Advice on VA owned home- questions to ask

[Clare Saikia]

Hi I am new here and was wanting some extra advice and questions to ask about a property my boyfriend and I are looking at that is owned by the VA. This is to live in, not to flip but maybe sell down after a few years if we decide to.

Info about the house: It is about 4000 sq ft, 3 floors, more rooms than I can remember but technically 4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms. Grand fireplace on main floor and bottom floor. 1.8 acres and in-ground pool. Possible lead paint. 3 car garage.

Things definitely need fixed: Roof on garage(maybe whole garage, some bricks near the bottom are breaking), shingles over entire house, some drywall, full kitchen, carpet on bottom floor, pool liner and pump, paint throughout house, a lot of electrical wiring and other smaller miscellaneous things.

We have looked at the property once already and noticed the things listed above. My boyfriend and his friend are going back to look at it tomorrow afternoon to get a better idea. The water and electric are turned off but we plan on getting it turned on for a day and having the house inspected if we are still interested after tomorrow.

The house is now listed at $149,900. It started at $199,900 and has dropped $10,000 per month since December to the price it is at now, as of yesterday. As of right now, knowing what it needs, before even having it inspected we are thinking of offering $80,000 and seeing what happens from there. I feel like there is about $100,000 in repairs that need to be done with how big the house is and to get it back to its glory days. Our realtor is going to find out how much is still owed on the house for us as well. 

Our budget for a house is $200,000 with the repairs. We have looked at ready to live in, no repairs needed houses but can't find exactly what we want and don't really want to settle. If we can get a house and do the repairs and stay under budget, that would be perfect. The house fixed up is worth $350-400,000 in our area.

We are planning on using the 203k Rehab Loan. I have been seeing conflicting information and I was wondering if we are able to do work ourselves through this loan or does it have to be through licensed professionals and contractors?

Do we put a bid in before or after having the house inspected?

Is there anything I should specifically look out for? Questions to ask the realtor, inspector, etc? Am I missing anything? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!