Awful Engineer's Report

Hi all - I need to vent a bit.

FH and I were looking for a new house for months and found nothing. A few weeks back, we saw an old colonial and COMPLETELY fell in love with it, hook, line, and sinker. Fom the moment we stepped inside, it felt like home - it was such a weird sensation. We hit it off really well with the owner, and got an accepted offer the next day. There seemed to be all of these little signs saying that this house was 'the one' including the fact that the original owners have the same last name as my mother's maiden name! (We're still researching this - it is possible that they are my relatives!!) Well, we got the full engineers report today - and it does not look good. In fact, it is pretty **** awful. Now, we knew that the house needed a good deal of work, we were actually looking forward to fixing it up and making it gorgeous, but after totaling all of the big repairs....unless we can knock at least $25k off the purchase price, this deal just ain't happening. I am so upset. The weirdest part is that FH and I are both real estate agents (part time), we know how much work the house needs, even my father a broker is telling us that it is a 'money pit' don't buy it - and - we are still desperately in love with it and want it!!!! We can't picture ourselves living anywhere else! We must be completely out of our minds!! I am waiting for logic to kick in sometime, but am having no luck! Tomorrow, we're going back to the house with a relative who is in construction to get his take on it. His word will most likely decide whether we kill the deal or not. But, even if he says go for it - there is still the huge issue of drastically dropping the price. The homeowner is totally sentimentally attached to the house and has not uttered one negative word about it - I don't think she will be that flexible... I guess I should stick to my beliefs - what is meant to be will be... If she dops the price, then it is meant to be ours, if not...

Thank you everyone for letting me share my feelings.

I'm sorry to hear that....Is it that bad...25K is a lot, but not HUGE...


I would consider the location first...if it is in a good one (and being in the business I'm sure you know)...then I would take it...

oh, thats so disappointing. our inspection was not all that bad, but turns out the house needs even more work than we anticipated. i personally don't like doing renovations & repairs, it always seems to be so much more expensive than you predict.

if the sellers lower the price, are you up for all the work? you may not be able to do everything all at once & you may have to wait years to get to some projects (like us!).

good luck, i hope everything works out! keep us updated!

eta: 25k will not go very far at all with household renovations. thats a kitchen & one bath basically. or siding, windows, roof & driveway. home repairs are just so expensive!

Erica is right...consider Location above all else. You can put money into ANY house, but you cannot pick the house up by the foundation and move it to a more desirable place.

Other than that....what Engineering company did you use? I will caution that lots of times, engineers reports are big and scary (in terms of what needs repair), but alot of what they include is just 'cover your a$$' type of $hit. They say that many things need replacement/repair so that if you buy the house and something big happens, you cannot go back to them and say, 'you didn't warn us about this.'

I'm not saying to totally ignore the engineer's report - b/c if it says that the foundation is weak and the house is not structurally sound, than you are making a poor decision to buy the house. But, look closely at the probably, likely and immediate expenses the report lists and then get someone else's opinion.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your support!!

yabbobay - the location is definitely a nice step up from where we are now - better schools, better area, and a bigger property size too. (Although, it's not one of the most expensive towns on the island - we can't afford those.) The area is kind of a mish-mosh of houses, with some selling in the high 300's and other new construction homes going for 600+. By fixing up the house, we definitely wouldn't be pricing ourselves out of the area, which is good. The homeowner already came down 25k for the accepted offer (original price was waaaay too high), I'm worried that another 25k may be too much for her to swallow.

spel - this will be our first venture into renovating/repairing. 25k is prob on the low end... From the engineer's report, the house needs:
1) new oil burner (old one is from the dark ages - who knows how much life is left in it)
2) main water main needs to be replaced, the current one is iron and most likely rusted
3) siding is shot
4) minor termite damage in basement - but the homeowner is responsible for this
5) many of the windows are original and need replacing
6) the driveway is shot
7) detached 2 car garage needs major repair

the list goes on and on...

The first 4-5 things we would want to do right away. The driveway and garage we can fix later. *Sigh* I would love to eventually renovate the downstairs bathroom and even dormer the 2nd floor - but that won't happen for many years. So you don't all think that we're completely nuts - the house is very charming. It has a bed and breakfast feel to it. We love the layout of the first floor. We love the property size. It simply feels like our home.

Claud2001 - we used a VERY good engineering company. I can FM you the name if you want - I'm not sure if it's right to post it here. (They are known as 'DDT' to realtors b/c they kill so many deals!! If you're in real estate, you probably know who I'm talking about!) We even called the engineer tonight to check a few things over with him. The house is structurally sound and the foundation is fine. It just needs A LOT of work to bring it up to snuff. It's a handy man house. But the current price does not reflect that. Hopefully my construction saavy cousin can shed some more light on this.

Thank you all again!! I will be sure to keep you posted!!

All you can do is make an offer based on the report and your contractors estimates and see what happens. Has she had any other offers on the house? Some of things you mentioned windows, driveway siding are sort of what you see is what you get. She probably feels her original drop in price covers those items. The termite damage is a big red flag so is the water main. The burner might not be a big deal. You may be able to convert to gas and get one for free or sometimes you can even an oil burner for free by signing by with a company for a specified period of time.
Good Luck

Oh good luck. I hate to hear you might not get the house you feel in love with!

