Bad Basement Walls ?

Greetings !

We are looking to purchase this house in Iowa, however, I have a major
concern about two sides of the basement walls.

It appears that the wall has a serious structural problem. I am not sure
whether the installed I-beams will keep the wall from further damage.

Thanks for any helf.

Tanks for the reply, Sir Snoonyb! I will have to check with the
local controlling entity and see if any permits were pulled.

Your question is excellent, as the basement walls appear to
be under stress and without some fix, are likely to continue
to decay.

If there are indeed water issue present, I suspect this will be very costly.

The home is being sold as "as is." I will update this thread as soon as
I have further information.

Could be those steel posts were professionally put in as remediation.
At the very least, ask for the name of the contractor and when it was performed, and confirm that he did what he considers to be a complete structural remediation.
Much better would be to hire your own structural engineer to evaluate the current situation.

No way that wall is going to be water tight.

Me, I wouldn't touch that house with a ten foot pole. There is a reason it is so cheap.
Foundation work is very expensive,

I just off the phone with Paul Permit, from the city of Charles City, Ioway.

The only pulled permit was for a roof replacement. Nothing for the installation
of the I-beams, nor any foundation work.

Steve, is correctoe that this fix would be very expense, perhaps 20k to 30k.
I am taking his advice and pass on this home, despite having a twenty-foot pole.

If the home is being sold “As is” then it is up to the buyer to evaluate the risk reward in making the purchase and make an offer sufficiently low enough based around what they feel repairs could be done if required bringing the final price into the range they want to be in.



It is important the buyer is totally aware of such issues and up to the task to handle whatever comes along. That would ether be by doing the work in whole or part and able to afford to hire done what is required.



Such a home can be a great deal actually to someone that plans carefully and understands what’s going on.



The home we are living in now was such a house. It was being sold “as is” and sold as a short sale, so it needed to be a cash deal as no lender would assume the risk in the condition it was in. For our area it was maybe a 100k home at some point and after the people that owned it stopped paying and getting thrown out the house sat 2 years with no heat etc. The inside was in awful condition and needed gutted and the property was such a mess even the house flippers saw it as too much work. The only people it appealed to were the one neighbor that wanted to buy it and knock it down and clear the property because it was drawing his property value down. We looked at it like 100 others had and it wasn’t worth the work based around the asking price. I said we would place an offer but it would be low. The realtor said why not and I asked him what he thought the property was worth? He said 25k and I said ok offer 24k. The bank said can you come up and I went up to 24.5k and they took it. The neighbor later told me if they thought they would go that low he would have bought it.



My point is you can always ask.



It took us about a year of working nights and weekends and maybe another 30k and we have a mortgage free home that’s worth a lot more than we have invested. Even factoring in our labor. Some people can do that and some can’t and given I’m 10 years older now I don’t know if I would be up to the job now.



When dealing with a property like this it’s not the same as a house being shown as ready to move in. Where you get a home inspection and they find a couple little things. A home inspection report of our house would have been a thousand pages long.



If the house was free would you take it?

blueice said:

fix would be very expense, perhaps 20k to 30k.

Click to expand...

And could be a lot more than that.

You have a hard time estimating exactly what the cost would be. Leave it for somebody with professional construction experience. As Bud pointed out, at some price the deal makes sense. But pretty risky to guess at what that number is, unless you are a pro.

Would a banko even provide a conventional mortgage for this property ? The main
level is turn key, with the county valuation of 92k and the selling price
of 87k.

https://www.trulia.com/home/111-park-ave-charles-city-ia-50616-76737120

This would necessary several good foundation repair contractors. Would the
seller agree to dat ? Perhaps or perhaps not or wait for a dumb buyer.

Bud, "as is" also for sellers whom no longer have the
capacity of mental soundness; in which case friends or
relatives conduct the sale, with little or no knowledge of
the property defects or condition nor history.

blueice said:

Bud, "as is" also for sellers whom no longer have the
capacity of mental soundness; in which case friends or
relatives conduct the sale, with little or no knowledge of
the property defects or condition nor history.

Click to expand...

Our house was a similar deal the owner was a woman that passed away and her boyfriend and some kids lived there and just ruined the house and later abandoned it. Some bank in CA ended up owning it and for them it was just a line item on their books an assets they were bleeding money paying tax and insurance on.



All I can say is if it’s a 100k home minus the basement problem and they are asking 87k they should be offering it as move in ready and being willing to stand behind that. Obviously that’s not the case as it is listed “as is”.



They are hoping someone comes along and doesn’t care and has the money as I don’t think a bank would feel good about the repair that wasn’t permitted. Chances are it will be a place like my house that sits on the market for several years and continues to go downhill, and at some point someone will take a low-ball offer like I placed.



It is a nice looking little house that looked like it was well kept up. If I were you and interested in it I would be honest with the real-estate people and the owners and tell them I want to form a plan of action on the foundation to bring it 100% up to a safe condition and deduct that from the 87k. If they say no way then just walk away.



My first house we put in an offer and it was accepted contingent with a well and septic inspection. The well failed and a new well was required. The daughter of the old women that owned the house asked if we could split the cost and I said I would but I was out of money with the down payment. The well had to be a dug well and was really going to mess up the entire property and landscaping. I told them I was ok with that but I wouldn’t pay for the well itself. They agreed and we lived there for 40 years.



