That feel when you pull up the tiles...

[anonymous]

And realize why the sellers put down an inch of cement board over the original floors



Yes, someone is getting sued. I'm not up to date on the 2013 building code, but I believe that dry rotted subfloor is not something you're allowed to just "patch around"

This , combined with them taking out two load bearing walls (holding up an un re-enforced concrete tile roof) and lying about permits is going to make for a nice Xmas bonus provided the lawyer doesn't take too much of it

Scumbag home flippers, I tell you. Worst thing to ever happen to the housing market. We've had to redo 90% of their work, and need to replace the roof before it collapses in a good earthquake.

[paolo59]

That is one unwelcome surprise. Buyer beware! I imagine there is all manner of 'shady business' when it comes to homes and properties on the market.

[beachguy498]

We had one house in the area that was on the market for a couple of years, obviously in sad shape. Well, someone buys it and moves in. To make a long story short, the house was badly eaten up with termites. The wife bought it alone, her husband was away on business. The real estate, termite inspector were in on the cover up. For some reason there was no home inspection. The damage was visible from the outside, mud tunnels everywhere.

The wife calls up someone for an estimate on repairs, the guy who shows up was there before and advised the previous owners to take the house down. So they dummied it up. I never knew what came out of the lawsuit, but it allowed them to get the house fixed which included the main beam, floor joists, walls and so on.

[latebloomingmom]

this is like those home buyer shows where the expert comes in and tells them everything that is wrong with house they want to buy or just bought.

[beachguy498]

this is like those home buyer shows where the expert comes in and tells them everything that is wrong with house they want to buy or just bought.

Most of the bigger issues could be avoided with a competent home inspection. I had a good inspection when I was looking at my house, but bought it anyway. The house scored a 68 out of 100 on the report. I stopped counting the $$ I put into it about 5 years ago when it went past the $250k mark.

[IzVenomous]

Another reason im glad my dad taught me all about construction at a young age. People really need to study up before they buy.

Yes op that will be a nice little payment

[Bushmaster]

Most of the bigger issues could be avoided with a competent home inspection.

Key word is "competent."

My toilet was sagging and the floor around it felt soft, so I had somebody come out just a couple of months ago to take a look. He took up the toilet, cut away some of the floor and found that when the house was built they had cut out a good sized chunk of the floor joist to run the drain pipe for the toilet. They could have offset the pipe but were apparently too lazy. So they just said fukit and cut out a piece of the building structure instead..

But I had an inspection when I bought the house and that wasn't caught. Building inspectors are former contractors, and IMO they get in a hurry and cut corners too..

[Smelly bull]

I have found most house inspectors lack the tools or the knowledge to inspect a home. Plus it is hard to find everything wrong, especially when it comes to some structural issues.

I have a friend who is an Insurance Adjuster...he is a great resource when it comes to homes and potential damage, he has seen it all. I will take him with when it comes time to inspect our next house..

[beachguy498]

I have found most house inspectors lack the tools or the knowledge to inspect a home. Plus it is hard to find everything wrong, especially when it comes to some structural issues.

I have a friend who is an Insurance Adjuster...he is a great resource when it comes to homes and potential damage, he has seen it all. I will take him with when it comes time to inspect our next house..

Most home inspectors are over-loaded and will run through an inspection. I still have my report somewhere, it was thorough and put into a bound book. No surprises after the fact, I was lucky.

I worked with a guy that has his PE license and he started doing home inspections on the side. He took the early retirement offer of 2013 and went at it full time. He's doing well with it, actually goes up on the roof of every house himself. He said to make sure the inspector is willing to do that up front, or find someone else.

[philipj]

I used to get hired to help people at the time of closing. All my business came from an incident where there was a no fault where is, as is slipped into one of the papers the buyer was required to sign at the time of closing. The lady buyer was so upset she demanded her deposit money back and stormed out with all the papers in her large purse. Upon further checking I discovered that one of the notary signatures was that of a notary whose authorization was expired. Yep civil and criminal action followed, and I received a thank you.

Take the time to read all the papers over, and feel free to say no.

[JimmyJonny]

I hate working on bathrooms, pretty damn expensive too.

[anonymous]

I believe our home inspector was in on the scam, since we foolishly took the realtors advice and used "the most amazing guy who's been doing this for twenty years "

He missed pretty much everything wrong with the home, even the toilet they forgot to hook up to the drains (thank God we had another contractor spot that before we moved in).

The realtor then offered her family construction firm for a "discount" on any repair work (can you say conflict of interest?) and her brother committed credit card fraud and stole from our house when we weren't home, then put a lien on the house when our credit card company forced him to pay back what he stole.

