Cross your fingers for me!

Congratulations. Now you'll have so many chores to do around the house you won't have time to brew!

Congrats Dude! We want more pictures when you get them!

:rockin:

Well, house inspection is today at 4 PM. I will hopefully get some good pics of the house, as well as (hopefully) pics and dimensions of that room above the garage. I'll start a thread on it tomorrow night with my current ideas and hopefully you guys can chime in as well. I'm going to have to be super creative because actual working space in the room is going to be extremely tight.

Hopefully we don't find anything seriously FUBAR today.

Congrats, Dude. Now if the housing market would just tank so I can find something affordable in southern CA. At least here in LA. I hope your's doubles in value.

Dude said:

Well, house inspection is today at 4 PM. I will hopefully get some good pics of the house, as well as (hopefully) pics and dimensions of that room above the garage. I'll start a thread on it tomorrow night with my current ideas and hopefully you guys can chime in as well. I'm going to have to be super creative because actual working space in the room is going to be extremely tight.

Hopefully we don't find anything seriously FUBAR today.

Click to expand...

How'd it go?

todd_k said:

How'd it go?

Click to expand...

It went okay. Saw some things that we need to work out before we go further. I brought my father-in-law along, who is much more versed in looking for warning signs. He's insisting the roof needs to be replaced. Various other little things as well, such as some outlets don't work, and we'll have to replace the kitchen countertop. Some of the appliances are pretty old as well. I still think we are getting a pretty good value--but we'll have to make sure these things are taken care of.

Being a neophyte at this stuff--I'm not sure what the next step is, but we meet with the realtor again tomorrow after the official inspection results come in.

As for the garage, I took some measurements of the upstairs. It is an approximately 12 x 20 room--with some drawbacks because of the slope of the roof. It has serious potential, I just need to maximize it--which is my worry. I'm going to start a separate thread and post some pics and some ideas I have.

How handy are you? Handy enough to install a dormer in the roof?

Where you go from here is to negotiate for $$ off the deal because it needs a new roof. That's a serious thing, you can ask for them to either fix it or take some money off so that you can fix it. It's all still negotiation at this point you aren't locked into the price you offered. Very, VERY good that you had the inspection done, I always cringe when I watch shows on HGTV where people have purchased a home without hiring an inspector.

only cheap people don't get a home inspection, why wouldn't you? A new roof is pretty serious and you should get mucho dinero taken off the price to get that fixed. Don't let him pick the guy to fix the roof either, he'll get his cousin Vito to do it half-assed. Also, I'm not an electrician or anything close to that but the dead outlets would worry me too. Maybe there's a bigger problem behind those walls. How old is the house?

Well, we got a rebuttal back about the maintenance we wanted done before we go further. The current owners are refusing to replace the roof or have it certified by a professional roofer.

Also some other minor things they won't replace. One issue is there was some condensation inside the sliding window due to a broken vapor lock. Also a missing screen. The owners are refusing to replace (or even fix) the door.

We sent back a response today--either fix everything we asked for or we are executing a release. I don't want to do that, but maybe it is a sign.

I know they don't want to spend any money--but I'm going to get value.

Kind of makes me wonder what they are trying to hide.

Todd_k--to answer your question, the house was built in 1972, so it isn't that old. The "dead" outlets aren't dead as far as no power getting to them, they just need to be replaced.

Its a fine line ya have to walk..... I guess it all boils down to how much you really want the place. By telling them fix it all or we walk you have to accept the fact that they may say - get bit. Personally, if I really like the place and it was mostly minor, I would have let it be. Now the roof is a different thing..... It can be quite expensive to replace. It may be wise to see if they will take a few grand off the price seeing that it needs replacing. Sorta a middle ground. But if you really feel that it needs to be replaced by them, they may say no if they feel that they can sell it without that as a term. Don't get me wrong.... its a nerve racking thing selling/buying a house. I'm not saying that you are out of line or anything. I hope it goes well for you Dude.

