Almost bought a flipped house...what a nightmare!

5 years ago

I wanted to share my experience. We are helping my daughter purchase her first home. She wants a smallish house (low heating and cooling costs), with low maintenance, and a private backyard with mature trees. After four months, she found a house she liked, and it was a flipped house, advertised as completely renovated and complete. She put in a cash offer for close to the asking price and entered into a contract. The next step was the inspection. What a shock! Here are some of the findings: most of the electrical outlets were unsafe to use because of open neutrals and open grounds, potentially causing shock or death. The sewer system was blocked and a video couldn’t even reach the main line because of blockage. ( it was advertised as having a completely new sewer line). A door from the garage to the outside was an interior door, rather than an exterior door and was not trimmed or sealed properly. The new front window was trimmed outside with interior crown molding and sloped toward the house, rather than proper trim or window sills. Plumbing from a sink was installed to go uphill. There were two toilets, neither were attached properly to the floor. Two handles on kitchen cabinets were missing and several cabinet doors were installed on the wrong side. The plumbing line to the ice maker was installed through the middle of two base cabinets, rendering them unusable. Conduits and GFI’s were missing where needed. In some rooms, insulation was absent and in other rooms, insulation was covering up the air vents. The door between the garage and the house was not fireproof. An open vent between the garage and house was a safety hazard. The fireplace was inoperable as the damper vent was rusted through and the masonry crown to the chimney was leaking severely. When we talked to the city inspector, he informed us that the flippers had to be forced to get a permit and almost had to be taken to court. To top it all off, the sellers real estate agent never listed the house as “pending” even though we had a signed contract, submitted the hand money, and paid for numerous inspections. When confronted with this, she promised to list it as pending, but she never did. This means that the next buyers will never know that someone had the house under contract and then backed out after three weeks. This house was a cute brick house, which has been ruined. ( I am not saying all flippers are like this, just sharing our experience.) thanks for letting me vent, and I hope this helps someone.

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Flo Mac

5 years ago

My husband and I have lived in our home for over 30 yrs. There are quite of few people like use who have stayed because of the location and the fact that it is a quite, clean neighborhood that has a good reputation. The homes here have increased in value and people have updated and added on when needed. There is a house on our street that was foreclosed on several years ago that sat empty for about a couple of years until it was bought by a flipper. Two story with a large lot in the circle part of a cul-de-sac. Several of the men on the street, including my husband could tell that the flippers were not doing a good job. A sweet, young couple with four darling children bought the house. After a few months they started having minor problems. At the end of there 1st year in the house, the husband, who was in the military, was sent overseas for a year then extended two more times for a year at a time. He came home on 30 day leaves on several occasions but it was never enough time to get him bogged down in big home repairs. The wife was faced with the usual everyday issues of raising 4 children on her own along with a house that was a wreck. the flipper had hidden more issues than the couple could have guessed was possible. #1 was on the inside the double car garage had been conferted to a large room, which was a big reason they bought the house. What they found out after a year was that the way the lot was slopped they either needed to put in a very expensive drain system or return the room the the original garage and do less expensive drainage repairs. They chose the garage/drainage because it was less expensive. Then they found out that the shower/tubs and toilets upstairs had not been installed properly and the plumbing drains and toilet drains were leaking. They too were told the plumbing was new. Non of the backerboard under the tile was correct and the shower/tubs did not have the correct slant to drain correctly. There were also plumbing issues in the kitchen and laundry room. They finally sold the house and the buyer's inspector found more things including bad AC ducting and a very, very bad roof job. The wife was so desperate to leave that nightmare of a house, she hired the right people to fix everything that the inspector required. The good thing was the value of homes in this area have sky rocketed over the last 5 yrs and despite all of the money that family had to put into that house, they still made money. I am happy to report that as of 5 months ago, the husband is out of the military and they are all together again. I know of others who have also had bad experiences with a flip. If asked, I tell people to remember that flippers are in the business to make as much profit as they can and move on. No matter how pretty the house is, it is still a flip. Anyone can put lipstick on a pig and call it cute. I would never buy a flip. BUYER BEWARE.