Maybe you can try to get the seller to come down several thousand and try to get a mortgage which will leave you come extra $$ for repairs.

Or you can suggest to the seller that you get the house appraised. If the appraisal is much lower than the selling price (which it might be if the hosue really needs 25K dollars or repairs) then your mortgage will not be approved anyway.

I hope that it all works out for you

Good Luck I know this decision is going to be hard. We found our house and loved it but felt it was marked up above what is worth.

We did factor those things when we bid on the house. We knew the roof (first layer though - so we can go over) and windows were original and we knew cosmetically we wanted the siding done. I can tell you from my recent home buying experience, this work alone is a lot of money and will be at least 25K. So do factor this in and maybe the owner can meet you in the middle with some of the items. Besides the stuff on the inspection report, it is unreal home many little things break or need fixing once you move it...somehow it adds up quick.

Only you know what you can afford and what you can want and even though it is cliche - if it is meant to be it is meant to be. I do believe it!

We had an awful engineer's report on the first house that we wanted ... and I'm glad we bailed. The house we bought is so much better, so keep that in mind, if this lady won't come down anymore. It may be a sign that something better is out there, even if you don't feel it right now.

Go with your gut ... sometimes your mind and your gut are not in sync. Do what you truly feel is right!

Good luck and please keep us posted!

Thank you ladies for your kind words, support, and suggestions!!

I could hardly sleep at all last night - I'm so nervous about what will happen today. Today is going to make or break the deal... I have my construction cousin, my dad, and even the seller's agent all going to the house with FH and I at 1:00pm. After my cousin looks the house over and gives us estimates, we're going to have a serious talk with the agent. If he is on our side, then we're in decent shape - maybe he can convince the seller to come down in price. If not...then the house hunt continues...

Fran - apparently there was only one other offer on the house, but she took ours. It wasn't on the market for very long, and her original asking price was much much too high. We're the first ones to get an engineer in there. We're really hoping that we can switch over to gas since it will be so much cheaper than a new burner. According to the engineer, the termite damage was minor and easily fixable - but we need a real exterminator in there to thoroughly go through the house.

Marcia - thanks for your support!

Becky - yes, hopefully she will come down in price and we can take out a bigger mortgage or 2nd mortgage for the repairs. That is the plan. And we are going to get an appraisal done too - hopefully it will knock some sense into the seller!

Nicecey - I too believe what is meant to be will be!

Cira - So far my gut is saying that this is our house! But my mind is saying - 'you're crazy!!'

Keep your fingers crossed for me!! I'll report back and let you know how it goes!

I just wanted to say good luck!

Hey everyone,

To make a long story short - we withdrew our bid on the house.

My cousin confirmed our fears....he too thinks that the house is a 'money pit.' It needs a ton of work (even more than we originally thought), and he explained that when you start fixing things, especially on an 87 year old house, you are bound to encounter little 'surprises' that are going to cost you more $. When estimating renovating costs, you need to add at least 10%-15% to cover those surprises. *Sigh* I told her agent to call me back if she has trouble selling it and if she is willing to take at least $50k less - which I doubt will happen. Well, at least my brain finally won out over my heart. If we bought the house at our original price, we would have had major financial problems when it came to maintaining and renovating it.

So - the search continues...(I wish we could take a break for a bit, but I'm afraid that the mortgage rates will go up more.) Maybe we should start looking in Suffolk...are there any nice, affordable places in Western Suffolk? *Sigh*

On a positive note, I ended up finding an amazing engineering company in the process. If anyone needs an EXTREMELY thorough engineering company for their engineer's report - I HIGHLY recommend Tauscher Cronacher. My cousin was really impressed with their report - they did not miss a thing, no matter how small - he said that our engineer was the 'rain man of engineering' - lol.

Thank you all again for your advice and support!

I am sorry it didn't work out, but it sounds like you made the right decision. And who knows, maybe noone will want the money pit for the price she is looking for.

Let us know how the rest of your search goes. I am sure when you are in your new non-money-pit home you will be be so happy you made this decision.

Sorry it didnt work for you. You will find something.

A fixer upper is not for everyone. We looked at lot because I was really stuck on a N.Shore (out of our price range) location at first. It finally hit me that I didnt want to spend every weekend for then next 5 years working on the house. Not to mention the cost.

Hang in there.

Sounds like you made a wise decision! definitely hang in there - I am sure a house it out there waiting for you to find it!!

I'm sure you will find a home that you don't need to 'dump' all your money into fixing and that you love!!! I know it is upsetting right now, but just keep telling yourself what a wise decision you really did make!

Good Luck!

Thank you ladies!! You have all been so sweet, supportive and helpful!!!

As disappointing as it is that the house didn't work out, we will do our best to keep our chins up and keep looking - our house is out there somewhere!

Good luck to all the other house hunters out there!

I am sorry
I know you will find something even better