I need ALOT of help please

We have an accepted offer in on a house. We are not using real estate. found it on our own and we decided not to do dual representation.

The House: its a flip. the guy bought it 6 months ago for 89,000 less then his list price. I found it's sold listing and the interior pics. He really didn't do much but put carpeting over the lament floor in the downstairs part, he covered some holes in a wall, by placing a second layer of sheet rock over the entire wall and he painted. He installed a new tub (that has a huge chip in) in the hall bath and tile on the wall in the shower and took the double sinks off the existing cabinet and replaced the cabinet only. He also put new tile on the floor. Everything else is exactly the same. Maybe, at very most he spent 20K, but I'm leaning more towards 8-10K. We were told he flips houses all the time.

Our issue is, the home inspection went horrible!!!!! In the kitchen, none of the appliances work because all the electrical is wrong and blew out all of them. the CAC doesn't even turn on. And the worst thing is the 2nd bath in the house, is only supposed to be a half a bath. It doesn't have a co for the shower. (it was there when he purchased but since he bought it with cash, there wasn't a bank to deal with for no co) Needless to say, the shower is dumping its water into the main line into the cesspool without a trap. Apparently this is a HUGE problem. Its leaking methane gases into the house!!! there are a bunch of other electrical issues but this is our biggest by far. There are in ground sprinklers that don't work. There is a big carpenter ant problem in the garage.... etc etc.

I know that with every house comes issues, and were not spending a million dollars for a house so we can't expect everything to be perfect, but I sure as hell don't want methane gas in a house, nor do I want to worry about electrical issues since everything is wired from the box wrong.

We requested that these issues be addressed. We asked that the bathroom issue be resolved in one of 2 ways: (he wants to install a trap before the main, but that doesn't give us a co, which FHA is going to want, and apparently its not supposed to run into that line, its supposed to run into the toilet line, so basically he would have to pull up the tile, cut down into the slab, run a pipe and trap into the toilet line, call the town and get a co)
1. he removes the shower, closes up the pipe correctly, and lower his price to what comps are selling for with 1.5 baths
or
2. he do it correctly, but pulling everything out, applying for the proper permits, and then install it correctly.


***My problem here is, his real estate agent said that she will talk with him and see what he is willing to do. IF they come back and tell us he will do everything we asked, she said we can't wait for them to make the repairs and get a 2nd home inspection. if he does everything we want him to, we MUST go to contract this week (offer said we would today) I feel like this is a load of crap!!! On top of all this, his son is going to fix the CAC, the electrical and the plumbing!! I feel like unless this guy has a license do all of these, that isn't acceptable either....

What the heck do we do, walk away???

Are we allowed to say no, we aren't going into contract until we have a good home inspection (our offer did say this) and the repairs are made? I feel like this is just to much of a disaster for us, were not getting a huge discount on the house and I'm really scared of things we can't see that might be wrong. He claims that he knew the CAC and the microwave were broken ummmmm why wouldn't you tell at the very least your agent listing the house?? Now we don't know if there are other things we can't see that he knows about and isn't telling anyone... I think he was hoping we wouldn't figure out the CAC and appliances weren't working..

If you got this far- What do I do???
What rights do we have?

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Someone who just purchased, flipped usually means more then even your inspector will find. I would walk away and I know its really horrible to do that but electrical and plumbing problems are very hard to fix since it is behind walls and there is more of a chance that more issues will spring up once your in the house. Also getting a CO for all the things that he did will take time especially if he didn't file the permits for it. We only went with a house with out a co because the permits were filled in the early '70s but they never inspected this still has stalled us for a month so if you have to do the entire process it will take even longer and with a FHA loan you need the co to close (which you know.)

I refused to walk into any house that has been flipped unless the person who flipped it lived in it and owned it for a few years and then wanted to move on. They usually take the care in workmanship.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

i would RUN from this house Heather.

sorry but unless you have the money to make some major repairs to this house (because as was already pointed out, there are probably many more serious issues that the inspector did not or could not pick up on) it's just not worth it.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Heather......I would walk away and I know that completely, completely sucks but it sounds like there are WAY more problems then the norm. We bought a total wreck of a house and ours didn't even have this many problems. CO's are a huge thing to me....without correct permits, I would not be ok. Methane gas, improper electrical and plumbing are huge issues which may land you up tearing down walls to fix...you just never know.

We "flipped" our house but we LIVE in it, so we know the quality is good, this sounds to me like this guy had no experience flipping houses and is now going to leave you with a mess to fix.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

sorry, I would walk. This has disaster written all over it. To many things to fix and worry about. And, If he did the shotty work to begin with, I sure wouldn't want him "fixing" anything else. I would ask for a HUGE price reduction for what needs to be fixed the correct way.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

i was sooooo hoping to read this to see that you found something. but, very disappointed that it's a horror show.

i'd walk. there are going to be a ton more of underlying issues, i am sure.......

good luck!

Re: I need ALOT of help please

thanks everyone. Its our gut feeling, but I thought maybe I was being unreasonable. I think I would be worried every single night knowing that the elctrical may short out in the walls and start a fire

Re: I need ALOT of help please

run!

