Offering on a house that "does not hold air pressure"

[Melroy D'Souza]

I am going to offer on a REO that does not have utilities turned on. I was just lucky in the past that the other 2 REOs I bought did not have busted pipes. This one specifically says "We did a pressure test and the pressure did not hold for both water and gas". The house is actually in decent shape except for the roof and electric panel.

So how much will it cost to remedy broken pipes? How does one go about figuring out where the water pipe is broken? Any suggestions or anyone that had a similar experience recently? Just to get an idea of the cost?

[Russell Brazil]

Theres no way to tell if it is a small leak or a couple, or if you need to have the whole house repiped. The latter is unlikely...but you could easily have multiple burst pipes throughout the house that froze for all you know. Thats part of the risk and the discount that comes with purchasing an REO.