Thinking about flipping a meth house.

[Garrett Fronk]

Hello everyone, There is a house I’m interested in flipping, and could get for dirt cheap. The problem is, is that it was a meth house. I’m wondering if anyone in the Utah area has ever flipped a meth house and knows the costs, and what I could expect. Or if I should just stay away entirely. The house is 1080 sqft and we are planning on getting it for around 50K.

[Jeff Copeland]

Aside from the cost and feasibility of the flip, a bigger concern may be the disclosure requirements for the chemicals that were stored and utilized on the property. Regardless of how nice your rehab is, you'll always have to disclose that it was a meth house, so there will likely always be an associated reduction in value. 

Conversely, not disclosing puts you are significant risk of liability. I assume the history of the house is no secret amongst the neighbors (and by simply pulling up the disclosures on the current listing). So if you sell it without the appropriate disclosures, and 6 months later the buyers find out by talking to the neighbors, and find that it was well-documented and you obviously knew about it (you even posted about it in online forums), do you think they might be angry enough to sue you for damages (to include their perceived reduction in value, physical/emotional distress, moving costs, loss of income, etc)?

Sure, you can buy it cheap. But you may also have to sell it cheap. So the real question "Is it worth flipping this house assuming we have to disclose its past and account for the associated reduction in its after repair value?".