Wild first deal... trying to get under contract

[Jason Rogers]

Hello All, I am currently trying to get my first deal under contract and it has some pretty odd stuff going on that I need some advice on. So the back story is this was a driving for dollars prospect. I researched the property in the public records and found that the owners were deceased and their daughter had inherited it. There were a couple things going on with it. The roof is pretty bad and a few years ago there was a small fire inside (No major damage). The owner was embroiled in a battle with the township over code violations and the fact that they had condemned the house due to the fire damage and there being a hole in the roof over the garage. The owner is obviously attached to the home sentimentally and still has belongings and memorabilia of her parents in the home. She had bee approached by multiple investors and did not want to sell. So being inexperienced I just kind of let it slide. Which has since been a great lesson on following up. Up to this point there’s nothing too crazy about this. Most of this is probably somewhat common. But then Monday I was in the area and decided to drive by and see if anything had happened with the property. I saw that something had been posted on the door. It stated that the owner had pulled permits to get the roof repaired and make the home livable back in August. Since no work had been started after six months if nothing had changed by Saturday of this week the township was going to demolish the house next week. So I immediately started digging and found a phone number for the owner and called and she picked up! We chatted and I told her that I would pay her cash for the property and she said that she would think about it. I didn’t bring up the demolition and decided not to push the issue and instead follow up with the township to see what could be done. When I spoke with the gentleman with the township he informed me that the owner had to place a $10,000 bond down to pull the permits to keep the township from demolishing the structure and to complete the repairs. That was in August and no work has been done. So now the township is going to cash in the $10,000 bond and use her own money to demolish the house. The gentleman at the township adamantly stated that they will not grant her any extension as they have been dealing with this for years and nothing has been done. BUT... if I could bring them a signed purchase agreement this week, then they would return her $10,000 and I would have to post a new $10,000 bond and have to fix the place up (which is obviously the plan). So I have been talking with the owner every day this week trying to get a deal done. She is clinging to the hope that her attorney (who hasn’t called her back in two days) is going to get some sort of court order to stop the demolition. But she is moving towards selling which leads to the next couple of circumstances. The owner is legally blind. She can read because she wrote down my phone number and has called me back. However, are there any special considerations that I should take into account here? I planned to print the contract in large font, but is there anything else that I could / should do for this? Do I need to take a witness or something? I just don’t want this to cause a problem later. The house was built in the 50s so there is a good chance for lead paint. What consideration should I give to that being this has to be done quickly and I’m not sure what the township will allow me to use as an inspection period? Is it a large concern? I know that this can be state specific too, but there will be quite a bit of work being done and that could be a case for remediation which seems very expensive. So basically what I am looking at here is can I actually talk this lady into selling, get her to sign a contract, get the township to approve it and not demolish the house and then put down a $10,000 bond to ensure that I am going to complete the repairs. The house is a solid brick ranch 3/2 in a nice neighborhood with a conservative ARV of $150k. It will be a pretty big rehab so given the circumstances I am offering $10k. Which will become $20k when she gets her bond back. I’m a bit nervous about some of this but I think if I can pull it off it will be a great first flip. I think that’s most of it. I now open the floor to and ask for the wisdom of the BP community. Thank you in advance for any insight that you can provide. Jason Rogers