Yeah, their refusal to budge makes you wonder. When we had our home inspection done they found that one of the basement walls was slightly angled, meaning it was moving a bit on it's foundation (the house is 80 years old). We asked the then-current owners to fix it and they did. The house was jacked up while one basement wall was excavated, removed, and completely replaced while they were still living in the house.
So now our basement has three small brick walls and one cinder block wall.

I agree with what has been said, and will add this- if there are issues that make, or can make, the house unlivable, or will take the work of a professional or an experienced homeowner over multiple days, to remedy the issue, aka, it is not "elective" surgery, then it should be covered by the seller. My first house was new construction, but punch list dealing is somewhat the same thing, and I went back and forth for a while. When I sold it, I was in the used house seller position. There were some issues that they found that, though I was meticulous with the house, I had missed, and I remedied them happily. There were some issues that were more "wants" on their part, and I refused.

The issues that you are speaking of seem valid. You never want to deal with a bad roof, unless you absolutely knew it going in and are seeking remedy or value and like you are trying to do. The vapor lock on the glazing of the door means that it needs to be replaces, as that door is no longer providing thermal protection. It is difficult to determine the value of older appliances, but match what you think they appear to be against what they were listed as (aka-nice recent dishwater actually is handcrank...)

The sensitivity of the market, I think, is what the owner is suffering from. The owner still thinks that it is a sellers' market, and thinks that he/she will be able to get full price without negotiating. Are there any other interested parties? How long has it been on the market for? What is the risk that the house will be gone the next day if you walk away? Walking away is often a powerful negotiation tool. I walked away from the table on both house purchases, and ended up getting both houses. It sometimes serves to motivate the seller.

I feel your pain, but the seller's are being unrealistic.

I paid $300 for a house inspection which added weight when I brought the repair, etc., to the table. I estimated all the repairs and made an offer 18K less than what they were asking. They came back up 6K so I saved 12K.

I got locals to do the roof. I purchased the supplies, they put it on. Total prive $5400. Siding cost 7K.

I've redone almost every room myself. Paid the house off in 2years, 2 months. More work to follow.

Hang in there. If they NEED to sell then you'll be better off.

Good luck.

We had a similar situation when we bought our current home. The septic was condemned, and the old owner had to escrow $12,000 for installation of a mound system. The owners of your dream home will probably have to face facts and realize that they're going to have to do something similar in order to sell their place.

Congrats on the new place. That is very cool. So when are you having us all over to throw-up on your new carpet?

What did the actual inspector have to say?

We have another one in mind--it is in an even better area and more of a fixer upper, but cheaper. Also no garage though. I'd have to buy/build a shed to at least have a brewery. No bar though.

SwAMi75 said:

What did the actual inspector have to say?

Click to expand...

As far as?

In the inspection report, they recommended quite a list of things. We proposed a seriously whittled down list to the owners, but specified we wanted the work done by certified roofers/plumbers rather than "handymen". They balked at that. We are waiting to hear back from our rebuttal, where we remained firm on our list.

Makes me wonder what they are trying to hide.

EDIT: Oh, herrroooo..... LOL....

Just started stopping by again and saw this post.

Congratulations Dude, That garage certainly is a home brewers dream.

Kai

Kaiser said:

Just started stopping by again and saw this post.

Congratulations Dude, That garage certainly is a home brewers dream.

Kai

Click to expand...

Welcome back bro--let us know how you are doing. Settled in yet? How's the job? More important, are you brewing yet?

Dude said:

We have another one in mind--it is in an even better area and more of a fixer upper, but cheaper. Also no garage though. I'd have to buy/build a shed to at least have a brewery. No bar though.


As far as?

In the inspection report, they recommended quite a list of things. We proposed a seriously whittled down list to the owners, but specified we wanted the work done by certified roofers/plumbers rather than "handymen". They balked at that. We are waiting to hear back from our rebuttal, where we remained firm on our list.

Makes me wonder what they are trying to hide.

EDIT: Oh, herrroooo..... LOL....

