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Updated almost 3 years ago on . Most recent reply
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What's considered "normal" repairs for SFR'S in KCMO?
Hi - I'm a new investor with my first home under contact. It's a 100-year-old home located in the urban core (64130 - Blue Hills) of Kansas City. I am purchasing it from out-of-state as a LTR. After inspection this week, the report showed issues with water intrusion in multiple areas throughout the house - chimney, foundation, siding, yard due to poor slope, etc.,: "rolling" foundation walls; possible exposed asbestos in a small area that could cause it to be vented into the house through the HVAC and possible mold due to all the moisture. There were many other issues as well, but these were the bigger ones. My realtor says this is all pretty typical for Kansas City and that she wouldn't repair or have any of it explored further (a foundation person said he thought the foundation and structure of the home were okay and no repairs were needed). In your experience in KCMO, is it accurate that these types of issues are relatively common? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks in advance.
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Quote from @Kim Wagner:
Hi - I'm a new investor with my first home under contact. It's a 100-year-old home located in the urban core (64130 - Blue Hills) of Kansas City. I am purchasing it from out-of-state as a LTR. After inspection this week, the report showed issues with water intrusion in multiple areas throughout the house - chimney, foundation, siding, yard due to poor slope, etc.,: "rolling" foundation walls; possible exposed asbestos in a small area that could cause it to be vented into the house through the HVAC and possible mold due to all the moisture. There were many other issues as well, but these were the bigger ones. My realtor says this is all pretty typical for Kansas City and that she wouldn't repair or have any of it explored further (a foundation person said he thought the foundation and structure of the home were okay and no repairs were needed). In your experience in KCMO, is it accurate that these types of issues are relatively common? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks in advance.
Yes....pretty common issues here in KC and especially foundation work in the Blue Hills area. Inspection reports can certainly make those items out to be more of an issue than they really are, but if this is your first property I would be cautious about a realtor telling you to ignore the report. Plenty of good realtors who know what they are talking about (hopefully the case here), and also plenty of bad ones who don't know what they are talking about.
I personally would want that mold / asbestos checked out for liability purposes. Pretty easy (and inexpensive) to get a structural engineer/foundation company to officially sign off on the foundation-- as opposed to a verbal "okay". And most foundation remedies aren't as scary or expensive as people make them out to be, if it turns out to need some work.