I close on a house in 20 days and need help?
Question:Here's the scenario. I have a contract to buy a home for 125K. Three days ago my area was pounded w/ 5-6 inches of rain in a 24-48 hour period. The basement of the property leaked into the finished part of the basement. There were a lot of problems w/flooding basements in the area due to the rain and sewers backing up (no sewer water in this property) Seller had a contractor out to the home and advised that they need to get a bobcat in the backyard to re-do the dirt work against the foundation and replace the gutters on the back of the home. This requires the removal of 26X18 wood deck. Seller has offered to reduce price of the home by 2K or produce 2K at closing (this will approx cover the price of the dirtwork and gutters). This does not address the replacement of the deck or potential for replacement of carpet in the basement. I have a contractor going out tomorrow to estimate replacement cost of the patio. Thoughts?
Answers:
Same thing has happened to me. Sounds like you don't have a real estate attorney handling this for you. PLEASE get one. He'll probably charge you between 800 to 1500 bucks but it will be money well spent. What has to happen is money has to be put in escrow to cover repairs with a contract that if it's not enough, the sellers are responsible for other money needed to put it back to original condition. The sellers have probably collected money from their insurance company already for the repairs. Since you have a signed contract, the seller can't just say forget it. They must sell it to you in orig. condition at time of signing the contract.
By the way, the damage done to my house was some shingles missing, and a tree down in the back yard. The seller's offered us $2500.00 reduced price. Our attorney found out that they had received a $21,000 from their insurance company. The repairs were almost $24.000. And because our attorney had the money put in escrow at closing, the money was there and the sellers weren't very happy.
I wouldn't close on it without a final professional inspection. I would be at that inspection when it was done to see first hand any current or possible future problems with the structure. You should have had a "final walkthrough" before closing in your contract. If you don't, I'd check immediately with your realtor on adding an addendum.
Make sure it is fixed or the price is lowered enough to cover estimates for ALL repairs before closing. or a contract is signed. CALL A LAWYER.
Is any of the damage covered by insurance? If so, is that available to you as the buyer? Two grand is peanuts from the way it sounds.
Take the 2k at closeing then put in a sumpump.Few hundred.
That amount of water in that short of time will make any level ground basement cry.
If they won't replace the deck as it was when you signed the contract and make all repairs you can back out of the contract and should get your earnest money back. After all, you didn't agree to pay 125K for a flooded house, you agreed to pay 125K for a dry house WITH a deck. After your contractor does the estimate, tell them you want that amount taken off of the price or you want your earnest money back and call off the purchase. Keep in mind too.if this happened to them, it can happen to you and it will be your house then. Do you want to deal with a flooding basement?
It is the sellers' responsibility to sell you the house shown to you. Not any other version.His insurance may cover it.
Don't close unless this has been rectified, or void the contract for non-performance.
It is not your problem, and no amendment to the contract will get it back to what it was.
I'd get a good estimate of how much it will cost to put the house back into the condition it was in (or better to prevent this happening again) and use that figure to renegotiate the sale.
In some ways I'd want to handle overseeing the repairs (get the money from the seller at closing for all repairs) so I could know it was all done to my satisfaction and avoid surprises down the road, but it would be less work for you if you let the seller handle/oversee the repairs before the sale. Maybe a good compromise, if you would like one, would be for the seller to contract and pay for the repairs before the sale but for you to work with the contractors and see that you're happy with the scope and quality of the repairs.
I think that if something about the house changes from how it was when you signed the contract then you can get out of the contract. If your realtor disagrees, I'd ask some other realtors about it and maybe change realtors.
When you agreed to 125K, you were looking at a house with a deck.I think you should get estimates on the ground work and replacing the deck, even if you use most of the deck that is there and just strengthen anything that looks like it is not structurally sound. If you are secure in the workers estimates., get it done and see what it costs. I could see eating only a thousand. Then you do the math and make the agreement, Do all this before closing, and if you decide to back out there is the escrow money. I think you lose that unless you go to court. This could get real hairy.
Wood is really expensive, so consider using what you can of what is there.
Sounds like someone is trying to tell you something? Money Pit?
If you haven't closed escrow than you are safe and need the owner to pay for a home inspection or similiar. Do you have a Realtor to help? Where are you buying this home? No one where I live (Bay Area, CA) has ever seen a home for sale in that cost range? Just curious! Thanks and good luck!!
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