Starting to look at houses...carpet questions

jesse said:
The property is not in a floodplain. Its basically built into the top of a side of a hill. The land slopes down for about 6 blocks from that point.
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Looks like they tried to put a bit of a berm / swale to divert the water around the house - but it looks like they had limited success based on the picture of the garage...

Trying to dry it out could end up being a lot of work.
 
jesse said:
The house is a split level. I didn't notice this really that much until I started looking at all the pictures I took. The garage is basically in teh ground.

The back wall of the garage....makes..me think it might leak..at least thats waht im assuming those stains on the wall would be from
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I'm trying to figure out how big of a deal this may or may not be.
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Just by looking at this picture I would take this house off my list.
 
jesse said:
The property is not in a floodplain. Its basically built into the top of a side of a hill. The land slopes down for about 6 blocks from that point.
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Yeah, but it has a French Drain in the Garage and from the pictures you posted, it has water and drainage issues which will lead to mold issues as well, some quite toxic and requiring the burning down of the house to get rid of. The house is not at the "top" of the hill, it is down stream from the top and there really isn't adequate clearance of the main floor from the ground level. You'll get flooding in the house after a spring snow/ice storm followed by rain where the drainage is hampered as well. Saw a lot of that in Detroit after a snow & Ice storm. Luckily they had enough damage from ice dams in the gutters backing the water up under the shingles that I could cover the flood damage as well, I just claimed it all as intruded from the roof. No way my file examiner could really pinch me on it, and Allstate wasn't being stingy so I never got called on it (we get paid on a percentage of the check we write). It's a bad set up from the pictures I saw. My advice on that place is still stay away from it.
 
Henning said:
Yeah, but it has a French Drain in the Garage and from the pictures you posted, it has water and drainage issues which will lead to mold issues as well, some quite toxic and requiring the burning down of the house to get rid of.
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I don't think that is a french drain. I am pretty sure it is a sump pump pit with tile around the house. But-- I don't know this for sure, nor do i know how to identify it.

It seems to me that if there is tile around the house and a sump pump pit and there was never a pump installed it's doing fairly well for none of that being pumped. The walls having some moisture --but no real signs of there ever being an actual big leakage.

The house is not at the "top" of the hill, it is down stream from the top and there really isn't adequate clearance of the main floor from the ground level. You'll get flooding in the house after a spring snow/ice storm followed by rain where the drainage is hampered as well. Saw a lot of that in Detroit after a snow & Ice storm. Luckily they had enough damage from ice dams in the gutters backing the water up under the shingles that I could cover the flood damage as well, I just claimed it all as intruded from the roof. No way my file examiner could really pinch me on it, and Allstate wasn't being stingy so I never got called on it (we get paid on a percentage of the check we write). It's a bad set up from the pictures I saw. My advice on that place is still stay away from it.
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You're right. It's not really at the top of the hill, it is a bit downstream from the top. There are a lot of houses further downstream.

Based on the fact that the home owners couldn't afford to replace their carpet after their dog ****ed all over it -- I have a hard time believing the property floods heavily each year...and they had the money to keep fixing it....considering how the basement is mostly finished and there were no signs of water damage.

Basically, here is where I'm at -- when I looked at htis property the basement wall coloring in the garage didn't really stand out to me. I noticed it more in the picture later. I did notice the water in that sump pit but figured that it's doing ok since there is no pump installed and there is only a little water. I figured putting a pump in there would take care of the issue.

So, I made an offer. The offer was accepted and this is a short-sell which means that I must wait for their bank to either approve or deny the offer. Once that step is done I can proceed with my inspections and either accept or decline the property.

I really don't have much risk in this right now...So it's time to figure out if I have a big problem or not.....The truth of the matter is that I got a pretty good deal on this. A lot of that is do to the location but I am paying less than the previous owner paid in 2003.
 
