All Forum Posts by: Austin Sine

Financials aside, if my husband & I vehemently disagree and one has to muscle the other along, it ends up being a bad financial decision in the end. We both work in real estate professionally, so the mindsets are harmonious. It took us years (and a few mishaps) to realize that going into a deal with a fractured "partnership" is a recipe for a lot of problems.   

Desperation is usually a deal breaker along with all of the above.

 Exorbitant property taxes

I have a few off the top of my head

• Non-conforming zoned properties, way too hard to get around these (sometimes)
• High crime rates, D class neighborhoods - beware of bad neighbors too
• Long list of building inspector code violations being transferred at closing
• Too many liens on the property (mechanics, tax, credit - you find these in the title search)
• Clouds on title (relatives in other states that have different plans for the property)
• Too much "spaghetti" on the table (hair on the deal, I am Italian and like food references)

Happy to share my "Due Diligence Checklist" from our BiggerPockets Blog. Enjoy!!

uneducated agents

Pricing.  

@Austin Sine when you google street view the property and there is no property there anymore.

Not really, we've seen about everything there is to see. Bad/inept repairs are worse than no repairs. Probably the biggest deal killers are roofs that have been leaking for a long time causing damage to roof structure, ceilings, floors and supporting structure. And another thing we try to avoid are crawl spaces that don't have room to crawl. Some houses in this area are just built on a couple of stacked rocks and the floor joists are literally on or nearly on the dirt. No access without excavation to do any needed repairs under the house. Some sellers think they have a property with value but in reality it's a scrape. (property that needs to be bulldozed)

@Austin Sine Welcome! Foundation issues. Always VERY tough to find  a qualified person at a reasonable price to fix these issues. Way too much money to spend for the unknown.

@Austin Sine totally depends on the agent and that's really why you should have a buyer's agent who will reveal all the deficiencies of the property for you and all of its fault so you have a second set of eyes.