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Comments (13)

Bri Bosh
5 years ago
Some of those issues are minor (interior door on garage), others not so much (electrical). How did they pass permit inspections??? Good thing your inspector was thorough! How did they find out there wasn’t insulation?
et phonehome
5 years ago
Give your inspector a tip and hire him when you find another house she's interested in. Good luck!
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Denita
5 years ago
I'm a Realtor and your experience is very typical of "flippers". This is why I'm not a fan generally of flipping when the work is done by someone not skilled. Not all flips are awful, but it is more common than most people know. It is far better IMO/IME to get the house prior to the work and do it with a qualified contractor. It's a very good thing you cancelled the contract. There are other issues that show up once you close that the home inspector doesn't see.

Now, I can say that what the Listing Realtor did would be absolutely wrong in our MLS. We have 48 hours to change the status from active to pending or contingent and if it isn't changed, then the listing agent is fined. Consider notifying the agent's broker of her actions. I hope you are able to find something better for your daughter.
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Whitelacey
5 years ago
A young friend of mine bought a flipped house. The basement flooded halfway up the wall the first time it rained. When the drywall was torn out, mold was found growing rampant behind the walls. She had to move out and has been fighting a lawsuit for over three years. She hasn’t lived in the house yet. The house passed inspection three times before she moved in.
Susan Davis
5 years ago
They don't say let the buyer beware for nothing.......every one wants a deal and they want to believe what they want to believe......you can buy a house with an inspection or not, and still get a bad house. For every one bad house there are probably 10,000 good houses.....you just have to be careful and get it all in writing.....that is a good reason to find the best realtor you can and it doesn't hurt to read a book on what to look for when buying a house....good and bad on both sides, so do your due diligence when spending on the biggest thing you will ever buy in your entire life. Just sayin' that if you think other people will take care of your end and not their end when money is involved, then maybe you should not be buying a house.
queenvictorian
5 years ago
During our house hunting process, we got in the habit of checking the sale history on every house we were remotely interested in to weed out obvious flips. The ubiquitous gray walls and wood-look vinyl floors combo was the other dead giveaway.

We ended up with an old fixer upper house that has had very little done with it over the last century or so. We have typical old house problems, but we knew this going in. Quite different than thinking you've bought a cute turnkey house and having all sorts of hidden defects and shoddy workmanship lurking behind the walls.

If you guys want a real flipper horror story, look up the saga of the hoodwinked house. Not sure if the website is up anymore, but dang it was bad. To add to the woe and misery, the unfortunate buyer made some dumb and expensive DIY mistakes trying to fix the flipper problems. He really should have ripped everything down to the studs and started from there or burned it down and tried to convince insurance it was an accident. Or sold it again as is for a loss. It was really really bad.
Denita
5 years ago
^This. As a Realtor, I very occasionally see a flipped house where the house systems were replaced if needed (roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing). Most of the time the flipper does the absolute minimum and those improvements are cosmetic only. Not good for the buyer at all as they are paying top dollar and then they have to do the real work once they close. As you can tell, I'm no fan of those homes from fast and cheap flippers (my terminology).
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
5 years ago
This is why I hate TV shows about any usual DIY work you have no idea of the background and how much the people love what they got a year later. I takes huge skill to renovate a house we have done it and we still get a good electrician and plumber to do the work we are not experienced enough to feel safe doing ourselves.
Tony Stevens
5 years ago
Be very glad your inspector caught so many issues. This is one reason why I hire the home inspector and don’t rely on the realtor’s recommendation unless I know and trust my realtor.
I used to be a contractor and have a couple of memorable repairs to flip homes. In one house, an obvious roof leak had been patched over and the drywall replaced where the water entered the house at an internal French doorway, but the leak had never been stopped. A cheap handyman contracting service had been used to pretty everything up but the “service” was an expert on nothing. The “new” roof was passable from the street, but had several glaring omissions to a professional standing on the roof. The electrical work was a fire waiting to happen. A light addition here and there which gave a modern appearance but could slide through permit checks. Cheap floors, the cheapest granite countertops, cheap paint, cheap tile, cheap patches: all with the goal of checking off the searched for items on For Sale listings.
Whenever I read “open concept”, “hardwood floors”, “granite countertops”, “stainless steel appliances”, “brushed nickel fittings throughout”; particularly in combination on homes that are older, my internal radar immediately goes off.
On the worst I can remember, a home had a stream running beneath the slab from the cup-de-sac every time it rained. The slab had dropped about 3 inches pulling the top sills of the walls away from the roof trusses. The home buyer was a single lady. It was a nightmare and how she’d been led into the purchase process was a mystery to me.
Dora williams
4 years ago
I almost got into a flipper but my inspector caught a lot over price home as well. Lost my earnes money had a uninterestEd realoter she didn’t care at all. The house was pretty but ugly underneath. I chan my mind I still believe I should have gotten my money back. The house sold 3 weeks later so why I didn’t get my money back. They fought me threatened court because I didn’t want that mess
Super Lumen
4 years ago
Flipped homes are virtually NEVER a good idea. Your interests as a buyer are diametrically opposed. The flipper has zero interest in providing a good quality home renovation.

