Don't Buy a House in a Hole
Posted by: Bill Cook Real Estate Investor
Posted on : 3/11/2010 6:12:12 AM
This week, due to the record amount of rainfall, a lot of real estate investors and homeowners learned a very valuable lesson: Don’t buy a house in a hole.
A lot of investors called us asking what to do about flooded houses and/or leaky roofs. Unfortunately, the only answer we had was a Once the horse is out of the barn, there’s no sense in closing the barn door type of answer.
Today, let’s look at some of the things to investigate BEFORE deciding to buy a property, as well as some of the ongoing maintenance tasks we do to prevent water damage to a property.
Everything begins with this simple rule: We don’t buy houses in holes…period!
Why not? Most mornings, I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. When I add milk to the cereal, it’s no surprise that the milk stays in one place – the bowl. That’s what a bowl does. It keeps the liquid (milk) in one place – whether you want it to or not!
When a house is in a hole, think of it as being in a bowl. Now, add a few inches of rain to this visual image and what do you get? A flooded basement? Standing water in the house? Expensive repairs? A vacant rental property?
When a seller calls with a killer three-bedroom, two-bath home for sale, I can’t get to his house fast enough. It’s always a letdown when I pull up and, because the house is in a hole, all I can see is the roof line. So much for that “great” deal.
When a seller is selling his house, the best way to learn about the property and the reason why he’s selling is to meet with him face-to-face.
When meeting with the seller, a few of the questions I ask are: “Has your house ever flooded?” “Where does the water go in a heavy rain?” “How old is your roof?” “Has your roof ever leaked?”
If it looks like we can work together, I begin by looking at the topography of the land. This is a fancy way of saying, “When it rains, where does the water go?” If the water goes toward the house – and if there’s not a simple, inexpensive way of preventing this – then I’m done. I can’t help.
In addition, I also talk to the neighbors. It’s amazing what you can learn about a property from the neighbors!
Let’s fast forward to property maintenance. I’m on the roof of each house I manage about five times a year. In the fall, I clean out the gutters three times. In the spring, they’re cleaned out twice. In a heavy rain, it’s imperative to have free-flowing gutters.
While cleaning the gutters, I also inspect the roof shingles and make any needed repairs.
Hope this helps you to avoid future rain damage.
Bill and Kim Cook live in Adairsville, Georgia and have been successfully investing in real estate since 1995. They’ve written their weekly real estate investing newspaper column since 2003.
Bill Cook
www.REIoutpost.com