I posted this same thing on a message board I am a member of. One person
responded and said the house may have been built on a spring. Hoping to
hear from others (the offer has just started...there are lots of outs):

Hey everyone,
I am finally making an offer on an older home. Here is the stats:
It is 900 sq. ft. on the main level and 900 in the basement.
The main level has been completely re-done. Brand new carpet and wood
flooring. The windows are fairly new (within 5-10 years).
It is a small lot (very small) on a higher elevation.
The garage sits back behind the home with no power to it at this time. The
garage is not finished on the inside.
The basement leaked and Fannie Mae had someone come in and fix that. They
dug around the foundation, added drain pipe which flows to two sump pumps.
There is another sump pump for the washer water to flow into.

Here are some questions:
Basement: The basement needs some work. They have put a wall down the middle
which is nice. One wall is cracked and we are getting that looked at (the
offer is subject to an inspection just on the wall _and_ they fix it if it
needs fixing). The fact the basement flooded kinda worried me. I don't see
how that much water (about 2-3") got into the basement. The backyard and the
east area of the home are much lower elevation. Anyways, they did come in
and do an anti-flood thing. However, this presents another problem: No
power. What do you guys recommend I do in case my power fails. I have no
idea why there is so much water in this area, but I am sure if the power
goes off...I will get flooded. While we were looking at it, one of the pumps
flipped on and drains for a few seconds than quits. I am thinking a
generator. What costs am I looking at to run three sump pumps? Does anyone
have this same set-up? Eventually I want to finish the basement out nice.
Since it flood...I am thinking maybe I should use square tiles for the
floor. That way I won't have to worry if there is a flood. Also, is there
any way to help push rain water away from the basement? The gutters need to
be fixed and the sump pumps are jetting the water real close to the
foundation. I will need to add hose to direct that water further out. It
just is wierd how the sump is kicking on and we have not had rain for two
days. I am thinking about putting my gun stuff down there and having a
storage room for preps in the future. I know I will have to watch the
humidity, but I am also worried about flooding. I am wondering if I
shouldn't just lay 2x4s down and build up the floor? Or would it be better
to lay down tile and just use wood to prop up the gun safe? What about
bricks? As long as the pumps are going, I should be ok with the flooding..I
would hope. There doesn't appear to be any recent flooding at all.

Roof: The roof needs replaced, that's for sure. Right now there is an older
solar panal on the roof. I also want to install a woodstove and maybe even
an attic fan. Does it make sense to install the woodstove first, then have
someone come out and put on a new roof, rip off the solar thing, and install
the attic fan?

Garage: The garage will need to be finished, but that is something I can do
in the future. The main thing is that I will need to have power supplied to
the garage. I figure I would do this now as it will be easier for someone to
run cable for outlets and such. Then I will have some automatic garage doors
intalled. Actually, now that I think about it..there really is no reason to
finish the garage, but I think I may want to paint the wood so it looks a
little nicer?

Overall, this home is going for $99,900. It sold a few years ago for
$110ish. We are offering $92,500 (it's a Fannie Mae repo). My realtor has
lots of time in the business, especially in this area. She says it's a good
buy, as long as that basement wall is ok or they offer to fix it (around
$4,000 she said).

I have $30K saved up and am putting nothing down. So I will have some money
to put into the home. The #1 worry is if the basement will quickly flood if
there is no power. That's actually my main concern. Everything else is
mostly costmetic or could wait to be replaced at a later time.