Most people today want clean deals that are ready to move in conditions and go thru home inspections with everything being perfect. There are so many perfect places flawed ones just sit or deals get made.

Hi BuleIce (cool name)

With all respect for your judgement and thoughts, if you guys very much like the house, having an engineer report (as wisely mentioned above by others) AND contractor estimates may greatly reduce the price of the home. (Also as mentioned above by others). The contractor estimates are critical. (More than one is good. They can vary by thousands.)

I've picked up "fix & sell" houses for less than 1/4 asking by doing the same thing. All I was out was a couple of hundred for the engineer's report. Sometimes, that cost was not profitable because the contractor estimates made it a walk-away. Other times = money maker. Gamble, to be sure!

Also ask to have the interesting stuff that is going on with the floor joists checked into. Never saw something like that. (Left side, 2nd photo). Is that Lazy Man's cross bracing? Cracked joist support?

I hope whatever home you guys select you love it!

Paul

Paul and Bud tanks for the replies. I have noted some of your
advice dat you have given. One issue, however, we have the
20% down for this property, but not enough funds to cover the
the wall repair. I would need to axe my banker man, how if
possible it could be funded.

I plan to call the listing agent in two days, to see if the seller
is open to the suggests made in this thread.

Snoonyb made a very good point about government programs.

As an example, in Detroit has several programs to assist in buying houses, even if your income is high.
Sometimes one can get a good house for a dollar. Often, a grant is available for repairs. (Depends on neighborhood)

There are also county programs to help purchase homes in need of repair. Usually, they are low or zero interest loans (or grants if your income qualifies). All three counties in the tri-county area have them.

Detroit's city owned homes can also sell dirt cheap on one of their many programs, but one must commit to spending a certain amount on repairs. Zero interest loans are often available for that repair money. They have somewhere around 100,000 for sale at the time of this writing.

Hopefully there is a similar program in your city, county or state!

Whatever house that you choose to buy and make into your home, I'm sure you guys will be glad of your decision! (Except maybe during one of the inevitable 8:00 pm hardware store trips...)

Paul

Yes, I am aware of governmental units funding. I prefer not
to swim in their pool. They are part and parcel responsible for
the current housing shortage. Has anyone notice how GUs
create so many issues and den paper over these problems with
taxpayers money.

UPDATE: I was only to locate one single housing structural engineer,
within one hundred and twenty miles. Nine hundred bucks, with one week schedule
delay and up to two weeks to receive the inspection report.

It is now one day and 15 minutes and the listing agent has not returned my
call. Maybe he is in lockup ??

I see the property just dropped to 60k from 87k.



That’s quite a big drop so I’m guessing there is others talking about the basement issue.



Out of curiosity I took a look at the small city it is in. Nice looking town with mostly well kept up properties and they seem to show similar properties being sold around town for 90-130K. Other than the wall going by the photos the house is move in ready. The garage roof in the one photo looks a little rough. Could be the angle of the photo.



I suspect they are pricing it to sell and likely have a little more they will go. The people looking to buy with a small down payment and looking for finance are likely getting held up asking for an inspection and lack of the work that had been done being permitted etc.



What will likely happen is someone maybe a builder will come along with 45-50k in hand and grab it and flip it after they do the proper repairs. Six months later it will pop back on the market for 110K.

Bud, the city is about 8,ooo soles. It is about 30 miles north of Waterloo. I have found
a closer structural engineer, whom provided valuable information. The realtor, is sending
me two repair invoices for the bunker repair. This town is subject to flooding, as the Cedar
River run right through the central business district. Unless elevated, structures within three
blocks are flooding candidates.

"Detroit's city owned homes can also sell dirt cheap on one of their many programs, but one must commit to spending a certain amount on repairs." One must join one of the local gangs; Lions Club or the Bloods.

There is a lot to be said about living in a smaller but not to small town about that distance of a larger city. We live in NW PA in a smaller town and are like you about a 30 mile easy drive away from the nearest city that’s bigger in our case Erie. We are in the center of the triangle made by Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo that are all easy couple hours away when you want some big city life.



Back to the place you are looking at the repair is likely done right and is what the homeowner could afford to do at the time. It is not like they are trying to hide anything. They could have filled the cracks and put another wall covering it all up.



The invoices may show if additional outside work was done around the foundation directing water and pressure away from the wall?



It could have been a multi stage approach.



Sometimes neighbors and family members will remember details of when and why it all got started.



It used to be stating “As Is” wasn’t a big deal it just meant they were selling it without wanting to do a punch list of little tasks before the sale. Now it means extra red flags to banks and lenders.



I really think the house we bought we got so cheap was because it came down to the buyer had to have cash in hand. Otherwise with all the loan options and government deals someone needed a house would have not worried about the risks and bought it and never fixed it.



We have a neighbor that died 3 years ago and had a reverse mortgage on his house thru HUD somehow. The old guy that owned it was 95 and kept his place spotless. For 3 years now the house has sat with no one in it and likely no heat with a window open even. Grass gets 3’ tall before some neighbor hacks it down. It has warning signs posted in the doors and has never had a for sale sign out front. It is crazy, why does HUD want a house and there is supposed to be a housing shortage?