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Buying a flip?
I introed here a while back when we were getting ready to go under contract the first time. That house failed miserably and I've been laying low as we continued looking.
We found a super cute house and are working on that. We made an offer and the agent came back 2K higher than where we wanted to be. The difference was $9 a month so not huge. It's a flip that was bought in May, gutted, and then redone. It's super cute on the inside and looks like it's in good shape and should pass all the VA inspections. It doesn't have every last detail we wanted, but it's a good house in a good neighborhood and has most of them. Plus everything being new on the inside and being move in ready is very helpful too.
My mother in law is adamant that we should walk because the agent and seller are sisters and the seller is also an agent with an inactive license. She says because it's a flip and they are agents they are going to just take advantage.
What do you guys think? Would you buy a flip? From an agent?
Re: Buying a flip?
An inspector is a total given and we have one we know and trust thankfully. After the last house, we'll always and forever have one. (here's the link to that in cause you're curious: http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/66323840.aspx)
We also have pictures before the flip as well as the original building layout from the county. No big additions or anything, but the kitchen was entirely redone. The counter types look good, hopefully they pass inspection! I can handle replacing some fixtures as long as the wiring is sound behind them!
I'd find another realtor to do the transaction if this is the house you want because it appears there is a conflict of interest. Also, get a good inspector to take a good look at the house to make sure the work done was quality and no corners were cut. I'd be weary about buying a flip where the work was done within two months though - what kind of work was done to the house? What was wrong with it before? Was it a foreclosure? Did a previous owner just let it go?
We just bought a flip and are having issues because no one had lived in it for 1-2 years. The work that was done was done well, but it still comes with issues like every house.
Also, we encountered a LOT of hoops to jump through with our mortgage company when they found out we were purchasing a flip. It delayed closing, a lot of extra steps had to be taken to ensure the price we were paying was what the house was actually worth.
Just to clarify, it's the sellers agent and seller that are sisters. My agent isn't related to them at all. My agent did send me the listing, but she didn't send any special notes or suggest we should see it, we told her we wanted to after we saw the listing. She did push us a bit in terms of making an offer quickly, but she said it was because they were having a lot of showings and didn't want us to miss out on the house.
The price is a little higher than what we wanted but still within our range. I'm not sure I'm 100% confident that she negotiated the best price for it because this has been so fast, but I am 100% confident in the inspector and am calling in a personal friend that is an inspector as well for a second opinion.
The house was a foreclosure before, and we have a sellers disclosure from them now on what they did. It looks like a lot of cosmetic stuff, but nothing really structural. Thanks for the heads up on the hoops. We were expecting a lot of them because we're using the VA but I'll keep an eye out for more.