National Property Inspections of Rochester, NY Blog

Embarking on the journey of purchasing a home is a landmark decision, often filled with anticipation and excitement. However, when the prospective home is marred by significant damage, the process becomes more intricate and challenging. National Property Inspections of Rochester, NY presents this guide to provide a structured pathway for potential buyers faced with this scenario, offering practical steps to ensure a wise and secure investment.

Consulting a Real Estate Agent
Upon encountering significant damage in a prospective home, promptly consulting with a real estate agent is essential. A qualified agent serves as a navigator through the often complex terrain of damaged property assessment, helping you to understand the implications and potential outcomes of your decision.

Doing a Property Walkthrough
Conducting an exhaustive inspection of the property before finalizing your purchase is imperative. This aspect becomes particularly significant if you plan to use the home both as a residence and a business location. During this inspection, it’s crucial to meticulously examine each aspect of the property, recording the full scope of damage. Additionally, this process involves weighing various business-related legal considerations, such as potentially establishing a New York LLC through ZenBusiness. This step ensures that all legal and logistical aspects of using the property for business purposes are thoroughly evaluated and addressed.
Developing a Detailed Repair and Cost Plan
SoFi notes that creating a detailed list of necessary repairs and their associated costs is a crucial step in the process. This involves meticulously documenting each aspect of damage and obtaining precise repair estimates. Having a clear and comprehensive repair and cost plan is vital for understanding the financial implications and planning your budget accordingly.

Engaging Professional Inspection and Contractor Services
Engaging qualified home inspectors and contractors is a fundamental step. Their expertise is critical in thoroughly assessing the extent of damage and proposing a viable restoration plan. These professionals provide invaluable insights that assist in making informed decisions about the property’s condition and potential repair strategies. The ideal fixer-uppers are properties requiring only minor cosmetic updating rather than major structural repairs.

Negotiating Repairs Prior to the Final Sale
The Balance points out that engaging in negotiations with the seller about repair responsibilities before concluding the sale is crucial. Through your real estate agent, this negotiation aims to clarify which repairs will be undertaken by the seller and ensures that your interests are adequately protected in the transaction.

Engaging a Skilled Real Estate Attorney
Hiring a reputable real estate attorney is advisable for navigating the legal intricacies involved in such transactions. An experienced lawyer will scrutinize the sale contracts, ensuring they reflect your interests accurately, particularly concerning any agreed-upon repairs and their deadlines.

Reviewing the Home Sale Contract Thoroughly
A careful examination of the home sale contract, preferably alongside your attorney, is imperative. This ensures that you, as a buyer, fully comprehend your rights and responsibilities, and it verifies that the contract incorporates all the agreed-upon terms regarding the repairs and their respective timelines.

Organizing and Digitizing Real Estate Documents
Keeping all relevant housing documents well-organized and digitized is crucial for a smooth transaction process. Digital records, preferably in PDF format, facilitate efficient access and sharing of information. This organized approach ensures that important documents are readily accessible when needed, streamlining communication and decision-making.

Navigating the purchase of a home with significant damage can be a formidable task. However, with careful planning and the right guidance, it can transform into an opportunity for a sound investment. By methodically following these steps, you equip yourself with the necessary knowledge and tools to navigate the complexities, safeguard your investment, and make an informed decision about your potential new home.

Purchasing a home is always a gamble. You never know what unexpected repair bills will crop up, but you will likely face an emergency home repair at some point in your life. Preparing for the worst is both an investment in your property and a hedge against the hit your finances may take when the roof needs repairing or a major appliance needs replacing.

Saving for a Rainy Day

There are many approaches you can take when saving a rainy day fund. There’s the 1 percent rule, which says you should set aside 1 percent of your home’s purchase price (homes in Rochester have been selling for an average price of $139,000) for maintenance and repairs. It’s a well-known formula, but it doesn’t account for fluctuations in the cost of home maintenance. Another point to consider is that the price of your house and the costs of home repairs aren’t necessarily related variables.

You can also save by assessing the average cost of major home repairs, from replacing a furnace to repairing a foundation (this repair averages $5,838), and saving based on those projections. To be adequately prepared, it’s important that you understand how much you’ll need to put in your emergency fund. Regardless of how you choose to prepare, keep your emergency funds secure in a high-interest savings account.

Homeowners Insurance

The first thing you should do if a home emergency occurs is to carefully check your homeowners insurance policy. Some natural causes, such as tornadoes and lightning strikes, are usually covered, while damage from flooding, sewage backup, and construction work damage may not be covered. If your repair is covered by insurance, you should be in good shape, so make sure you’re very familiar with the details of your policy.

Personal Loan

An emergency savings fund is generally considered the best way to prepare for any unexpected home maintenance costs, but it doesn’t always work for everyone. If you need cash for an emergency, a personal loan can be a good option. As an unsecured loan, there’s no need for collateral, and you can usually rely on an interest rate that remains steady through the life of the loan. Additionally, you don’t necessarily have to go to a bank. There are other lending options (such as SoFi and Lending Tree), and some will extend loans to people with bad credit.