Their goal: meet minimum cosmetic and legal requirements for the cheapest possible price with materials that will last at least as long as it takes to close a sale.

Your goal: pay for a newly renovated home that has been safely and competently renovated and updated with quality materials that will avoid a situation where you need to do further major repairs or renovations in the near future.

Those two goals nearly never overlap in any meaningful way. There are some flippers out there that do good work, but not many.
HU-362911925
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Our house was a flipped house. Our realtor, a family member involved in the repairs/improvements on the house, showed us this house. We looked at 9 houses, total and this one still fit our needs. We know that the hot water heater, gas furnace, kitchen remodel (cabinets & appliances), 2 bathroom remodels (toilets and 1 shower) & laminate floors were all new. I had assumed that a family member would indicate there was an issue with this house because the others we looked at, there were comments and concerns mentioned. I figured we were getting a good house with minimal issues. The first month, we kept having electrical issues and after three months, we figured out what the problem was and had an electrician fix the problem who informed us that he was surprised the house didn't go up in flames. We had faucet & drain issues in the kitchen and drain issues in the bathrooms within the first month. Microwave above the range was wired into the garage circuit and we had to call an electrician for a new circuit. Range & dishwasher, although they were new, very inexpensive. Dishwasher is very noisy and the oven will get so hot on the range after an hour it melts the counter tops and you can't touch the top around the burners without using an oven mitt. Just over a year after we moved in, I had one of the toilets shift while I was on it and flipped me into the bathtub. We removed the toilet and discovered that there were two wax rings and nothing to attach the toilet to. The plumber said that the only thing that prevented us from having a mess under the house was the two wax rings they installed. The flange was so rusted there was nothing there to attached the toilet to and the hole in the floor was so big and dry rot that the toilet would have fallen through the floor if it wasn't for the vinyl flooring holding it up. He also discovered that the support beams were replace with 2-2 X 4's and were bowed to the point of cracking under the toilet. Just this month we discovered that the garage door going to the backyard had not been secured to the house. We had put on the molding around the door inside the garage, right after we moved in and it was cracking and realized the bottom section to the mid section of the door was outside. Right after we fixed that, we found a leak under sink in kitchen. It was attached to pipe inside the wall. We removed the old one pipe and figured we get a new one and replace it. It turned out that they had used plumbers putty all around the connection to keep it from leaking around the connection from the hose to the pipe inside the wall. I called our wonderful plumber and the next day he had to remove all of the drain system and replace the "T" inside the wall because someone had cut the threaded section off from the pipe. He did educate us on the proper plumbing for a house and told us it was not up to code under the sinks. I really trusted our family member who sold us this house and now we have issues, which is sad. I wouldn't recommend buying a flipped house. We are still doing cosmetic stuff and are finally replacing the horrible dishwasher and range. I would say that if you're not wanting to do the work yourself, don't buy a flipped house. If you don't mind doing some of the work yourself, do your own remodel, at least you'll know for sure what's been done.

Almost bought a flipped house...what a nightmare!

Flo Mac

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Bri Bosh

et phonehome

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