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Re: I need ALOT of help please

These are only the MAJOR problems that they found in the inspection. There are probably a ton of smaller issues too.

I would walk away. I know it's frustrating but I think u r better or waiting for a better house to come along.

The fact that it's a flip wouldn't scare me----the inspection report, however, would.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Houses come with so many 'little' problems that an inspector just cannot forsee that you need to RUN away from the houses that have major glaring expensive (and dangerous) issues.

I bought a good house and spent a ton on some small and some not so small repairs from unforeseen issues. I wouldn't trust that this 'flippers' house will ever be up to code correctly. God knows what you would find 6 months down the road.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

RUN!!!!

Re: I need ALOT of help please

I agree with everyone else - this is not the house for you.

Don't worry though, something will turn up!

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Your story sounds like a disaster right from the get-go... Esp being a 1st time home buyer (you are right?) I think you're going to get waaaay in over your head with this deal... I personally wouldnt touch it and would walk... and walk FAST...

Re: I need ALOT of help please

i would run from this house. sounds like you could be putting your lives in danger given all of the problems! I know it stinks since you've been looking for quite a while, but you want to be safe, and you shouldn't compromise on that.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

See I'm not even one bit disappointed to walk/run away!! I feel so much fear for this house that when I think of walking away it makes me excited to find another house
I am a 1st time home buyer, to answer the question
And we have been looking for a while. this is the 5th house we have bid on. the first one was a short sale that we were out bid on. the other 3 were all houses we bid more then asking price and were all out bid on again. this one has been on the market a little while so it was exciting to get that call that we got the house. Considering the fact that we found 5 houses that we loved I'm sure we can find another one

Re: I need ALOT of help please

No way would I continue with this house.

Your inspector found things wrong and that is only scratching the surface.

Talk to your lawyer and pull the offer.

This is way more headache than you even know.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Posted by HeatherRose

See I'm not even one bit disappointed to walk/run away!! I feel so much fear for this house that when I think of walking away it makes me excited to find another house
I am a 1st time home buyer, to answer the question
And we have been looking for a while. this is the 5th house we have bid on. the first one was a short sale that we were out bid on. the other 3 were all houses we bid more then asking price and were all out bid on again. this one has been on the market a little while so it was exciting to get that call that we got the house. Considering the fact that we found 5 houses that we loved I'm sure we can find another one

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Posted by MaZz

Posted by HeatherRose

See I'm not even one bit disappointed to walk/run away!! I feel so much fear for this house that when I think of walking away it makes me excited to find another house
I am a 1st time home buyer, to answer the question
And we have been looking for a while. this is the 5th house we have bid on. the first one was a short sale that we were out bid on. the other 3 were all houses we bid more then asking price and were all out bid on again. this one has been on the market a little while so it was exciting to get that call that we got the house. Considering the fact that we found 5 houses that we loved I'm sure we can find another one

Dh & I were originally looking into foreclosures/short sales etc ... some of the prices are very attractive, but it could really be hit or miss with those homes... and being 1st timers ourselves, we opted not to go with a house that was "out of the norm" as our 1st place bc having the normal things go wrong is going to be stressful enough since we have no idea what the hell we're doing... learning will come along the way, but that house you just described, seems to be for the more "advanced" buyer... if you were confident that you could do all the repairs and had the extra cash to do so, then it might be worth a shot... just my opinion of course!

You will find the perfect house for you.. it'll pop up... were you trying to close for the 8k? Bc there is also that new MCC program that will end up paying better than 8k in just a few years!

Re: I need ALOT of help please

Posted by HeatherRose

we are are we're not Lol. Its not a deal breaker as much as it would help. I'd rather find the best home for us then to rush into a home for 8K. We actually started looking in June because we could finally afford to buy. it had nothing to do with the 8K

What is the MCC program? and what do you need to qualify?

Re: I need ALOT of help please

I know it stinks but RUN! We had to do this 3 times because of bad inspection reports.

Since you haven't signed a contract, all you have to do is let the REA or the buyer's attorney know you are not consumating the deal. I would send a fax so you have it in writing.

Sorry this is happening, but it really is for the best. There are too many issues with that house. And if you are going for an FHA, they will never let you close with a report like that.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

easy decision. just walk away.

Re: I need ALOT of help please

RUN DONT WALK too Shady...

Re: I need ALOT of help please

I agree whe the other posters. Walk away!

The guy is trying to make a few bucks by doing an unprofessional job himself.

1/ He is doing cosmetic work for a "seliing look" but not fixing the issues. He may willingly covering them up too.

2/ He is not licenced and nothing works

3/ He has no co.

This guy has no idea what he is doing.

If you are just finding those issues now, imagine when you go exploring more in details after you move in.

I imagine there is a major electrical work to be done. A lot of illegal tapping into electrical lines that are not up to code.

I would not want this flip. It seem like someone unprofessional is doing it as a "side job". I would not want him to "repair" anything. If it was not done right, that means he had no clue how to do it right and to code in the first place.