Real Estate Agent · Denham Springs, LA · Member since 2017 · 226 posts · 159 votes
There are tons of flooded and gutted houses on the market since the big flood last year. Have any of you guys done any rehabs on these houses and were they different than any other rehabs you've done? Do you need any special permits or anything when it's known the house flooded?
I am currently in doing a rehab on a flooded home in Central. Bought it about two weeks ago and just finished demo. The Central municipality is a pain to deal with but I'm not making any additions or doing any structural work.
@Chadmayo- I had to rehab my personal home in Central and the Municipality wasn't to bad. Also I have rehabbed a few properties in EBR parish and didn't have to pull permits on them.
Hello. What about Homes in Ae flood zones? How important is a flood certificate? We are looking at flipping a house but don't want to get stuck with the home ,due to flood insurance for buyer. This is also are first flip.
When you go to sell the house, the buyer's lender will request a food certificate to determine the FEMA flood zone status. If it's in any flood zone, the buyer will be required to obtain flood insurance...
AE is a special flood hazard zone but it all depends on your elevation (and amount you carry + deductible) for what the coverage is. The buyer with a mortgage in a special flood hazard zone is required, but say you're zone X, C, A, etc you aren't a special hazard zone.
We flip homes in flood zones in NJ. We lift the home, that is my family business, and do the renovation and resell. We get the home FEMA compliant and this helps the sale greatly compared to a non lifted non compliant home. However the value is still reduced compared to non flood zone properties
@Jason Yarusi Fascinating insight. Can you possibly give me an idea how much of a discount you typically apply to a flood zone rehab when you go to sell it? Also, assuming you hire someone to lift the house up to become FEMA compliant, what ballpark can one expect to pay for this? I know it varies with size, but just a rough ballpark for a 1000 sqft house. Thanks!
@Parker L. In my area home values fluctuate from 100k to million dollar homes. Generally $100k-150k discount due to the extensive work/ cost and timeline it takes to lift the house from start to finish.
In all you need to have architectural plans, permits, utility shutoffs all prior to the work, lift the house, new foundation, extend or completely redo utilities as they may have been submerged during flood. Carpentry works including new egresses and any interior renovations necessary either due to flooding or due to new elevation. For example an attached garage now 8' in the air may get framed in to become an additional room and a new garage created beneath.
My discount numbers vary based on if the home is gutted or completed renovated and needs to just be lifted to be compliant. Also if its on a slab then regardless all of the first floor interiors need to be removed 4' down. Unless you are maybe in New Orleans where there are monolithic slabs and the slab is lifted with the house.
For your 1000 sq ft house here in New Jersey, considering that it will be a wood frame structure (to lift a block or stone structure can be 3-4x the cost) the price would range from about $9000-13000 for just the lift of the home and the set down on the new foundation.
The cost of the foundation will range tremendously based on what flood zone you are in, what type of foundation is called for on the plans and if you can reuse the old foundation to build up on or have to replace the entire foundation.