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If I can offer a suggestion - get a home inspection done. The sooner the better. At least go in with full knowledge. A few hundred bucks for the inspection will be far better than you can get here.
 
wsuffa said:
If I can offer a suggestion - get a home inspection done. The sooner the better. At least go in with full knowledge. A few hundred bucks for the inspection will be far better than you can get here.
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I will be doing a full house inspection but won't do it until their bank replies. No point in losing money on the inspection if their bank isn't even going to accept it.
 
Jesse, unless it's 50% off you should walk on that place. There are going to be plenty of places for sale that don't have major structure or site issues like that one.

Cross your fingers that they don't accept your offer.
 
Drainage issues are big stuff. If there is standing water in a sump pit; there is a reason. If you can't figure out what's going on and the owner's explanation isn't convincing, you may be inheriting real problems. An engineer would be where I turn, unless an inspector was very well qualified. Folks don't put sump pits around a home that don't have drainage issues. A sump takes power and a pump to operate. That's not the first choice for drainage. Gravity is best.

How are you finding these places? Aren't there normal homes that have decent prices. Just like airplanes: you get what you pay for. If you want a fixer upper, make sure it's for issues you can fix. Structural and drainage stuff should be left to someone with good knowledge and construction experience.

We've passed on purchasing several houses in foreclosure. We inspected and ran numbers. Time after time, someone not in our business paid more than we were willing to. They have taken on problems they don't understand that will definitely come back to bite them.

Best,

Dave
 
jesse said:
I don't think that is a french drain. I am pretty sure it is a sump pump pit with tile around the house. But-- I don't know this for sure, nor do i know how to identify it.
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It's unlikely that it's a french drain. A proper french drain would be constructed several feet from the foundation and outside the structure. There would be no indication of a french drain inside the house. Common midwest construction is tile and sump as necessary.

jesse said:
It seems to me that if there is tile around the house and a sump pump pit and there was never a pump installed it's doing fairly well for none of that being pumped. The walls having some moisture --but no real signs of there ever being an actual big leakage.
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The thing to look out for is proper tile installation and waterproofing of the basement walls. If the tile plugs up then it may as well not be there and no water will show up in the sump. It may be worth some digging as part of the inspection to ensure the tile was installed correctly. Of course no home inspector I've met would think to check tile that closely so you'd have to push for it (and probably supply the digging).

Same goes with inspecting the waterproofing. Of course if you find deficient tile or waterproofing then you've got a great negociating point because the seller would be forced to disclose the condition to any future buyer (at least in this state, I don't know about disclosure laws in NE).

If you end up buying the house, one of the things to do is to make sure surface water runs away from the house on the uphill side. From the pictures it was obvious that some grade work had been done but it should probably be improved. Maybe a couple of rock walkways that are actually ditches to carry water away from the foundation would look ok. Think of it as an excuse to play with a Bobcat!

As you note, you're not really on the hook for awhile. If you get cold feet later just manage to fail to qualify for the mortgage terms and walk away.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
How are you finding these places? Aren't there normal homes that have decent prices. Just like airplanes: you get what you pay for.
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Most of everything I've looked at is junk. A lot of foreclosures and short-sales. I'm sure there are nice houses in perfect condition available. I don't want to spend that much money (only so much to go around) but yet want something that wasn't built in 1902 with no garage and no yard.

I'm probably running into a lot of crap because I'm looking at a certain price range while trying to find something that has a decent garage, location, yard, etc.

At some point I'm either going to have to take a big risk and fix something or I'm going to have to spend more money -- or drop what I want.

Sigh :)
 
jesse said:
It seems to me that if there is tile around the house and a sump pump pit and there was never a pump installed it's doing fairly well for none of that being pumped. The walls having some moisture --but no real signs of there ever being an actual big leakage.
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Don't forget that there may never have been a pump. One of thos plastic pipes could be a gravity drain leading downhill - under the driveway??? or somewhere to a drywell.

Congratulations on the accepted offer. If the bank says yes, then you get to decide!

So when is the move-in party??? :drink: :drink: :blowingkisses: :eek: :yikes:

-Skip
 
jesse said:
I'm probably running into a lot of crap because I'm looking at a certain price range while trying to find something that has a decent garage, location, yard, etc.
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One of the biggest advantages you have as a buyer is time. Don't rush into something. Take your time, the right place at the right price in the right condition will come along.


