Had an agent friend of mine call me to look at a house from a GC standpoint, she is planning on purchasing it for her daughter.
She said it was previously inspected but oddly did not show me the inspection report, she simply said the inspector said other than some drainage issues and clarification on use of metal post to reduce deflection in the floor the home was pretty sound. I asked for the inspectors name but she said I wouldn’t known him…she said she would have called me but knew I was in Bahamas on vacation and needed to get a report back quick since they already made an offer.
I peeked my head under the crawlspace, walk around the exterior and didn’t even need to go inside. I asked her how much she was contracting the home for…she said $140,000.00 I told her it was at least 60k over priced not including a guestimate of $25k of repairs needed for unprofessional repairs already done and that there are serious structural issues that need to be addressed which will probably make my numbers go up even more. She asked me to do an inspection and give her an estimate from what I observed… I told her no…she simply needed to get a SE out there and then I would be glad to do a realistic estimate but until then there was no need in wasting my time or her money for what I already knew was going to a money pit.
She wasn’t happy about my response but finally did call an structural engineer who met her out there.
I got the SE report back and after looking at all the items on the repor…she is looking at $50,000.00 in repairs…every thing the DIY did has to be torn out…the house completely jacked off it foundation and new foundation piers installed, new floor framing system, roof bracing completely redone not to mention all the other problems that will result when jacking the home up (custom tile floors will be shot).
Evidently this DIY has seen too many DIY shows and felt they would be good at doing Fix & Flips. DIY’er is pretty pissed at me but I don’t give a flip…if she keeps running her mouth she will find herself in front of the NCGC board explaining why she is doing GC work without a license, work was performed without permits and a nice little fine.
Don’t mind saying it but I enjoy coming across POS by DIY’s and then busting their bubble during an RE transaction.
MY RE friend is now chasing down the HI in hopes of getting her money back…if I was a betting man I would wager she will get every cent back from the the HI.