All Forum Posts by: Michael Snead

is that Toy Ave?  i think some friends of mine rented that place next door. nicely done!

Mother in law has a house that needs a drain problem assessed, a potential broken pipe, or a water intrusion from rain water. And possibly a sump pump installed in basement. Scope of work is very vague, I know. But I’m 8 hours away and can’t properly assess what is going on. Full disclosure I am a contractor and investor in Virginia, and I plan on bringing my guys for 1 weekend to do a portion of the work (demo, repair of drywall, etc) . I really need some boots on the ground to assess and do the majority of the work. Will gladly pay for your time to stop by. DM or reply for contact info.

There are also other properties she needs to sell or get rented. Potential for future jobs.

Thanks for your time.

Steel* geez I’m welder and I can’t spell steel

@Aaron Moore Yeah I was looking into the anchors or steal I beams. The I beams have a bad rep due to most people installing them incorrectly. Worse comes to worse I will consult and engineer and load a truck up with a couple of my guys and go jack the I beams myself one weekend. I do way more challenging stuff working for a commercial contractor on a daily basis. I don’t think that will be necessary though. I’m sure I can find a contractor to work with me. ...Now to just drive 12 hours into a snow storm and get a contractor to come out on a weekend haha. Wish me luck.

@Andrew Flora This is the plan. I’m not going to roll over and sell the house for $0.30 on the dollar until I know for sure that these foundation walls are beyond repair. The agent told my mother today that he has a contractor coming by to give an estimate to demolish the home (we did not ask for this) I am almost positive he is trying to slide this to a builder friend so he can get the back end listing as someone else said above.

@Joe Splitrock Thanks for the honesty! This may just be what I need to hear. But I was using an ARV of $250k (just doing a bathroom and flooring) to bring it to the typical market condition. The issue is the basement. I’m not keen on band aid fixing a basement, but there might be a cheaper option. If the walls could just be jacked, anchored, and reinforced, I can’t imagine that costing more than $30,000, making it worth it.

@Natalie Schanne Yes the original buyers listing agent was a close friend of theirs and failed to collect an EMD. Not only that but they would not give us an EMD, would not let us exit the contract, and threatened to sue us for over 5 months. We reported the agent to the board, but that doesn’t really help us recoup the 5 months holding cost and the legal fees. The first agent got such a high offer, because at the time we weren’t aware of the foundation issues. After discovering foundation issues of course we disclosed this to buyers, hence lower offers. This isn’t the best rental market, but not terrible either. The thing is we would be lucky to break even, and we live a 12 hour drive away from the home. Thanks for your suggestions!

@Bryan Devitt I agree, at this point opening the walls can do no harm. Thank you I think I’ll do that right away

Hi BP, I will try to keep this long story super concise:

My Grandparents passed away last Dec. leaving their waterfront property in the fingerlakes to my mother. The property is a 3 bed 2 bath 2 story plus basement. the property has over 100' of water frontage on the Owasco Lake outlet in Auburn, NY (45 min West of Syracuse), and a private boat ramp. I estimated an ARV of $300,000-$325,000, but in its current condition $250k to $280k

The property is outdated, but completely habitable and clean. when listing the property the basement was still full of my grandparents belongings, so nobody realized the walls were bowing inward. After accepting a full priced cash offer of $265,000 and waived inspection contingency, we hired someone to remove the stuff from the basement exposing the sagging walls. The buyers, with good reason, were spooked, and tried to re trade at $100,000. we declined, and they attempted to breach contract. but the buyers agent never collected an EMD, so after months of back and forth with a lawyer involved we are now stuck with a nice $8,000 legal bill and still no EMD or compensation for locking the house up for over 5 months. holding costs in upstate NY will make your stomach churn.... why does anyone live there? $1,200 a month without a mortgage...

now to the foundation issues, we have gotten estimates ranging from $50,000 to $180,000. most people say we will need an entire new basement, but without removing drywall there is no way to tell the full extent of the damage, and scope of work necessary to repair it. 

moving on. My mother hires a second listing agent. the guy claims to be an investor and flipper, and seems a lot more knowledgeable than the last agent, but I think when an out of state woman inherits a free and clear home in an opportune location with incredibly high holding costs, everyone smells a little blood in the water... hell i would... He recommends that we go for a fast sale for $125,000 to a builder that will tear down and rebuild. A friend of my mothers offers her $125,000 after we list with the agent... of course. 

after doing some light market research and consulting with the agent, if we could repair the foundation, replace a bathroom, and do about 900 sq ft. of flooring, the market could support $250,000. back of the napkin math if this is worth the time to fix it: $250k x 70% - $11,000 for the bathroom and floor - $7,000 holding costs leaves us $32,000 to fix the foundation. 

I guess I'm just generally asking for advice on this one.. it really sucks to be on the distressed seller side of things. Is there anyone that is familiar with the finger lakes market? maybe someone that has dealt with sagging basements? any out of the box ideas to not let this beautiful property slip away at 35% of its ARV? should I surrender?

Seriously thanks for your time and any advice.

I’d be interested in hearing more about this deal. Even in downtown I might know a buyer.