Hi All,
Last week I stopped in at a property that was purchased via online auction.
The buyer has been in the buy/flip business since before it became popular.
However, he lives out of state and I am pretty certain he did not walk this home prior to bidding and winning the Bid + 10% Buyer Premium.
This particular property was sold for a fairly reasonable price and at first glance it appears to be a good flip investment.
But hold your horses...I was asked to check out the basement and give him my opinion of the condition of the walls. (After he purchased.)
I am not an inspector...I am a 32 year licensed agent and 20 year licensed Broker.
However, I have been in many hundreds...if not thousands...of basements in my career. I can tell you that the first thing I look at in the basement is the foundation walls and what their condition is. My nose is also working overtime trying to detect mold. 
This basement scares me as it appears the walls have been skim coated a couple of times but never done correctly in my opinion and it is not in a visual or physical (interior) good condition.
The coating falls off in your hand.
It does not leak. It does not smell.
However, a professional company is going to have to do some repair on the walls to make sure they are brought up to a good physical condition.
That is the easy part.
As I was looking at the walls, I also looked
up at the ceiling and did not like at all what I saw with the electrical wiring stapled to the floor joists of the main level. Very old wiring with many connections and splices not in junction boxes.
BIG RED FLAG! Not enough room on this blog for the size of RED flag needed!
I have sold many, many homes with old wiring but none with this many exposed splices.
A fire just waiting to happen in my opinion...which I told him. Especially with todays heavy use of electronics and electricity.
I know this owner will do what is needed to make the home safe and that will have to include some electrical updates as well as the work on the basement walls.
Other concerns include age of water 
heater and furnace/ac.
Big ticket items are the downfall of home flippers. The goal is to make money and I am worried that this one may be one that does not.
It is located in a smaller town that does not have high prices and that is always an issue for home flippers.
Time will tell on this one as we are supposed to list in October...but that may not happen due to amount of work needed.
Until next Time...Be Careful When You Are Bidding Online...Pictures can be Deceiving! Mike
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