Trapper John
 
I can't believe there isn't anything else with the economy being the way it is. By the way, non-house-owning youngster, you shouldn't knock a house built in 1902. Mine was built in 1915 and has no structural or drainage problems, not to mention hard wood floors throughout. It isn't quite a nice as the one I owned that was built in 1886. Old houses are rock solid, and many have been updated with modern plumbing and electric power. Any major issues will have either been corrected or claimed the place in the intervening decades in most cases. Probably costs as much to build a garage as to address structural and drainage issues. Just sayin......
 
steingar said:
I can't believe there isn't anything else with the economy being the way it is. By the way, non-house-owning youngster, you shouldn't knock a house built in 1902. Mine was built in 1915 and has no structural or drainage problems, not to mention hard wood floors throughout. It isn't quite a nice as the one I owned that was built in 1886. Old houses are rock solid, and many have been updated with modern plumbing and electric power. Any major issues will have either been corrected or claimed the place in the intervening decades in most cases. Probably costs as much to build a garage as to address structural and drainage issues. Just sayin......
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Yep.

Our current house was built in 1830. While the floors are about as level as Pittsburgh's topography, the 6 foot thick foundation, the brick, and the overall structure is sound.
 
Back then it was all about doing things right. Now, construction is all about how many corners the contractors can cut when the foreman isn't looking. During the six years I owned my house built in 1886 my brother owned one that was seven years old. I spent 2 or three grand on my place during that period, mostly for upgrades. he spent sever grand fixing a drainage problem.
 
I went and looked at the house again in the pouring rain. All of the gutter spouts were leaking directly onto the foundation. I'm sure that has something to do with it.
 
jesse said:
I went and looked at the house again in the pouring rain. All of the gutter spouts were leaking directly onto the foundation. I'm sure that has something to do with it.
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Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
That can make a BIG difference...
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That WILL make a big difference. This is one of the things I fixed my last two houses. I got tired of fixing water incursion issues for other people (who bought the house from me)- I made sure my current house had the problems solved before I moved in.
 
Jesse, I still think you should be paying what the house sold for in 1963 not 2003.

The house should be free after your first time home buyer tax credit. :rolleyes:
 
mikea said:
Jesse, I still think you should be paying what the house sold for in 1963 not 2003.
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Well...it wasn't around in 1963.. and I am paying less than what it sold for in 2003.
 
Even some clogged gutters shouldn't cause the problems you show on those photos. Our neighborhood has spades of mature trees, and my gutters have to be cleaned out constantly. They overflow all the time, but I don't get the kind of seepage I see in your photographs. I would be surprised if you don't have other issues.

You're better off buying a place that's structurally sound but cosmetically unattractive. You and Tristan are young and healthy, and can put in the kind of sweat equity that really increases the value of a piece of property.
 
steingar said:
Even some clogged gutters shouldn't cause the problems you show on those photos. Our neighborhood has spades of mature trees, and my gutters have to be cleaned out constantly. They overflow all the time, but I don't get the kind of seepage I see in your photographs. I would be surprised if you don't have other issues.

You're better off buying a place that's structurally sound but cosmetically unattractive. You and Tristan are young and healthy, and can put in the kind of sweat equity that really increases the value of a piece of property.
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Au contraire! Just moving the spouts a few feet from one of my old houses house made a big difference. On one house, the sump-pump ejected right next to the foundation too. Moving that out to the street reduced water incursion too.

Moving the spouts may not fix his problem entirely but it will really help.

Jesse- look at the house later today (or tomorrow if we get more storms later) and see what it looks like. A short, heavy rain will tend to run off, but a series of storms will give you a better indication of the situation since it takes time for the water to permeate the soil.
 
steingar said:
Even some clogged gutters shouldn't cause the problems you show on those photos. Our neighborhood has spades of mature trees, and my gutters have to be cleaned out constantly. They overflow all the time, but I don't get the kind of seepage I see in your photographs. I would be surprised if you don't have other issues.

