Making offers on properties with freeze damage

[Dylan Swanson]

Hey,

I'm looking at a short sale property that has freeze damage to pipes (listing says extent of damage is unknown). The property has been on the market for some time and of course is not being lived in.

When you guys are deciding what to offer on a property that has this going on, how do you typically analyze or handle this issue? i.e. - is there a worse case scenario you will use in your analysis?

Also, if anyone has any scenarios where they've had to tackle this problem, as well as what the scope of work and costs were, that would be helpful. I realize there will be differences market to market.

Thanks!

[Jordan Thibodeau]

HI Dylan! Excellent question!

I was thinking about buying a house that had some flooding damage. I decided to make an offer for the house with full contingencies. When I was able to do my full inspection I discovered that the flooding damage was much worse than I expected, however, because I sent an offer with contingencies, I was able to back out.

You could bring a plumber to the property while doing your inspection to see what it would cost to fix the house, but being that the house has been on the market for so long, one could assume that the asking price is too high.