re: When do you walk away from a house offer...

quote:

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how much more

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That really depends on the finishes you decide to go with. Are you going to replace all of that flooring on the 1st floor? You said kitchen renovation, are you doing a full gut or are you going to try and salvage the cabinets and counters?

I would think you could blow that budget pretty easily on the 1st floor alone, not even taking into consideration the structural stuff like the roof and hvac issues you mentioned.

Full disclosure, I am by no means a contractor but do have some experience with Reno’s. I also almost got caught up in a very similar situation to yours last year when we were house hunting. My wife and I both fell in love with a beautiful older house that was extremely dated and had structural issues. As soon as we actually had a contractor do a walkthrough we realized we would have probably had to negotiate another 150k off the asking to be in the ballpark.

I like some others advice in this thread that suggest having a pro contractor come in and give you an estimate. Unfortunately it’s really hard to find a good contractor willing to come in and do this before you actually own the house and It also sounds like you are pretty far along in the closing process so if you have any doubts now you better act quick.

i feel like what i have got going for me is i don’t need to move walls. floors upstairs are all good except bathrooms . i would do the painting myself and there’s things i can live with for a bit until bonuses come around . biggest cost will be kitchen.

priority is:
plumbing
hvac downstairs
windows
electrical
kitchen
master bath

i’ve had a contractor walk through the house with me and he thought the 100k could get me a few things in my list.

You say that your offer is at $118/sqft, and believe the market value would be around $150/sqft when renovations are done. At 3100 sqft, that's only $99,200. You were going in with a reno budget of $100k, and now have 3 major reno costs added to your original budget. Sounds like you'd be underwater unless you can get the seller to drastically drop their price.

Also, you mentioned she said she fixed the roof and the water was from Olga, can she provide proof of the repairs?

If you already have a contractor that you're working with, you probably should have them follow the inspection report and look at the items identified in the report. They should be able to tell for certain if the roof was repaired, patched, or she's flat out lying.

FYI, I would walk unless she was willing to fix the roof & plumbing herself.

just be straight up with them on what the issues are

tell them you still want the house but repair costs make the purchase unrealistic for you unless they come down some on the price to offset repairs

ask for 50% or repair costs and let them know you have to walk if they dont agree. if they want to sell they should be agreeable, if not, walk

there are going to be lots of things not found in inspection you need to fix as well so figure to add another 10% more to what you "think" you will have to spend on repairs

Get pricing to repair the known issues, reduce offer by that plus and additional $_____.00 at your discretion. Make them reject your offer.

And, I'm talking a LOW BALL OFFER.

met with an HVAC guy cost to replace is $7500. original heater is a fricken Chrysler brand

at this point seller needs to come up with about $20k in cash or fix repairs and drop price another $20k

I’ve been through three potential home purchases in the last t years, all older homes that needed obvious work. Made offer, accepted pending inspection and each property had more extensive repairs needed after inspection. You have to be willing to lose in order to get your best deal. We made no extraordinary claims as all needed repairs were backed up with estimates. You can ask for more time to get estimates, as well. Came really close on the last one, but MOLD was discovered in the crawl space and the owner flat out told us “as is” and wouldn’t reduce further. We walked. Our situation may be different than yours as we are downsizing and have the luxury of not having to move.

Is this a house that you plan on living in or plan to flip?

I've not read all the post so sorry if you have answered.
100k gets you to that $150/ sq ft

If you plan on living there that’s fine.

If you plan to flip, you will not make anything.

Do you have estimates to have the entire roof replaced?

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People in the Nola area pay crazy prices for subpar houses.