You're better off buying a place that's structurally sound but cosmetically unattractive. You and Tristan are young and healthy, and can put in the kind of sweat equity that really increases the value of a piece of property.
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Perhaps. I don't know -- I've seen a lot of houses that have had water issues when their gutters have screwed up. I know I've lived in houses growing up that would gush water if the gutters were pouring water on the foundation--whereas this doesn't do anything like that.
 
last year i lived in the basement of a house that had some pretty major water issues. moving the gutter downspouts about 10 or 15 feet away from the house and cleaning out the gutters helped a lot.
 
Good points all. If the drainage is set up wrong there will be issues. Then again, if the drainage has been set up wrong and has been doing its thing for a couple decades, enough dirt could have shifted away from the foundation to cause cracks and who knows what else.

Its a lot of money and you have to live with the results. Shop carefully, caveat emptor, and may the Force be with you.
 
I had the Realtor let me inside to look at it this evening. There was no water anywhere. I got a better look at the foundation behind the finished part and it has no signs of there ever being an issue like the garage does.

At this point I just have to standby and see what their bank says about my short-sale offer..and then start inspections and go from there. I'm going to do a whole house inspection, a mold inspection, and I'm also going to have some drainage folks that specialize in putting tile around houses and whatnot inspect it.
 
That's actually a good sign- it was pouring pretty heavily earlier. If the rain had lasted longer it would have been more significant.

Good inspectors will see a lot more than we can from a few pictures posted here.
 
jesse said:
I had the Realtor let me inside to look at it this evening. There was no water anywhere. I got a better look at the foundation behind the finished part and it has no signs of there ever being an issue like the garage does.

At this point I just have to standby and see what their bank says about my short-sale offer..and then start inspections and go from there. I'm going to do a whole house inspection, a mold inspection, and I'm also going to have some drainage folks that specialize in putting tile around houses and whatnot inspect it.
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That's the way to go, Jesse.

And, yes, sometimes blocked gutter drains can be a problem, but it often indicates that the drainage around the house is suboptimal.

Hope it all works out.
 
wsuffa said:
That's the way to go, Jesse.

And, yes, sometimes blocked gutter drains can be a problem, but it often indicates that the drainage around the house is suboptimal.

Hope it all works out.
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They weren't blocked. The spouts weren't either attached or were just missing. I talked to the neighbor some, real nice guy, told me that the owner moved about 1.5 years ago and rented it out. I'm sure the people renting it didn't give a **** and probably knocked them off at some point.

He said that she did have a sump pump at one point and that she never complained about any water issues.

Thanks, I hope it works out as well :)
 
Hey Jesse,
One piece of advice when I was a first time buyer , in NE there are no qualifications required to be a house Inspector...so be careful there. But I agree with above..dude your gonna have water issues.the sump should only have to work a handful of times per year if that.
 
taters said:
Hey Jesse,
One piece of advice when I was a first time buyer , in NE there are no qualifications required to be a house Inspector...so be careful there. But I agree with above..your gonna have water issues.the sump should only have to work a handful of times per year if that.
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Well since there is no sump pump and its not flooding and the water level in it hasn't changed in a month..It probably only needs to work very rarely. As far as the inspector -- thanks for letting me know. I'm hoping to do enough inspections that if one of them is an idiot a different one would notice.

I'm also going to request to be there for the entire inspection to see what all they do. If they aren't interested in me being there I'll find someone else.
 
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jesse said:
They weren't blocked. The spouts weren't either attached or were just missing. I talked to the neighbor some, real nice guy, told me that the owner moved about 1.5 years ago and rented it out. I'm sure the people renting it didn't give a **** and probably knocked them off at some point.
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The duplex where we live has the joy of housing the sump pump in the basement. All of the drain tiles under the foundation drain into our sump pit (looks a lot like the pic you posted) and the sump pump pumps it out.

