Buying Flooded House??
There is a single family rambler in my area for sale thru HUD, that's been flooded in hurricane Isabel. House built in 1959, recent roof and septic, but there is significant mold inside the property because of it being vacant for a long time and the water sitting for a long period. We are figuring on a gutting and replacing of the drywall and insulation, replacing HVAC, new appliances and flooring, and potentially electrical. We are wondering if there are any other potential problems because of the flooding. Has anyone bought and rehabbed a flooded house before and what was your experience? Better to stay away altogether, or if we could get it pretty cheap and do majority of work ourselves? The market in this community for one in good shape is about $145k, HUD has it listed $102k but very little interest in the past few months. Best part about this home is it's in a waterfront community and has a waterview and nice neighborhood. Good waterfront privileges. Also am I correct to assume all this must be disclosed prior to sale if we were to rehab and sell? I know the scope of the job is pretty large (house is only 1000sf though) but we are experienced in residential rehab and have many trades in our family.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
Why don't you buy the house for yourself?
If it is a waterfront home for this price, why not buy it as a second home. You might even want to go in with a family member and share weekends.
In terms of the rehab, I have done a flooded home. You should be able to get away with removing the drywall 3'
above the floor and patching in. I would have to see it to see how bad the mold is. I would keep it and rent it for the long
term appreciation that waterfront houses
normally receive.
Jeffrey Adam
[addsig]
That's what I'm trying to tell my husband, to buy it and rent it long term. We bid twice on the property, at $60k and again at $65, with no acceptance. Some idiot bid $110k and of course it's now back on the market. His thing is the "most bang for the immediate buck " theory, meaning by the time we bought and rehabbed we'd have $90-$100k invested, and rental market in this area would support about $1000-$1100. Same money invested into a property about 20 miles north of here brings $1250-$1300 a month. That's where our other rental properties are. But less appreciation long term (because of lower income multi-unit neighborhoods). HUD's around here are pretty tough to get a good deal on, competition is fierce (we are about 50 miles south of Washington DC).
The mold on this property is pretty severe and about the bottom 2' of the drywall is covered, along with all the door frames, in some areas the entire wall. I have pretty graphic pics.
What about the electrical? That's one area we were concerned about, that being under water may have ruined the electrical system.
Change your commission to HUD to 0 and pay the Broker under the table after
you close. All HUD cares about is their
NET. Have an electrician walk thru with
you !
Jeffrey Adam
[addsig]
Don't worry about losing that house on HUD. Look around and you'll find more flooded houses. If you are not going to pay a lot of money for labor, drywall and other material use to rehab 'water damaged house, mold alone should not be the reason for too much concern.
What you'll do first is run (rented) fans and dehumidifiers to suck the water form the air. Then you'd open effected walls up above the ground and monitor the air and drywall humidity start dropping. Once the levels reach normal, you'll be ready to replace all effected drywall.
Anyway, what I would actually concentrate more in that aria are more expensive houses, since the same labor would yield much better return. As far as HUD goes, leave those properties to housewifes and other happy couples dreaming and biding about how they'll still their first investment.
Having done flooded property in the past I would suppose it depends on what your requirements and comfort levels are.
I would always disclose mold at the sale or to renters. I would also tell them all the steps that have been taken to remediate the problem.
A lot depends on how much was actually under water. I would follow the above posters recommendation of cutting up the first 3' and removing the sheetrock and the insulation exposing the studs to air and try and dry them out using the heat on the premises, a dehumidifier, etc. An ozone machine will also kill mold spores and they are on this site.
I have never had to deal with the electrical, generally it is in good shape as the wire is in romex and only the exposed surfaces oxidize. The panel is higher than 3' so basically you are looking at the receptacles that have been affected. One could pull off a cover plate and inspect the connections at the receptacle to see what shape they are in.
You could probably get a drywaller in there for .90 a sf (wall space) to replace, tape and texture. I would do the demo myself and the insulation. If your not a pro and still want to cut costs hang the rock and let a pro mud it.
Good LUck[ Edited by Stockpro99 on Date 01/26/2004 ]
Quote:
On 2004-01-26 19:37, Stockpro99 wrote:
If your not a pro and still want to cut costs hang the rock and let a pro mud it.
Good LUck
<font size=-1>[ Edited by Stockpro99 on Date 01/26/2004 ]</font>
If you decide you want to go this route, touch base with your tape/mud guy before you hang it. A lot of them will actually charge MORE if you hang it yourself because we amateurs sometimes do things that make it harder for them to do their finish work. I hired a friend to do the taping on my own house several months ago and he gently complained about where I had put some seams. It seemed quite reasonable to me when I did it, but once he explained it I saw why he would have preferred it his way. He told me that most tapers prefer to either do the hanging themself or have someone they know do it.
[addsig]