The Inspection

The inspection and sewer scope for the house we put an offer on was last Tuesday. There ended up being a few bigger things that need to be addressed before we're comfortable purchasing the property. We have until this Friday to make a decision without losing any money (besides the cost of inspection).


Crawl Space:

The crawl space under the house is not covered with a plastic vapor barrier. This has caused humidity to rise up into the house, specifically the attic where there are no windows or any way for the moisture to escape. This means one thing: mold! Gross. Luckily, it's not the evil black mold and can be treated pretty easily.


Furnace:

So, I'm looking at the actual inspection report and can't find this in there for some reason, so excuse my lack of proper terms here. There was something going on with the furnace where it was spitting back air into the crawl space and, subsequently, into the house. Our agent had someone look at it and it's apparently a really cheap fix, so this dropped down in OMGWTFBBQ!!! status. The entire HVAC system does need to be cleaned especially with Tracey's allergies.



Sewer:

The sewer line on the property had some roots coming through. Sewer dude said it could be from the tree that was chopped down in the front yard so they might be dead but he can't say for sure. They're not too big and he said we could just have the lines cleared yearly and they should be good for 5+ years. There was a hole in one pipe but it was past the property line. City's problem!


Roof:

While the inspector was on the roof, he noticed that the front of it was replaced recently but the back half was still old. I wish I knew how to pull pictures out of a PDF document because it's pretty crazy looking. Our realtor has a roofer going out today to inspect it and do a bid on it and the seller had roofers come out last week. The roofers that have been out there made some recommendations and projected that, with those repairs, the roof would be good for another 10 years. This included replacing some shingles, sealing the chimney/edges of roof (more on that in a bit), cleaning the gutters, and installing 8 vents into the attic to help with air circulation and mold. Their bid was around $800 which is a lot cheaper than replacing an entire roof!


Those were the biggest things we were concerned about. The rest of the list was pretty manageable-- some ungrounded outlets, a window that wouldn't open, a foundation crack that was from the house settling. Luckily we have some pretty handy relatives who can help us with most of the list and that will help us save a lot of money.

So, we are trying to get the seller to help. I don't think I ever updated about what happened when we went under contract but we made a final offer that was $11,000 less than what the seller wanted with all of our closing costs paid. He accepted but wanted to sell it as-is. Even though he said as is, we're trying to move around some money so that the closing costs are lower and he can use the money left over to pay for the roof, mold issues, and a few other things. If we can get him to agree, we won't have to pay for them upfront, he won't lose any money, and our mortgage payment will barely change. We should be getting everything together this week so we'll know by Friday whether we're moving or not!