Click to expand...

If they won't budge on the inspector's recommendations, I'd let them keep it.

Kaiser said:

Just started stopping by again and saw this post.

Congratulations Dude, That garage certainly is a home brewers dream.

Kai

Click to expand...

I was off the board a bit- you are now in MA?!?!?!?!??

SwAMi75 said:

If they won't budge on the inspector's recommendations, I'd let them keep it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, we are going to execute a release if anything we asked for comes back again. Bums me out.

It is one of those things that you NEED to be ok with. An out-building is nice, but you are going to spend the majority of your time in the house, and if you are not ok with their position, then it is not worth it.

UGH. Back to the drawing board. The owners came back and said no way, we aren't required to fix anything. Uh, okay. Let's see if they get an offer anything close to what we gave them.

So we are signing the release today--which means we start looking all over again. I'm totally bummed.

Obviously they know something is wrong. They are afraid a professional roofer is going to come by and tell them the whole thing needs to be replaced, or are hiding something that would come back and bite us in the a$$es later on. This is a good thing, but not what I was "bargaining" for. Not looking forward to starting this whole process over.

Arrrgh.

Welcome back to the looking-for-a-house club. I'm going out again tonight to look for a house.

That really is too bad. I will drink a beer in solidarity with your struggle. That is the kind of guy I am. Never to busy to drink a beer for a friend in need.

Brewpastor said:

That really is too bad. I will drink a beer in solidarity with your struggle. That is the kind of guy I am. Never to busy to drink a beer for a friend in need.

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Dude said:

UGH. Back to the drawing board. The owners came back and said no way, we aren't required to fix anything. Uh, okay. Let's see if they get an offer anything close to what we gave them.

So we are signing the release today--which means we start looking all over again. I'm totally bummed.

Obviously they know something is wrong. They are afraid a professional roofer is going to come by and tell them the whole thing needs to be replaced, or are hiding something that would come back and bite us in the a$$es later on. This is a good thing, but not what I was "bargaining" for. Not looking forward to starting this whole process over.

Arrrgh.

Click to expand...

Sorry Dude, but yeah, better to let em' keep it. It sure sounds like they don't want to sink any more money into the joint. Just wait and see how long it sits on the market.

It sucks, but it just wasn't meant to be. You'll find one.


Ize

God opens and closes doors for us, sometimes we do not know why, but if we did, who would need faith. You will end up where you belong, have faith and trust in the Almighty.

Brewpilot

Sounds like they have something else going on, like you said. I hope the hunting goes well for you.

That's a tough one, Dude. I know it's hard to believe, but cool houses are all over the place. You'll find one.

That sucks, but it sounds like you made the right decision. You'll find something!

[answering machine].....there are other fish in the sea.[/answering machine]

SwAMi75 said:

That sucks, but it sounds like you made the right decision. You'll find something!

[answering machine].....there are other fish in the sea.[/answering machine]

Click to expand...

LOL...Swingers references are always great.

"This is place is dead anyway...."

Dude,

That sucks dude. I remember when searching for a house all the ones that got away. I'm glad they did, though. We found the best house for us, and a much better one than we could have settled for.

You'll find something better. I bet the owners just didn't want anyone finding all the bodies in the crawl space.

Dude said:

Welcome back bro--let us know how you are doing. Settled in yet? How's the job? More important, are you brewing yet?

Click to expand...

I gess most of what I have to tell is about selling and buying a house, so I'm not really hijacking your thread.

When we had the home inspection of the buyers for our house in NC, a tropical storm moved through the area. It dumpes 7 inches in a few hours and whole neighborhoods were flooded. And that is the worst time to have a home inspection as a seller!!! needless to say that they found water where there has no water been before. And I was pissed when I heard what the sellers asked to be fixed. Mostly because they were not local and their agent was their representation at the home inspection. So they were very picky.

