The Next House...

I made an offer on another house. If you follow the link you'll see the listing with pictures. It looks neat from the outside, but inside is truly horrendous. It was being rented, and the renter just split. As Rich and I were looking around we found a note from the owner saying, "Hey, I'm assuming you've left because you haven't paid any rent for a while, but please get in contact with me."

We also found blood smears on the ground next to the stairs down to the cellar and in the cellar a couple of planters with a sunlamp. I wonder what he was growing next to the furnace. Anyway, we kept looking around and found that the source of the terrible smell was two fold. There was a little surprise in the toilet, and a dirty diaper on an entertainment center in the master bedroom. I was in the living room and heard a bump in the kitchen, and I thought someone might be there, but decided it was probably a rat in the cabinet.

A little more searching found a bench warrant for the renter, and it all came together. Anyway, the roof is bad. Its really bad. It will have to be replaced. There were three different places where the ceiling had fallen in because of water damage. Also, there looks to be some water seepage in the cellar stairs. But aside from that, the foundation looks pretty good, and the walls are straight, which is better than I could say for most of the other places I've seen this age, and the yard has some real potential. The kitchen has been re-done, and and the exterior paint, although cracking now was really elaborate. Also, there is some cement work with individual colored tiles. The front fence is really nice, and there are landscaped planters in place of a tree lawn. It looks like the owners put a lot into the place before they started renting it.

The offer I made is significantly lower than the asking price, and though like the other house I offered on, I'm not super excited about the place, if I get it for this price it will be too good a deal to pass up.

We put it in the contract that the seller's got to get rid of all the renter's crap. I hope he does. Literally.