All Forum Posts by: Aref Shehadeh

Rehabbing a 1930's bungalow. There is tile present on the walls of the dining room, which is the most central room of the first floor. The tile is in decent shape.

Creeping on my rehab budget and would prefer to not demo the tile. Any tips for maybe refreshing the look? (Epoxy paint, acrylic resin). Could this have an ill-effect for home buyers if kept in? 

Agreed all. Lets see how they feel about a $15K concession :).

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Here's the sitch-

I have a REO property in inspection period.

Gas- Bank refuses to connect gas which has been cut off at the street. Pipes inside seem to be corroded. The REO listing agent seemed to slip up and told me "the house has a history of gas leaks". Won't elaborate more.

Electric- Got it on. Has live knob and tube throughout the entire house. 

Plumbing- Water is off. Big hole in ceiling in living room exposing pipes which look as if they were leaking before.

Basement- tons of mold, asbestos on pipes, some split beams evident in basement.

I have the house in contract at 45-50% of ARV. $62K purchase price. $25K estimated cosmetic repairs (budgeted for likely overbudget).

Rehabbers- what is your minimum criteria for taking on projects. Would what I mentioned scare you? Will try to get bank to discount, but they likely won't... Anyone have experience actually getting banks to budge?

After cosmetic rehab budget I have $10K to apply towards issues without it killing the deal given holding and selling costs. 

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Will begin working on a rehab soon, the basement has me a bit perplexed.

3 bedroom 1.5 bath (2.5 if you count one full bath in the basement) single family home. 1200 sq/ft. + basement is 760 sq/ft. 

The basement is some what finished, contains a full bathroom and several closets and what not. But, it is all crap. The walls had to be done 20 years ago. Bathroom is falling apart- old small tile shower, broken floor tiles. Walls have mold on it, ceiling consists of old ripped up hanging tiles. 

My initial thought is to demo it all with the exception of the bathroom, but maybe keep it a half bath and leave the plumbing for the shower. I've been reading and have spoken to an appraiser and I've gathered that basements really don't add value. The full bath is the biggest consideration really. 

Any experiences and/or thoughts?

Just an update, I was able to get an inspection contingency added and they will de-winterize.

Hah. I'm with you. This place has been vacant for 2 years. Had a licensed inspector do a walk through... he was sketched out by a few things. Just impossible to know the extent without de-winterizing. I get it, as is, but ive heard many contradicting things about the inspection contingency. Lawyer says it's our state law. Listing agent says doesn't matter if I agree to waive it.

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It's through homepath / Fannie mae

Working with a REO listing agent directly. Received the addendum and although the language in the addendum allows for a 10 day inspection period, it is negated later on with the words "AS IS NO INSPECTION"... Confirmed with the listing agent that the bank wants it to be signed as is and with no inspection period whatsoever, truly as is.

The other scary piece is how the Earnest money deposit is ($5K). I am using private financing and have provided a POF letter. So this addendum (confirmed by my attorney) has no outs.

I've had an inspector buddy walk the property and things seem fine. I am a very serious buyer so it wouldn't be a huge deal if the property wasn't winterized... so I can't inspect properly until it has been de-winterized.

What options do I really have? Is this listing agent talking making some of these rules up or do I have some negotiating power? I would be ok with the new inspection clause of the EMD was 1%. Or, I would accept the $3K EMD if there was an inspection period.

I'll post updates for sure. I'm going to town hall tomorrow just to see if there is anything regarding it. There's no water running in the house since the bank "winterized" it @Curtis Yoder.

@Jim Shepard- come to think about it, there is some hint of a brick foundation there underneath the asphalt. An old well I don't have a problem with... hmmmm.

Looking at a REO flip. Had a preliminary walk through with an inspector buddy. We noticed there was some caution tape surrounding something and a recycling bin covering up a hole...

Not the greatest pictures, sorry.

I've never seen anything like it. Any thoughts?

The bank winterized the place and it seems like a dried up cesspool. Here in RI there was a serious bill passed to decommission and replace cesspools. They cut a hole in the ground and did a hack job covering it up. Within the hole (it's hard to see) there seems to be a pipe coming from the house, a gap, then another pipe running somewhere. Not sure if they took a piece out or not. 

Should I run?