My son is buying a short sale. It is not what I consider a typical short sale in that it is not wrecked, is fairly updated, and has a sign in the window to contact the property mgt company if there is a problem. Interestingly, the seller works for the property mgt company and has even received some awards (managing townhome communities etc). I found articles mentioning her on google, so I am fairly confident that she is not a “dirtbag” type of short seller. She is currently living in a townhome community which is also managed by the company she works for. I have a feeling she might have been offered a place to live for cheap and that is why she moved out. It is a good deal, but not a remarkable one, this has room for upgrades, but not enough to flip it and make a lot of quick $, but there is hopefully an upside to it.
The home has been winterized. We are running into issue with getting the water turned on. The gas and electric are on. Ideally the seller/realtor/property mgr would just let us turn the water on and turn the heat up as spring is only a month away, but apparently not. Either our realtor is not communicating this request properly, or nobody cares. If we turn it on, we have to re-winterize. I was told to re-winterize would be $250, but not sure if DE-winterize is included, so it could be closer to $400. I have read it is wise to have a plumber on hand when you dewinterize. I also was told the township will turn the water on at 1 and off at 2:00. That might not even be enough time!
My son, who is paying for EVERYTHING is not concerned. He is willing to gamble that the plumbing is fine. There is no reason to suspect it isn’t, no wet spots etc., signs of old leaks etc. I worry about the sewer/drains. I obsess about details and get caught up in “what-ifs”. I am now thinking I want to tell my husband that we should pay for it and do it right. I will have it off my mind if a proper inspection is done.You know if I pay for it, that nothing will be wrong and it will be $ wasted (though it will have bought me peace of mind).
We are co-signing due to his being in his current job only since last June. He has a great work history and a pretty good credit score. The house is in NJ where we are having frigid temps. The inspection is next Monday. I hope the snow is melted off the roof. I wish he had found this house next month, but I think prices will be going up. A few things we found interesting were sold before we saw them. In his price range it is hard to find a home that doesn’t need a lot of work. This one has a nice kitchen and a 3.5 yr old furnace, 6 yr old ac, and clean,somewhat updated (not 1950’s!) bathrooms
Does anybody care to comment? Am I the only one who would worry and offer to pay just to feel better?
yes, but apparently with short sales the sellers side is not overly cooperative. We are lucky they are letting us de-winterize/re-winterize if we choose to pay for it. She is leaving it up to Son if he wants to pay or not pay. As I said, it doesn’t LOOK like it should have a problem, and the seller indicated everything was in good working order on the seller disclosure. I have spoken with people who feel like I do, and others who think its a worry over nothing.
There SHOULD be a pre-settlement inspection (walk-thru) 2 days before closing. All the utilities are to be turned on at that point. If the water gets turned on it starts to rain in the house that we would know there was a problem. We can flush the toilets and run the water to see if it all drains. If things are not in working order he can back out. (the way I understand it)
I’m interested the town needs to be involved to turn on the water. Is this because the seller is delinquent w water bills?
We have a NJ beach house and winterize it ourselves - turn off water, drain pipes (there’s an elaborate set of drain pipes in basement for this) and put RV antifreeze in the drains & toilets.
I would never agree to buy a house without knowing if the plumbing is OK. Plumbing can be one of the costliest systems to fix in a house, as it often means opening up walls.
Winterizing is not just shutting off the water - you need to drain pipes and take care of the water standing in traps and toilets. Just an FYI, it has been record cold in NJ and I have friends who have had frozen pipes in their occupied houses, as the water pipes run through the exterior walls of their houses.
A huge issue in NJ to worry about is underground oil tanks. Even a 1950s house could have one. I was so obsessed about this with our beach house, we had the tiny yard scanned for $250. It gave me piece of mind, as we had seen a few inground tanks in the same town. PM with the name of the town and I can see if I have any contacts.
The mental and real investment in buying a house would make backing out at the 11th hour a real bummer, not to mention a problem if you had no other place to live.
Worrying is what I do and google feeds my addiction! Plus, we don’t know when settlement will be (the joys of short sales). It could be very quick as the bank has supposedly approved the short sale price prior to our offer. Who knows how long mortgage will take and meanwhile he would be missing out looking at other properties, so it would be good to know now if there was a big problem. He/We know there will be some things to fix, I’m scared of the big ones. I guess I’m going with the “if it can go wrong it will go wrong” way of thinking. Then, when I get tired of it I will give up and say that we will just deal with whatever. I wouldn’t worry as much if it was DH and I, but Son has much less experience and funds. Lucky for him he can stay here if he has too. Rent free as long as he in the process of home search/buying and not wasting his $.
