looking to buy a fixer upper

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crod

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hey everybody, new to this website and me and my fiance are looking to buy a fixer upper. now this house is a turn of the century victorian, and has never been updated. the house had a beautiful floor plan and some people tried top modernize it and made it look horrible. anyways the house has been foreclosed, the list price is 379,900. now the problems i saw just walking through with the realtor are as follows: the firep[lace chimney is leaning over, the furnace chimney seems to be losing morter, it needs all the windows replaced(single pane with lead weights), im not sure if theres even anyh insulation, rewiring, replumbling, furnace seems to be atleast 50 years old or older. now we believe the bank owns it for @300K. I would like to get it cheap, but how low can we go, or are we going to be in over our heads.
 
My wife and I purchased a fixer a little over 9 months ago. It would be very wise to get an inspector to come in and look things over. Yes, this will be out of your pocket but they will provide some valuable information that you may overlook. I would suggest having even 2 come in and inspect. You may want to choose someone other than who your realtor suggests. A lot of time the realtor works closely with an inspector to ensure a sale. I'm not suggesting that all realtors do this, but we have a pretty good relationship with our realtor, and we went with his guy. The inspector pointed out certain things, but ignored (or wasn't qualified enough) a lot of obvious issues that now we have had to deal with. Things such as making sure the foundation is good, HVAC, electric.....He pointed out the obvious but later after I started our remodel I realized that he should have been much more thorough.

As far as the price goes, where are you located (state). Read up on foreclosures if you are not very familiar with how it works. I am no expert but have learned quite a bit from the process. Basically, know this. The bank is NOT losing money owning this property regardless of how much higher the value actually is. Secondly, the bank wants money and often times will be very stubborn with the price. We bought our home for about 20,000 less than the original list price, and honestly could have saved another 15,000 on top had we have not jumped the gun.

Have an inspector tell you what it will cost to improve the place and then decide whether its worth it. Check some local prices and compare...this is probably the best way to determine a good price. If you want anything more I will try to give you more info.
 
Welcome Crod:
It is true, the bank will not want to loose money on the property; on the other hand, banks like to handle money, not real estate. If you are buying directly from the bank and not through a realtor you may be able to do some serious dickering. Remember, a realtor wants up to 10% fee above the cost the bank has in the property.
Glenn
 
Glenn's right. Our home was a foreclosure, but the bank let the real estate company sell it. You have a much better chance to get the house cheaper if the bank is doing all the work.

Also, often times a foreclosure company or bank, are in a different part of the country as the property. They just see numbers, so keep that in mind and don't get discouraged. If you really want the house, stick with it.
 
A repo I'm looking at has been for sale only about 4 months, and with the first bid the bank countered with an offer about 9% lower... so that might be 30k or so in your case... it's definately a chunk of change worth negotiating over...
 
thanks for the input everybody, well find out in a couple of days
 
Being a house flipper for many years my advice is this:
The fireplace tilt is a danger zone. The other extensive remodel stuff is expected but that fireplace can be a horror you never dreamed of.
Its not like changing a light bulb to fix. It can involve many tens of thousands of dollars to do it right. RUN LIKE THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JUST SAY NO! Trust a fellow investor.
 

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