keep the basement dry), every room you went into needed plaster work, and the worst part was that the two car garage out back was a complete tear down.

The sill had been attacked by what looked like carpenter ants all the way completely around the perimeter of the whole building, there was nothing left, the walls were resting on something with the integrity of paper - I think the asbestos cement siding was the only thing holding it up. Plus, part of the foundation had heaved out and away from the building.

The bank put it on the market for $150,000, cut it to $122,000, but you could have dumped $50,000 easy into just basic repairs - no upgrades, just fixing it back up to the way it was, and, in that neighborhood, you’d have $172,000 into a house worth maybe $175,000 (only one bathroom, you need two to top the $200k mark around there, there’s certainly room to add one, but how much do you want to pile on?).

It photographed pretty well, so online it seemed like maybe a little more than a paint and paper job. The realtor actually seemed kind of embarrassed to show it to me and was pointing out little things he had recommended to the owner’s family here and there that they could do to help get it sold faster.

Honestly, if it was more expensive and had maybe half the problems, I’d have been in. Lot of little things that just added up to one big bill, which could have been avoided if the lady that lived there had taken care of them one at a time as they cropped up.

Brickman > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/31/2018 at 23:54

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Im also looking for a house and im 99% sure me and my father got it. Sellers agreed to the asking price and we got it inspected and they are already packing up. Haven’t even paid for the place yet :P

Its a modular home off of a highway next to the bayou in Louisiana. Nice and quiet, has a garage for all my tools and projects! I’ll make a post some pics when I have it, dont want to put any now for privacy of the owners.

DipodomysDeserti > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 00:29

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I’m so fortunate to have been able to buy a house in 2009 straight out of school. Three houses on my street have sold for 3x what I owe on mine. The US economy is a fucking shitshow. I could sell and make a pretty penny, but my wife birthed two kids on this land and my dearist dog is buried in the yard so I’ll probably just hold onto it and give it to my daughters when I’m ready to be buried.

Americans have no sense of “place”. That’s the one thing I hope to pass on to my kids.

shop-teacher > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 06:54

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That piece of plywood over what is certainly a leaky flat roof is hiding a lot of evil. Hard pass if it were my money.

someassemblyrequired > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 08:57

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^^This, also keeps the birds/bats out.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 08:57

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Some people just shouldn’t buy a house. How you don’t do any maintenance is beyond me. But, we did buy our house for a significant discount because of it. And the fact that it was still the 80s inside it at the time.

someassemblyrequired > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 09:08

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Whenever we move somewhere for my wife’s job, I usually buy a project to keep me busy until things settle out. I would consider this house, which is probably another reason not to buy it.

The original doors probably are letting some water in, and will swell quite generously. They can be managed pretty easily, but you need to add better seals (usually they have none) and sometimes plane them to remove excess paint or give a bit of space for sealing.

The plywood is likely over a leaky flat roof. Not sure why it’s flat, I’d turn it into a pitched roof, and you’d be less leak prone, plus you could open up the ceiling as well.

Laundry would need to be addressed properly if you ever wanted to sell. Anyways, lots of potential, but lots of work. I’d say $40K if you’re paying someone, easily. Could be done for less, but that comes as a cost too.

fintail > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 09:27

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If you don’t like doing the work or paying for it, might be better to get a finished project. My family had a couple of older houses when I was growing up, one not terribly unlike this one, and it had some issues - but the charm (built-ins, leaded glass, unique staircase, woodwork, 2 fireplaces, formal rooms, etc) kept my parents going.

The chimney cap to keep out animals makes sense - otherwise I’d imagine a damper would do a lot, but I don’t know the climate there. I hope it is just a cap for a normal reason and not for a damaged chimney, that work can be insanely expensive.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > fintail 02/01/2018 at 09:39

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Could be damage too. None of the bricks had their faces anymore. It was weird.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 02/01/2018 at 09:44

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Right? I mean, I’ve got some deferred maintenance on mine, for sure, but there are limits! Anything that is going to cause additional damage is corrected pretty much immediately.

