Maybe putting an offer in on a house...

[JEDI]

I put the address in Google and found this:
http://www.vafirenews.com/2009/10/centreville-townhouse-fire/

How does this bode for me? I'd be inclined to think this is like buying a car with a salvage title.

thats the house?!

the sellers didnt mention fire damage?!

WALK AWAY.

no... RUN AWAY!!!
RUN FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Triumph]

Under Virginia law, since it was fixed, they're under no obligation to disclose past damages. As far as they're concerned, it was repaired to full operational status, for lack of a better term. Now me, if this happened 5 or 10 years ago, I'd be much less concerned because any long term problems would've had time to surface and be dealt with already. But the more I think about it, the more I see how the seller is simply trying to unload his problem on somebody else.

Was it fixed right? Maybe. Will there never be a problem with water damage? Maybe. I'm the one taking that risk. I don't think I want to.

 

[Sadaiyappan]

Is virginia that expensive? Damn. $350 in suburbs of chicago will get you a decent sized house.

 

[iGas]

Right, but like a car repaired after an accident, even if done by a reputable firm, if the accident was bad enough, there's always remnants. And I have no way of knowing if the work was done by a reputable contractor. Or is there a way of knowing?

Moving object repair isn't exactly the same as repair a stationary object.

It is highly that the work is done by reputable contractor/s, and as a condition you can indicates that inspection ++ a copy of the repaired paper works when you put in an offer.

Repair work will have to pass city building inspection, mechanical inspection (plumbing/gas), electrical inspection, and in some case fire inspection in order for the house to get an occupancy permit. Rest assure that inspectors will go over a fire damage house with a fine tooth comb. A fire damaged house have to pass 2 sets of inspections therefore if any thing that missed in the first inspection are likely to get caught in the second inspection and repaired.

Beside the stringent inspections, the repair paper works also have to satisfy the insurance company conditions before they insure it once again.

 

[iGas]

It is a 3 level house with a bathroom per level and an extra for the second bedroom? Why is that so strange?

Very typical around here with all the 3 level town homes they building.

BTW I am paying $220 for a house, thank god I don't live in N. Virginia because I'd be stuck buying a little ass town home I bet.

Around here $220K can't even get you 1/2 a small empty lot, or a 400sqf bachelor pad.

 

[Regs]

Is virginia that expensive? Damn. $350 in suburbs of chicago will get you a decent sized house.

Yeah, I'm surprised at this too. NJ, you can find a 2 bedroom town home for around 200k. Though new construction or over 1500 sq ft will cost upwards of 300k.

 

[Born2bwire]

I put the address in Google and found this:
http://www.vafirenews.com/2009/10/centreville-townhouse-fire/

How does this bode for me? I'd be inclined to think this is like buying a car with a salvage title.

The grass looks nice and green.

 

[rh71]

I'll speak from the perspective of someone who just sold after a month on the market (below asking of course). We priced above what we thought it would sell for, because there's the agent commission and buyer negotiation left. We ended up a hair above what we thought.

The details... we had 2 [low] offers in the 1st week... we were really happy to get offers at all since there's a ton of product out there but we weren't going to settle so quick. One low offer (3% commission) eventually got negotiated up 20k and we were set to sell to them but they found another house in the 2 weeks... our bad (though they may have bailed on us before contract anyway). Because they offered so early, we wanted to wait it out a bit longer to see what else we got. Then we got sorta desperate as the number of showings decreased and didn't want to stay on the market long (tough to show with kids)... we took another offer later 1K below what that other couple would've given us but at 4% commission, since we realized this is all we're going to get for the house and just move on. Sellers play it out since they aren't exactly sure what they can get either.

Short story short, if you're going to bid low but come up quick, bid later... like in the 2nd or 3rd week. You did your homework with the comps so I'm sure your final 315k would be fine.

 

[nerp]

I dunno. The fire damage and the market the way it is now, I'd say you should move on and find something that doesn't have so many questions. Unless you're desperate to move into a place as soon as possible, I wouldn't go with this one.