Fire Damage Roof Home Inspection

[Ivan Mendoza]

Hello BP community,

Had my first home inspection performed on a multi-unit property that I want to purchase. The home is located in CNY, was built in 1915 and has layered rocks as foundation. The property has 2 unites, around 1,600 sq ft and is going for $65k

Apparently the roof is less then 7 years old but upon inspection it was discovered the roof has fire damage. The roof was repaired but the chard/burnt framing was left and built over with plywood. The home inspection does not highlight this as red or critical which is surprising to me.

How should I move forward with this? Is this a big red flag? How should I proceed with negotiations?

[Jeremy VanDelinder]

It looks to me like they did the bare minimum. I do see bracing put in place to reinforce the damage (hard to tell just from the pictures, but I see a corresponding to "sister" (aka "scab") for the badly damaged pieces. (I do see at least one that should have been reinforced). That being said, I do not see anything that concerns me from a structural point of view. (DISCLAIMER--my view is limited and I'm not a structural engineer, so that's not an official 'stamp of approval.')

How is the odor?  In addition to reinforcing the structural elements, I prefer to take out as much affected wood as is practical to eliminate odor. Everything should be sealed (sometime a clear coat seal is used, so I can't really tell if it has been sealed or not), but our standard is that everything that has "alligatoring" (the heat damage that has the ridges like the back of an alligator) comes out. 

Any concerns with electrical? Was there any wiring in proximity to this damaged area? Has that been thoroughly inspected? There is evidence of fairly high heat which will also damage wiring. 

Personally here is what I would do in this situation--for what it's worth: I would bring in a contractor and get a price to redo this area of framing and put on a new roof (decking and shingles). Then I would use that to negotiate the price down. After you buy it, its up to you as to whether you fix it or not--if you are going to hold it for a while and odor is not an issue, you may just leave it alone. If the roof is not due to replace, you could just save that money and redo the framing when you redo the roof.

(Keep in mind that because of what I do it is a bit less intimidating to me--not everyone has the stomach to deal with that kind of damage. It's just a matter of what your goals and risk tolerance is as an investor.)

Hope that helps--let me know if there is anything else I can answer. Good luck!