If I were guessing I think they probably bought in to a recently flipped house and thought it was “cute” and “charming” but had no idea what it takes to keep up with something like that. Also if it was really a flip there was probably a lot that was shoddily done, like the laundry room.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Brickman 02/01/2018 at 10:05

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Have you looked at the flood risk/ requirements? We just missed getting soaked  during th e 2016 Amite/Comite river floods.

TheRealBicycleBuck > DipodomysDeserti 02/01/2018 at 10:09

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Our family has a strong sense of place, we’re just living in the wrong one! :)

We’ve had our house for over 10 years, so our kids have lived most of their lives there. Before that, we lived in three different houses in two different cities. Our kids have stronger bonds to their grandparents’ homes which are in two different states. When I told them we are thinking about buying a different house closer to their schools , they cheered. That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 10:22

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I can see why it wasn’t selling at where it was priced, because to get it to where we have it now would put the all in price around the same as an already updated and maintained home. I do most of the work myself though so it was still a deal for us (we probably put about $30k into it so far and could probably sell for $70-80k more than we bought it for)

TheRealBicycleBuck > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 02/01/2018 at 10:24

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This holds true for cars too. People buy as much car as they can “afford ” but usually forget to include maintenance costs into their calculations.

fintail > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/01/2018 at 13:04

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Probably worthy of an inspection.

Brickman > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/01/2018 at 14:26

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its in a zone x 500 year flood zone, so no insurance is required. Its a good 6-8 feet down from the edge of the property and the bayou drains into the intercoastal / gulf of mexico

TheRealBicycleBuck > Brickman 02/01/2018 at 15:57

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Get the flood insurance anyway. We have several friends and relatives of friends who weren’t in the flood zone, didn’t have insurance, but were flooded during the 2016 high water event. At least being in Zone X will make your insurance really cheap.

Deep ditches and bayous are there for a reason - they move a lot of water. If they are maintained so that they move a lot of water, you can expect that they will be moving an excessive amount of water at some point in the future.

Being connected to an intracoastal puts you at risk for storm surge too. Check out NOAA’s national storm surge model maps. http://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=d9ed7904dbec441a9c4dd7b277935fad&entry=1

Find the place you want to buy and see if it’s at risk. Many of th e older FEMA flood insurance rate maps (aka FIRMS, used to determine expected flood extent and set insurance rates) haven’t been updated to include storm surge or were updated but have been contested so the “final” maps haven’t been published. Don’t trust the buyer. See the status of the property over here:  https://msc.fema.gov/portal

Brickman > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/01/2018 at 17:53

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I’ll sure look into it.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 13:07

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If I had the money I would love a house like that. I like doing home repair.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CaptDale - is secretly British 02/02/2018 at 13:48

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Nice part about it, the house would be totally livable after the floors were done. The interior is mostly fine.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 14:15

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Yeah and just that awful laundry room! I would move laundry to the garage at that point

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 14:15

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Yeah and just that awful laundry room! I would move laundry to the garage at that point

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CaptDale - is secretly British 02/02/2018 at 14:23

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There was an awkward spot in the master closet that would be pretty much perfect for a stacked washer/ dryer. I think I’d go that route. Or that mud room (laundry room) was so effed just rebuild it twice its size. Whichever.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 14:32

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I could never have the washer and dryer in my closet. That just would not happen.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CaptDale - is secretly British 02/02/2018 at 14:54

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I like the idea of having it at least near where the laundry is made. In this house I’d like it in the main hallway. Upside is you don’t have to take your laundry though living/ entertainment areas to do it. Downside is you probably wouldn’t want to put a load in right before bed. (My washer and dryer are in my basement which is pretty much the definition of suck...)

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 16:57

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I like them in the garage or basement. Noise away from the house. plenty of room for a folding station, and gets me up and moving.

Plus I don’t mind carrying laundry through the living areas, nice hampers and not doing laundry while guests are around cancels that issue out for me.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CaptDale - is secretly British 02/02/2018 at 18:03

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I had to go into the basement this morning for underwear. I didn’t care for it.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/02/2018 at 18:10

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Go commando? Or don’t run out

arl > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 02/05/2018 at 13:18

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A house like that in Alexandria VA (not fixed up) would easily go for 600K+. Fixed up would bring 800K+.