When we moved in, it was pumping into a 1" hose that ran about 10' from the house. The hose had been hit with a lawnmower so many times it looked more like a sprinkler than a drain hose. I also noticed that the sump would run a LOT when it would rain - I mean so much on-and-off that it would keep me up at night (the sump pit is directly below our bedroom).

After a few sleepless thunderstorms, I pulled the drain hose off and jerry-rigged it to a buried 3" tile that ran 25' before emptying into a perforated 3" drain tile which ran another 25'. Then I investigated the downspouts - the one right next to our bedroom was completely plugged and the rain was simply pouring over the side of the gutters directly onto the foundation. Cleaned that up and added a downspout that ran ~5-6' away from the foundation. In the front of the house, the downspout wasn't even attached to the gutter. I attached it easily. Since then, our sump rarely runs and it takes a gully-washer rain to make it run at all.

Downspouts can make a HUGE difference, IMO. Oh yeah, even though our sump pit always has/had water in it, our walls never got wet and we haven't had any mold issues. (knock on wood)
 
Jesse- any updates?
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That garage looks like it may be a good place to finish off a homebuilt. Heated on the top and one side, bunch of earth in the back- it may be tolerable to use in winter.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Jesse- any updates?
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That garage looks like it may be a good place to finish off a homebuilt. Heated on the top and one side, bunch of earth in the back- it may be tolerable to use in winter.
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No updates. I'm still waiting on the sellers bank to either approve or deny my short-sell offer. My purchase contract gives them until the 29th to do so -- but they'll probably take longer.

Once the 29th comes around I'll start looking for other houses. If I come across something better I'll bail out of the contract on this house...otherwise it's just a waiting game right now.
 
jesse said:
Once the 29th comes around I'll start looking for other houses. If I come across something better I'll bail out of the contract on this house...otherwise it's just a waiting game right now.
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Waiting games are annoying. Hopefully it will work out for you - good luck.
 
jesse said:
No updates. I'm still waiting on the sellers bank to either approve or deny my short-sell offer. My purchase contract gives them until the 29th to do so -- but they'll probably take longer.

Once the 29th comes around I'll start looking for other houses. If I come across something better I'll bail out of the contract on this house...otherwise it's just a waiting game right now.
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I kinda figured you for the 20+ acre guy that makes their own airfield -actually doable around here (although I don't know the hoops to jump through to get a private field in NE, so maybe it isn't doable). Such affordable acreages aren't exactly close- 10+ miles from work, but maybe you can talk the boss into letting you come in only when you physically need to plug something in (or just call and ask someone to do it).
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I kinda figured you for the 20+ acre guy that makes their own airfield -actually doable around here (although I don't know the hoops to jump through to get a private field in NE, so maybe it isn't doable). Such affordable acreages aren't exactly close- 10+ miles from work, but maybe you can talk the boss into letting you come in only when you physically need to plug something in (or just call and ask someone to do it).
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I've looked into some options...But it seems that anything suitable enough to plop a runway on that also has a decent house exceeds what I'm willing to pay. Basically I wouldn't be able to afford to buy an airplane to fly on my strip :)

Hangars at Lincoln are pretty cheap. It seemed to me that the next best option would be to buy a house next to the airport.
 
jesse said:
I've looked into some options...But it seems that anything suitable enough to plop a runway on that also has a decent house exceeds what I'm willing to pay. Basically I wouldn't be able to afford to buy an airplane to fly on my strip :)

Hangars at Lincoln are pretty cheap. It seemed to me that the next best option would be to buy a house next to the airport.
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Or take the leap of faith and buy the plot, develop the strip and sell lots to your own airpark...
 
Henning said:
Or take the leap of faith and buy the plot, develop the strip and sell lots to your own airpark...
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2 airparks in the area. Actually only one if you consider that the airpark off of Millard is has no planes now and they closed the access to the field. The other one is out east of Lincoln on Holdredge Street- this one is a shortish grass strip, looks like only a few planes; most houses in the development don't have access to the field.

I don't think another airpark would work well out here.
 
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