Need advice on what to do with a newly purchased home.

Submitted by International-Box127 t3_z8upn4 in personalfinance

For context, I’m 22 years old. I make decent money at my job as does my girlfriend of 4 years. We make a combined salary of 150k. We both work at night and with weird schedules that include weekends about 60 hours each and on our time off we try to relax and enjoy life a bit. It took me 1 year to save enough money to put as a down payment for our house (that in total costs 160k) and extra, as a little over a year ago I had nothing.

Me and my girlfriend were looking at houses for a few months with a good realtor and found a few nice ones, but with the housing situation we were outbid (around asking price with inspections) every time. It’s not a rush because we have an apartment that doesn’t cost much and it’s in a nice area. I went to look at a small, 800 sqft house with a garage built in ‘64 without my girlfriend as she was busy for a few days (first mistake). We looked at it, and I didn’t have a good feeling about it, so I left and made no offer.

Two days later, my older brother who lives near this house sees it online and asks why I didn’t offer, I told him why I didn’t really like it and he told me to schedule another showing and he wanted to come, just me, him and my realtor (no girlfriend to talk sense into me, second mistake). We go to the house and he looks around and is in the attic and crawl space and the garage and he tells me that it’s a good old house. Whenever I brought up the fact that it had issues, he would shrug his shoulders and tell me it’ll be an easy fix (warped floors, moldy crawl space, moldy attic). So he convinces me to put and offer in with no inspections because he said that it is fine, and my dumb*** does just that.

Fast forward to today, the water heater was leaking forever and rotted out the floor where is was, it soaked the flooring throughout the rest of the house so all the subfloor would have to be pulled and replaced, there was an extension out the back that is slowly collapsing into the ground on the piers that it was built on. The attic needs some ventilation installed and some wood replaced, due to rot and at some point a lot of termite damage. The kitchen cabinets all have water damage and mold on the back wall so that would all have to be ripped out and replaced.

This was all discovered about 3 weeks after buying the house, we were pretty much in the middle of moving. In response I temporarily added 60 days to when I said I was going to leave my apartment and we are staying here temporarily. I haven’t gotten any good work from insurance or home warranty to fix anything, and with me and my girlfriends life, we would never have time to work on this house ourselves( it’s also about 45 minutes away from where we are now)

Anyone deal with something like this before, we have considered making minor repairs and reselling and taking the loss as a life lesson if we can sell it near what we payed for it. I got pressured into buying it and my girlfriend hates it and the area, I hate the area too. She had no say in buying it either and it would suck to force her to stay there. We don’t really need a house and both of our jobs are much closer to the apartment than the house. Let me know what any of you think, and thanks for reading through all of this!

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InteriorAttack t1_iydcr35 wrote

First let me state the obvious. You should not, I repeat, not be buying a house with a friend. Not girlfriend, not your buddy not your brother. As far as the house this might not be the end of the world. You seem to make good money. You might be able to fix it and flip it

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wogwai t1_iydddbn wrote

So you bought the house without a proper inspection and just took your brothers word? Lesson learned I guess. Depending how much you paid for it, it might be worth fixing it up to livable conditions now and selling it later if you still wanted. There are plenty of contractors who can fix these issues for you, but you have to look at it as an investment. But if the area sucks that could be a deal breaker for a lot of people.

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kveggie1 t1_iyddabh wrote

I guess get your brother to help you fix this fixer-upper.

Other option: sell at a loss, lesson learned... That is what I would do.

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sephiroth3650 t1_iydf7aq wrote

You have a few options, but none of them are particularly great.

  • It's unlikely, in my opinion, that you'll have much luck in getting insurance to pay for any of the repairs needed. These were all pre-existing things that were there before you bought the house. Nor do I think you'll get too far with the home warranty paying for stuff. It's worth asking, but I wouldn't think you'll get too far.
  • You can try to re-sell as-is. You will likely take a loss here. If the damage is that extensive, I have a hard time believing you'll get any fair price for the home. Unless you got the house FAR below market value, you won't be able to re-sell for what you paid.
  • You can spend the money to make the repairs to really make the house sellable. This will cost you a good amount of money, based on your description. This may or may not raise the expected sale price enough to offset the repairs.
  • You can keep the house, and hire somebody to make the necessary repairs, and then live in the house.

Personally, I'd just accept the loss, try to relist the house, and get out from it. Your GF hates it. Doesn't sound like you really wanted the house. You made an impulse purchase based on the prodding of your brother. Learn from this, and don't repeat the mistake.

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International-Box127 OP t1_iydfgpo wrote

I have been considering the loss, and this early in life it’s a good lesson. Thanks for your insight!

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WWGHIAFTC t1_iyfdfzf wrote

"Due Dilligence" is a term you may not soon forget.

Lesson learned.

Be careful about how you view your money. 60hr workweeks can give you a false sense of income. Its not always sustainable.

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wickedkittylitter t1_iydcwm7 wrote

I'd sell the house. I'd be required to disclose all the issues that have been found and wouldn't expect to get what I paid. The loss would be a life lesson on 1. not buying something without an inspection; 2. not buying a house without the approval of someone who is important to me; and 3. never listening to my brother's advice again.

Best of luck!

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