Seeking advice on a condemned property in a GOOD neighborhood

[Justin Escajeda]

Hello everyone, I have recently become able to buy a vacant home in a nice neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Comps have sold for 130k-160k in the last 6 months. However, the house is now condemned. I am a contractor and can estimate cost pretty efficiently. However, because the house has been sitting vacant for 3 years, I wonder how much I should offer, aside from repair costs, how should I gauge my offer?

Also, being a landlord and property owner for a few years now, I have had my fair share of experience with cat urine. HOWEVER, THIS IS THE WORST CASE I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED. You can literally smell it from the outside. Before I have only repainted and replaced carpet to eliminate the smell.

Is there other measures that I should take for this extreme case to rid the smell, that I should include in my repair budget? Or is there techniques that I am unfamiliar with to complete this task?

Thank You everyone for your feedback, I value any that I get from this community.

[David Krulac]

@Justin Escajeda

I've owned property in Pgh. also. Lots of great properties. For odors besides Kilz, and shellac, I've used Odorxit. All the carpet will have to be trashed, and on a recent job we had to have the hardwood floors refinished as there were deep black stains from all the urine & feces. There were some areas where sanding did not remove the black and we ended up replacing about 100 square feet of new hardwoods, then totally refinishing all the floors in the house. we also replaced the floors in the kitchen and baths. With a black light you can see the evidence of urine and can use to see if the walls are urine stained, that is not visible to the naked eye.

All furniture, curtains and drapes should be trashed as they will capture the odor also. We also had the windows professionally cleaned as there was a film and dirt on the windows, which also carried an odor. Kitchen grease and nicotine can also carry odors in a house and have to be removed/cleaned.

One of the worst odor houses that I was ever in was in Pgh. near Canevin. There was decaying food in the kitchen and in the refrigerator with the electric off. I had to get out of that house as I was gaging and lost my lunch.

At another house in Crafton Heights, the electric was off for 15 years with food and leftovers in the frig. I duct taped the doors to the frig & freezer, then realized that it wouldn't fit through the door without removing the doors.

You have a handle on the rehab costs, but you should look for deferred maintenance since the place was empty for years. Check for roof leaks, aged shingles, missing shingles etc. And be sure to check for freeze damage, even if the place was winterized, there still can be freeze damage to plumbing, boilers, hot water heaters, etc.

Also check with code enforcement and see what they have on the condemnation. some times it can be as simple as the utilities are off, other times there is something very major wrong.