Will a bank loan on a house with an unsound deck?

[Account Closed]

Looking at a property this weekend that seems like it could be a winner. The seller mentioned that the deck is unsound and needs to be torn down. The house itself is fine just the deck is bad. I can deal with the work but I'm wondering if a bank won't put a mortgage on the property because of it?

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Looking at a property this weekend that seems like it could be a winner. The seller mentioned that the deck is unsound and needs to be torn down. The house itself is fine just the deck is bad. I can deal with the work but I'm wondering if a bank won't put a mortgage on the property because of it?

Were the appraiser's breakfast foods yummy this morning, or kind of meh? Kidding-not-kidding. 

It'll be a judgement call on the assigned appraisers part. May or may not be breakfast dependent. 

Also may or may not be dependent on a lot of other details about the deck... appraisers aren't structural engineers, but they also aren't blind. 

That leaves a lot of gray area. At the end of the day, if you're going to be buying a lot of "gray area" real estate (often these are the best deals), expect a property to fall out once in a while depending on the whims of an appraiser. 

Cost of doing business - make sure you aren't skipping over great deals over the potential to waste a little appraisal fee. As you do it a few times, you will get a hang of it. In my local market, here in the Bay Area, I've been known to go look at properties if it's the slow season, etc, but I'm given to understand that is rare. Your Realtor should have a good idea, they're the ones that host a dozen or three appraisals per year, generally as a LO I never communicate directly with them at all.