So, its $100 to do a pressure test and not actually turn on the water. This would tell us if there are broken/leaky pipes. I will suggest we do this at the minimum. $250 is to re-winterize after the city turns on the water and we do the inspection. Realtor said most people do not want to pay to re-winterize. Of course, if its a “normal” sale the seller would be asked to turn everything on if they want to get the house sold.
She said the plumber said we run the risk that we turn the water on and there is a problem/leak that could create a messy situation. I didn’t think to ask who would be responsible…
Leaning towards the pressure test. Maybe split it with S who will still say he doesn’t think he needs it.
My question is now: what is your son’s realtor doing? This is one of the situations where she or he should light the fire under the “uncooperative seller’s” butt. IMO, the $100 is a totally unforeseen expense but an absolutely reasonable for the buyer’s peace of mind, and if the realtor really wants the sale, the realtor should just pay for it (or make the seller pay for it!) We had a situation where we needed to put stuff into storage because the builder could not finish some stuff in the garage, and our realtor gladly paid for the storage.
Short sale, the seller has no $, it’s basically as-is. There is nobody to light a fire under as they are already underwater on the mortgage, they just wait for the next buyer to come along.
The inspection is to let us find out the true condition and if repairs are needed over $1000 he can back out. Buyer pays all inspections. Often short sales are bought by flippers, who know about repairs and have contractors on standby to do repairs. S is going to live there. It is move in ready unless something bad shows up on inspection. The furnace is actually still under warranty. The only known repairs are a broken window, a little paint needed on exterior trim, and the carpet on the stairs and one room upstairs is really ugly. The plumbing part of the inspection is to identify any surprises that could be lurking, or skip it and gamble that there are none. He will still buy it minor issues, like a leaky shower head or garbage disposal, but not if something major pops up.i would think anything major would show itself at the walk thru 2 days before. We will run the water and flush the toilets many times.
I can talk myself into or out of having the water turned on. It’s a bad habit I have…
Gads–go for it and do not look back. I am a worst case person and if I am only out $400 then I would just do it–actually insist on it. Plumbing issues are serious and your winter has been tough.
H and I are helping a 30 yr old couple find a house in a difficult market. They did not get a house with an oil tank somewhere not yet found and lead paint and still do not understand why we are relieved.
There may not have been leaks prior to winterizing, but if the person doing the winterizing did not do it properly, you could have problems when the water is turned back on. I would pay for it.
Did OP say the house is heated by oil? If so, and if its a buried tank, ABSOLUTELY need a tank test and then plan, even if it passes, to get it outta there and put one in the basement.
Correct. She hasnt brought up an oil tank. Another poster did. That said, if this house in NJ happens to have aninground tank, it SHOULD be considered. EPA hazards can be a real nightmare.
I was the one who mentioned an oil tank at a house our friends did not get. Yes, it is buried and not found.
This OP is discussing plumbing. I was just making the point that sometimes a buyer (our friends and her S) might not understand the issues to certain things–like plumbing–that can be costly.
He got lucky and it has an oil tank, but it’s in the basement and is empty. It is actually GAS heat and it was converted some years ago. The current furnace is less than 5 years old. I find that when I am buying things, appliances, cars, furniture, I tend to get to a certain point and say “no more.” I don’t want to see him pay anymore towards the house, I think it’s well worth what he’s paying but if he has to spend much more for things like this, then I feel like he could look at higher priced homes…I have to remember that these same stupid expenses would crop up with any home. He should have it tested because it’s only $300 and he could kick himself if he doesn’t.
I think we will tell him to do it. His dad thinks we should. I guess I partly get hung up on being thrifty, why spend $ if you don’t have to? Problem is we won’t know if we had to, until we don’t and it’s too late! I guess it is like insurance, pay it and hope you don’t need it.
Small slightly off topic rant now…I wish you could buy a home for the price you agree on and not have to pay thousands more up front. Just agree on a price and pay it. 3months taxes (ugh…here in NJ) transfer fee, document fee, title insurance, application fee, filing fee, recording fee…even if he put nothing down he’d need several thousand for the fees and taxes. Why can’t people just pay their own stinking taxes when they’re due instead of giving the mortgage company your money to hold on to for 3 months, then they’ll probably screw it up anyway. I’m surprised they don’t try to collect sales tax too.
I agree that its worth a few hundred dollars to test everything out (or have the inspector do it) than to worry that something will be wrong. When we sold my dad’s house there were different tax bills due at different times during the year, so there were weird payments and prorated taxes, etc. Was very confusing.