Bought foreclosure in Gastonia and need inspector (and what all should be inspected?) (Charlotte: real estate, buying a home)
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I am buying a foreclosure in Gastonia. My 10 day inspection period starts on Wednesday. Can anyone recommend a good inspector in this area? I don't want to just pick one at random.
Also, what inspections do you recommend? Radon? Water? I'm thinking a general inspector/contractor to go over everything ($300?), HVAC guy to look at heat/air, pest inspector to check for termites, maybe a roofer to look at the roof and a plumber to look at the plumbing. Does this sound right? How should I go about getting these specialty people to check things on a house I don't own? Should I just offer them $50 plus the opportunity to possibly make any needed repairs should I close on the house?
The house has a termite letter from January which said there were signs of termites in the past, but no current infestation. The bank wont pay for another inspection, but there is a line that says they will pay $800 for the treatment and/or repairs from termites.
I saw mold on the wall where the washer dryer is. I also saw nasty looking camel crickets in the crawl space when I opened it up at night - wondering if the house is infested with mold.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eddiehaskell
I am buying a foreclosure in Gastonia. My 10 day inspection period starts on Wednesday. Can anyone recommend a good inspector in this area? I don't want to just pick one at random.
Also, what inspections do you recommend? Radon? Water? I'm thinking a general inspector/contractor to go over everything ($300?), HVAC guy to look at heat/air, pest inspector to check for termites, maybe a roofer to look at the roof and a plumber to look at the plumbing. Does this sound right? How should I go about getting these specialty people to check things on a house I don't own? Should I just offer them $50 plus the opportunity to possibly make any needed repairs should I close on the house?
The house has a termite letter from January which said there were signs of termites in the past, but no current infestation. The bank wont pay for another inspection, but there is a line that says they will pay $800 for the treatment and/or repairs from termites.
I saw mold on the wall where the washer dryer is. I also saw nasty looking camel crickets in the crawl space when I opened it up at night - wondering if the house is infested with mold.
Thanks in advance for any info!
I hope that you're using a realtor. If you are, your realtor should be giving you this information.
He should be able to tell you right away what needs fixing and only then get plumber/roofer/etc to give you a repair quote ASAP.
Since it is a foreclosure, I imagine the bank is not going to pay/repair what ever you find.
I think you need to the get quotes for repairs and add to approved house price. Only then should you decide if it is worth keeping the house before the 10 days of decision are done.
I hope that you're using a realtor. If you are, your realtor should be giving you this information.
The realtor I'm using lives about 40 miles away. Basically, he lets me look without him being here and submits offers for me. I've been looking for the past year and know the area very well so there really isn't much he could tell me. I've heard it's a bad idea to have the realtor recommend an inspector...his loyalty might be to the realtor.
He should be able to tell you right away what needs fixing and only then get plumber/roofer/etc to give you a repair quote ASAP.
Since it is a foreclosure, I imagine the bank is not going to pay/repair what ever you find.
I think you need to the get quotes for repairs and add to approved house price. Only then should you decide if it is worth keeping the house before the 10 days of decision are done.
Eddie, Mrs Cleaver would tell you to definitely get any signs of black mold checked. While you can usually repair termite damage, mold can completely ruin a house. I agree with you about using real estate agent suggested inspectors. They are not unbiased. Get one out of the phone book.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,725,598 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by eddiehaskell
The realtor I'm using lives about 40 miles away. Basically, he lets me look without him being here and submits offers for me. I've been looking for the past year and know the area very well so there really isn't much he could tell me. I've heard it's a bad idea to have the realtor recommend an inspector...his loyalty might be to the realtor.
That's up to you. However, since this is a foreclosure, I recommend that you contact the city & verify that codes does not have anything on the the property. This is important because the city is your electrical provider.
I bought a foreclosure in Kings Mountain & found out, after the fact, that they had things on a list that they required to be done before they would provide utilities.
We are in the process of buying a home in Gastonia and used Assured Home Inspections -- a Gastonia-based company. Nick (our inspector) spent about four hours and was thorough from top to bottom and sent us a very detailed report. Through Assured we contracted for a termite inspection with Doodlebugs Pest Management. We didn't choose to test for mold nor radon, but could have. The cost was $450 (included an extra $100 because the house is more than 50 years old). The cost for the termite inspection was $75.
Nick's inspection probably would have taken a shorter amount of time if we hadn't kept asking him questions (which he graciously and informatively answered :-)
I'm buying a HUD and using Pillar to Post - Jim Matson. Heard great reviews about him and my realtor uses him exclusively. Apparently, he worked in construction for quite a while and can even do minor repairs in order to get things working enough to take a look at what's wrong (HVAC, etc). I have a known water issue, so I'm having a plumber come, as well. Since there weren't other issues disclosed, I'm going to let Jim handle the general things.
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