Know when to walk away...

[Alia Ganaposki]

Us: Hoping to invest in our second out of state property 

Them: Velociraptors

After we saw all the properties we were interested in we made an offer on the one that needed the least work. It had lots of work recently done, including a new HVAC, just needed a weatherproofed deck out back.

Our offer was higher than I was planning, but the numbers still worked ($850/month after property taxes and insurance) so I decided that this was a risk our family could handle for such a quality property.

And then Thursday we got the inspector's report. 

Bless all careful inspectors.

Improperly installed bathroom vent leading to active, long term leak (huge black stain under the roof, small stain on bathroom ceiling)

Broken (!) outlets in the living room in the "rewired" house

Long term and bad water damage in the crawl space that had been professionally dealt with after the fact, but the increased moisture had left behind mold.

Shudder.

If we were local and weren't trying to get a renter in by August 1st (school starts the 15th), we might have just accepted a heavy discount. But honestly, the sellers should have gotten all this taken care of before they listed. And since they appeared to be hiding it (no disclosures), it made us worried about what was under those new laminate floorboards.

We're not afraid of known problems; our first property was a fixer upper. But I do not like lies. 

So we are walking away. I'm disappointed, but i'm also relieved. We are stable financially, but we aren't paying cash. This investment would have meant taking on debt. 

I'm much more interested in using that debt-money to add an income-generating studio apartment to our own property, which long term plan seems like it might finally come together this year. 

I'm calling this a win, even though we didn't get the new property. (And we've offered our inspector's report to any other potential buyer. It's not a bad little house, it's just not a good investment property for us. But I want any buyer to know exactly what they're buying.)

Hope this is helpful to others.