Buying a house As Isn't

[Stephen Keighery]

I buy houses As Is all the time but I learnt a lesson yesterday. I have a deal I contracted about 6 months ago. It had to go through succession (most of you will know this as probate, we call it succession in Louisiana) and not the heirs were onboard, then covid shut the courts so it slowed us down. We are closing today and hadn't seen the house in a while so walked it last night. The house had some partially renovated parts and we bought it As Is but what had happened was they had stripped everything they could out. The fridge is acceptable but they pulled out the stove and range hood and the shutters which wasn't cool. What really got me was they took the handles off all the cabinets and the baseboard. Not that it is that expensive but just so petty and most of my cost is in the labor. I was happy to buy it As Is which I thought meant as it is now not with everything stripped.

At the end of the day I had negotiated enough meat on the bone that its still a great deal. The court had made me increase my contracted price when they got a valuation and I didn't bother trying to get a reduction. I am going to go close the deal as its still very good but learnt a lesson on setting the expectations with the sellers going forward.