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Any risk in buying a house with finished basement without permit-Please advise
Hi,
WOW! This thread drags on so LONG. As a seller, if he did not hide anything from buyer, he did his job. As a buyer, if you want to buy after collecting all the info and inspection of the house, just make a conditional offer. Then you two negotiate, if it does not work out, go find another house. Or build a house to your heart's content like I did. That is not the only house you can buy. If you like that house SO much, then by all means, buy it and take the consequences. Let's move on. Tony Steve wrote: Just some friendly advice: Real estate people don't give reliable estimates of what repairs will cost. Especially when you are the buyer, and the recipient of these estimates. It's not their area of expertise, really, but they do have ample motivation to answer those questions and smooth things over. $3000 may cover it, maybe only if done poorly by a very low quality contractor. It may not even cover it then. Also, asking a seller to throw $10k in escrow against unknown problems is pretty wishful thinking - think about it, given reversed roles, would you be willing to do it? There's always someone, somewhere, who will buy as is. The bottom line is that any house is a risk. Even one unmodified by the owner, in apparently good shape could have killer black mold hanging around somewhere waiting to bloom. You'll drive yourself nuts trying to cover every liability. In the end, you have to seek trusted advice about what real problems the house has, use your own eyes, and make a decision. Find or hire an independant handyman, and pay to have him estimate the work that needs to be done - then you know, and you have a somewhat documented case for adjusting the price to cover repairs. Also, the handyman/contractor's advice about the house would be a valuable addition to the inspector's. Inspector's are good for checking some major things, and certain safety things, but they miss some very obvious things you will end up having to fix. Just remember, when you are the buyer, and the agent says "Oh, that? That's no problem!" they really mean "Oh, that? That's no problem....for me!" "Basha" wrote in message m... OK. I went to the city office directly and talked to one of the inspectors and few other guys in community development, construction and engineering dept. They said, once the construction is done they are not going to give any permit and they are not going to come to the house to check it. They also said the previous owner completed the basement and may not have reported to city to save some taxes. I asked is part of the house "ILLEGAL". They said it is not called illegal but improper, also said there are quiet a no of people who don't report their enhancements to their houses which may involve adding a bathroom or bedroom etc. The risk is whether they have done the proper electic and plumbing work or not. I asked him how to ensure whether it is done in a proper way. He told me it is very difficult to find out once it is done. It may involve tearingup the sheets covering the electric and plumbing work. He also advised me to ask the seller to put a $10k in an escrow account which cover up the costs if anything happens in the next 3 or 5 years. If nothing happens at the end of 3 or 5 years, seller will get the money back. Anyways, my realtor brought a market analysis of the houses in this area (Plymouth, Minnesota) and we came to an amount which we can offer. We offred the seller 5k more than the average selling price and also I bear all the minor repairs in the house. The average price is 20k less than the seller's list price. Repairs in the house a One of the closet door broke may need a replacement, all the sloset doors are stick to the carpet and are difficult to open and they may need a half inch cut at the bottom of the doors. Family room doesn't have the the air intake, hot air comes from the furnace but there is no vent to take the air from that room. It's a closed room. Back side of the house some of the vinyl sheets came out of the wall. It needs a fix and there are many other small things. Those I can do myself. (My realtor said the total may cost around $3000). 2 days back we bid with condition-asking the seller to put the money $10k in escrow account. Seller rejected the bid asking $10k more and didn't like the condition of keeping the money in escrow account. That's what happend in the last week. The house is 1994 built, split level completely finished (2260sft) in Plymouth, Minnesota. (suburb of Minneapolis) -Basha |
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