Another problem that I noticed well before we were putting the house on the market was a crack in the foundation. Oh ****, I thought and asked a contractor friend for some input on that. He showed pics and measurements to a structural engineer of his. The SE told us that there is nothing to worry. It's a non-supporting wall and settlement like this is common in the aera. Just grout the crack and done. If I wanted that in writing he could do this for $125. So I felt easier about the crack and when we put the house on the market I asked him to come out and give me the assesment in writing. Well he didn't realize how far I was away and it would cost me much more than $125 for him to come out and write a report. But he referred me to a more local engineer which would be able to do this cheaper. Well, this engineer suggested that the issue be fixed. Doooh!!. When I asked him If I can fix this myself by jacking up the settled piece of the wall he actually said yes and we went over specs on what to do. Basically 2 18x18x8 footers supporting 4 ton hydraulic jacks:

The remaining cavity (under the foundation) was then filled with concrete. Needless to say that this was a lot of digging and concrete mixing in a humid NC summer . But it fixed the problem for $200 (jacks, concrete, mixer rental) as opposed to $2200 for 2 helical piers. Surely not the best solution from a buyers point of view, but I got a letter from the engineer saying that the work was to spec and the buyers were happy with that. I guess they really wanted to have that house after they offered full price on the day it went on the market !!!. Mostly because they have been looking around for a long time and had to head back to CA the same day.

Then we came to MA where it is so much of a buyers market right now. Houses are on the market for 6+ months, but sellers are not willing to drop the price significantly to sell the house faster. When we were looking we weren't in a rush at all. Thanks to a corporate moving plan that put us in temp housing for 2 months. We found that we can get much more for our money if we look further away from where I work. So we made an offer on a great house in Pepperell. After the air radon test came back high, we wanted to have the water tested for radon as well. But the sellers didn't agree to that because they were financially so stapped that they would not have been able to mitigate anything and didn't want to risk having to disclose such a test result as well if it would have come back high. The same day the house second on our list dropped by $30,000. The sellers of this house already left and wanted to get rid of it quickly. Knowing that we can still hold our closing date, we executed a release and made an offer on the other house which turned out to be the better house.

Now I have a 35min commute each way and lots of time to listen to the various brewing podcasts out there.

But I'm busy at the new job (AMD) so I have to stay away from the HBT during work.

Even while I was in temp housing I was still brewing. But hats off to all you appartment all grain brewers . It is much different when you have to mash and boil on the balcony and chill in the sink b/c there is no faucet outside.

But once I moved into the new house I started brewing full force again. And I had a lot to catch up.

So, that's how I'm doing.
(I'm not going to spend time on a spell check now )


Kai

Did you know that smilies count as images !!!

Putting in another bid tomorrow.

WOW. Kind of glad the other place fell through to be honest. This one isn't as nice looking on the outside but it has had some NICE improvements done in the last 2 years and it is just HUGE. I'm getting some pics of it tomorrow, but the layout is a slam dunk as far as a brewery and a bar. The bar room is an addition, and the previous owners actually used it as a bar. It has its own bathroom and it even has the pool cue racks still on the wall. I'd rough guesstimate the room is about 15x25 and it has a wood stove in it. It is going to be absolutely perfect. Then off of that bar room, it has a huge utility closet that will house the brewery. Tentatively I'm hoping to be able to put a chest freezer in that room and run beer lines through the wall into the bar room, and put taps right on the wall.

Oh yeah, the rest of the house is nice too--3 decent sized bedrooms and a remodeled kitchen that SWMBO is very happy with.

Ummm...another awesome part is a 660 sq. ft. detached garage. It is kind of ugly looking from the outside but with some paint and a new door it'll be nice. The damn garage is HUGE. It is unreal.

I'll get some pics tomorrow afternoon.

Here is an old pic I got off the city property value page. Central air now, and new windows. Better pics tomorrow too.

Good luck with this one Dude. Everything happens for a reason. This place sounds like it has more potential anyway.

Does the Nova transfer?

Good luck!

Dude said:

, and new windows.

Click to expand...

That's a big plus sine it saves you money in the long run

Kai