Home Equity Line of Credit

A home equity line of credit (HELOC) can be an attractive alternative if you prefer the option of withdrawing cash as needed over time instead of in a lump sum. A HELOC gives you flexibility if you’re not sure how much a repair will cost or how long it will take. And since you’re using your home as collateral, you can expect a lower interest rate than with other loan options.

Credit Cards

A credit card should probably be your last-resort option for financing an emergency home repair. Your credit limit may not be high enough to handle the entire cost of a major emergency repair. Depending on your interest rate, you could wind up paying off a large portion of the repair costs in credit card interest, which is a bad scenario for your debt situation.

On the other hand, if your card charges 0 percent interest for a certain period, that may allow you to spread the overall expense out over multiple payments. It gets even better if your card offers reward points and other benefits. Otherwise, your savings, a personal loan, or HELOC would be preferable options in these situations.

A well-stocked rainy day fund is usually your best option for financing an emergency home repair. If you haven’t been able to set aside enough money for major home maintenance repairs, it’s in your best interest to know what other alternatives are available.

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The Rochester NY Home Inspector thinks that you will find this article interesting. I am re-printing it here with the permission of the author.

I was called on to do a very sad and dangerous inspection.

The homeowner and a local County found me on line and teamed up to hire me to literally condemn a house. I have never been called on to do that before. Of course I have no ability or authorization to condemn anything. But my report can be used by County officials to justify it.
THE STORY – a soft-hearted homeowner hears of a circumstance of an 86 year-old lady, who’s husband had recently died, and a doctor has just “opened [her] up to close [her] back up giving [her] a short time to live.” This homeowner gave her a house to live in rent free, as a “Life Estate Gift,” for the rest of her life, so long as she maintained the property. She was to live in the house alone. Family was nearby to care for her, and could visit, but she was to live alone in the house. The house was built in the late 40s, and was in pristine condition, with recent updates.
THAT WAS TWENTY FOUR YEARS AGO. Over that time the rest of the family had moved in, and why not as it’s free living. Nobody works, all are on various assistance programs, federal and local, and ALL are on disability, including the children. The lady is still 86 years old… you get the rest. They have cost this soft-hearted homeowner tens of thousands of dollars since. They cost the taxpayer way into five figures EVERY MONTH.
At the time of my inspection the house is inhabited by 10-12 adults (nobody really knows), four children, four dogs, two pigeons and a million roaches and black widow spiders. Super healthy molds live everywhere. There is one bathroom, with a tub and shower that do not work, a small fridge, small range and small, one-bowl kitchen sink. There is hot water.
THIS PLACE IS A DISASTER. SO I WENT ABOUT MY BUSINESS, BUILDING THE CASE. SURPRISINGLY, UNHEALTHFUL LIVING CONDITIONS IS NOT SUFFICIENT REASON FOR CONDEMNATION!
Of course this is a sad circumstance, to say the least. But the County has had many, many dealings with this group for years. I was told there was a coffin (!!) in the house full of enough guns to field an army, so the County was sending two officials to protect me while there. Fortunately, knowing I was coming, it had been removed or hidden off site.
This group knew I was coming to “inspect” the house, but did not know the entirety of the reason for my visit. As such, thinking their complaints were finally being satisfied by my inspection, and the County was finally coming down on the homeowner, THEY WERE VERY NICE TO ME. Nonetheless, the County officials stayed in and around the house the whole time I was there. I politely said hello to everybody and struck up conversations.
Before I went in, the Code Enforcement Officer told me that they had cleaned up and it looked “one thousand percent better” than the last visit. But, I was warned about what I would see.
I discovered something the County did not know, after all these years and dozens of visits to issue citations.
A BASEMENT APARTMENT! Living room and bedroom, taking up about 1/3 of the basement.
This scene was frightful and exasperating! The family living here, and apparently the four children, sleep on the bed. The curtain on the back wall is carpeting hanging from the ceiling and “hides” the oil-burning boiler and water heater. That sofa at the moment of this photograph has about 100 roaches crawling on it. Roaches are everywhere – on and in everything. And that TV on the left is larger than any TV in my house, and one of five in this house!
How bad was the basement overall? Neither County official would go down there! And I had a cough the rest of the day.
THE INSPECTION CONTINUED DOWNHILL FROM HERE.
THE END RESULT?
Based on just my verbal report at the end of my inspection, the County condemned the house and began relocating this group.
For my safety, they asked me to leave before they went back inside to inform the family of the immediate decision. I was told by my homeowner client that they put a red sticker on the door. I was also told that many County officials were there for the rest of the day, and into the evening.
The homeowner said that demolition could begin as early as twenty four to forty eight hours after my inspection. Yes, demolition was the goal of my inspection!
There will be more posts about this house. The first thing I did coming straight home was to disrobe in the laundry room and put my clothing directly into the washing machine, and take a shower. A day later I am still coughing.
As I said, it was a very sad and dangerous inspection.

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia
www.jaymarinspect.com