Two women seeking equality in a state where some couples are more equal than others.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Detroit Home Inspection: Stuff Gets Real

We had our home inspection today - well, most of it, though the water isn't inspected yet because the seller did something weird (and probably not legal) to it that made it hard/unsafe to turn on. And the boiler will need to be cleaned before it's safe to run.

So you can guess where the rest of this post is going.

The inspection isn't what we had hoped for. There's more moisture in the basement, there's some asbestos, looks like there are significant problems with the heating system (it's still on steam heat, which we knew, but the heat might not be working, which we didn't). We need to do some exterior repairs, there are a lot of invasive trees in places that aren't really safe, there are drainage problems -

Yes, we knew buying a ninety year old home in Detroit meant some problems. We were just hoping not this many and not this bad.

We did, however, meet more of our neighbors - one right next door and one from across the street. Both were lovely and friendly and we got some good information about the neighborhood, the house, our seller, etc. I absolutely love this neighborhood and really want to live in it. It does turn out that home values there are higher than we anticipated, so if we successfully repair this house, it would be a good investment. The next door neighbor is an electrician who did the wiring recently and stands by his work. The neighbors took turns cutting the grass when the seller/landlord didn't. The neighborhood association has been pressing the seller to maintain his properties better. And part of me doesn't care that much if the house ever appreciates or we turn a profit on it if we get to belong to a community like this.

It'll be more than we hoped to have to get done, though, and I don't want to do something that will jeopardize us financially. We're waiting for the full inspection report to come in, and also to see our contractor's bid. And then we have the appraisal to decide if our renovation plans are worth it.

I'm not patient. I'm not calm. I'm just not, that's not me, for those of you who know me. And I have to be patient here, so I might as well work on being calm. Until the information is all in, we can't and shouldn't make any decisions. We're not obligated to buy this house if it could end in financial disaster. We may well find that it won't end in ruin.

So now we wait.

No comments:

Post a Comment