Foreclosures, Flippers And Hazards To Warren County Home Buying

Anita, Some of the damage is pretty extensive, and that's just what is VISIBLE under casual observation.

Jim, It was baffling to say the least.  The set up of the kitchen made it challenging at best, with a WIDE open entrance from the living room, a sliding glass door to the patio and a doorway to the left of the sink leading to the basement.  The only realistic scenario was to take the frig to the opposite corner and move the stove (and microwave and cabinet) to the right where they had the frig.  I can only hope that is the flippers final plan, because otherwise the existing setup removed at least 1/4 of the kitchen's cabinets from actual use.

Brenda, In MOST cases those foreclosures will take 10's of thousand of dollars to make them "normal".  The previous owners rarely had the money to take care of the homes at the end and it shows.  Typically a buyer will actually net a better deal by buying a home that is very close to move in ready vs. buying a foreclosure that has gone 10 rounds and lost the fight.

Debbie, I've seen some that the only thing that would make sense would be putting the bulldozer in DRIVE!

Debbie L, LOVE the 2nd part of that saying :)

Bobbie, You always hope that they winterized them in time to avoid frozen pipes, but I've seen some foreclosures where it didn't happen in time.  The results to the home were brutal.

Bob, I only wish I was making it up, but yes, old evidence tape on the door frame and door as we came in!  And I won't argue some flippers do a good job, but it's a risky proposition for the buyers because there's no history and potential problems can't all be detected by a home inspector (e.g. mold behind the walls from burst pipes if the walls have been repaired). 

Debbie, And often the homes look great on the surface, but you need to look closely before writing that offer.

Pat, We've certainly seen some that the cost of repairs would shoot well past the price of a move-in ready home, and that's just based on the problems we can readily identify.

Endre, The buyer and I were both laughing at that one when we saw it.  As you might guess, that's not the one we wrote an offer on :)

Karen, While the CAN'T be seen stuff is always potentially there with any home, my apprehension for that type of thing is always heightened when we can't get to the history of the home, a history that only someone who has lived in a home can provide.  Banks and flippers just don't know what's happened, so we can only hope they properly winterized, did the maintenance, etc., or our buyers may wind up paying the price long after closing.