Termite Damage - Should I Go For It or Walk Away?

[Patricia Rozario]

I've made an offer on a multi family home in New Jersey. I plan to rent out and hold for a few years at least. The inspection revealed that there has been previous termite damage done in the wooden support in the basement. The current owner of the property lives in North Carolina and hasn't done much in terms of maintenance. I got a termite inspector to go and see the property and he said that it's extremely bad and that the owner didn't really solve the termite issue and prematurely added sistering essentially giving the termites more sources of food. There's a crawl space that's inaccessible because there's plumbing that goes across the door but likely there are termites there as well. He said he will be able to fix the termite issue, but can't make a statement about the structural integrity of the home. Due to the nature of the existing damage, it's likely that the termites went up into the walls and above. In terms of the price we're getting a discount of 50K compared to the market value in the area. However, we're unsure about the "unknown". Does it make sense to proceed with the deal and if so what are the potential worst cases and how much money would be required to offset those.