Then when the first rain came the roof leaked, since they had broken it during the flip.... we lost a bedroom, the insurance guy came and stepped on the tile roof and broke it again, then tried to hide the fact. So when it rained again , it leaked in the same spot and ruined all the work we just had done.

All in all not fun

But, at the end of this we'll have a new floor, metal roof , recessed support beams for a nice open plan, and a totally rebuilt modern fireplace plus a new bathroom out of the seller, they likely won't be flipping any more homes in this state for a while

[Bushmaster]

I believe our home inspector was in on the scam, since we foolishly took the realtors advice and used "the most amazing guy who's been doing this for twenty years "

He missed pretty much everything wrong with the home, even the toilet they forgot to hook up to the drains (thank God we had another contractor spot that before we moved in).

The realtor then offered her family construction firm for a "discount" on any repair work (can you say conflict of interest?) and her brother committed credit card fraud and stole from our house when we weren't home, then put a lien on the house when our credit card company forced him to pay back what he stole.

Then when the first rain came the roof leaked, since they had broken it during the flip.... we lost a bedroom, the insurance guy came and stepped on the tile roof and broke it again, then tried to hide the fact. So when it rained again , it leaked in the same spot and ruined all the work we just had done.

All in all not fun

But, at the end of this we'll have a new floor, metal roof , recessed support beams for a nice open plan, and a totally rebuilt modern fireplace plus a new bathroom out of the seller, they likely won't be flipping any more homes in this state for a while

You're in the Bay Area aren't you? I'm betting you got that house super cheap!

....no?

[anonymous]

You're in the Bay Area aren't you? I'm betting you got that house super cheap!

....no?

Yes just under 700k for basically a tear down , I'm lucky to live in such a healthy market!

The flippers bought it for 500k cash (a crazy old lady with sixty, srs 6-0, cats died in it and the cats lived there for months so it was in a bad state) then let a crew of "undocumented workers" loose on it with no supervisor

Our neighbors saw the illegals tear down the load bearing walls in the kitchen... the flipper came by the next day and lost his sh.t n them loud enough for three people to testify to.

Nice to find these things out after the fact

[Bushmaster]

Yes just under 700k for basically a tear down , I'm lucky to live in such a healthy market!

My sister lives there... Her house is ~$450k and it's not even 1k square feet. I have no idea how people live there.

[anonymous]

My sister lives there... Her house is ~$450k and it's not even 1k square feet. I have no idea how people live there.

Ours is 2200 , on a hill,with a view of the bay and access to a firebreak of about 20 acres at the back , which is why I bought it. The dog loves his huge run.

Having a 500k mortgage is no bueno though, especially with all the reno work.

All the floors are now torn up for replacing and we smashed out the hideous 70s fireplace )that the cats used as a litter tray apparently!) tonight.

One more week before we get the floors back, then we need to reinforce the roof beams and replace the concrete tile before the rain starts and something else leaks. So far we've had close to 25k from insurance just to fix the last leak damage

[Bushmaster]

At least the insurance company is helping and not giving you any crap. You'd be screwed if not...

[anonymous]

At least the insurance company is helping and not giving you any crap. You'd be screwed if not...

they're only helping because we set a lawyer on them! their inspector broke our roof causing a whole room to be flooded in a heavy rain & the outside walls needed to be torn down and replaced along with a large part of that floor.. they tried to get out of paying for it until we escalated to legal action

its been a full time job for my wife to get them to pay out on it

[Bushmaster]

Jesus... That is fuked. Was this house "flipped" when you bought it? Sounds like you're the one doing all the work...

IF there's a bright side though, once it's all said and done all these improvements should add a lot of $$ to your resale value. Should the real estate market ever go back up, that is.. but that's another story lol.

[anonymous]

Jesus... That is fuked. Was this house "flipped" when you bought it? Sounds like you're the one doing all the work...

IF there's a bright side though, once it's all said and done all these improvements should add a lot of $$ to your resale value. Should the real estate market ever go back up, that is.. but that's another story lol.

that's the only good thing, the house has gone up $50k + since we bought it last year as the market in the bay is one of the few making all kinds of gainzz

flippers are scum who ruin good starter homes for couples looking to get into the housing market.. but there really wasn't much on the market for under 700k that was nice when we bought last year. They go for $500k just down the hill, and close to the freeway but the city has been industriously building section 8 thanks to the HUDs blackmail which has made the area a lot less safe. A mile up the hill at least I know most of the scumbags cars would break down if they tried to drive up here, and there's a lot of wealthy older Chinese folks living here - as terrible as it sounds they are the ones who will be robbed before us as the criminals know those people don't usually own guns or big dogs and tend to keep valuables in the house.