Fire Burned Home And Smoke Damage
hi. there's a fire burned home for sale in my town. according to the info, 1/4 of it is burned, and the rest has smoke damage. except for a window and the melted siding around it, the outside looks fine. it's on the market for 180k and the assessed value is 219k and it would probably sell for a lot more because it's in a great neighbourhood. (comps are higher than assessed value)
i know i'd have to get a contractor in there to look at what it needs. i'm thinking this for me and my fiance' first home. should we even bother with a rehab for our first home?
and how bad is smoke damage? will carpets and walls have to be ripped out? or just washed and cleaned? is there a way to fix some of the smoke damaged areas and live in those while the rest is worked on? and how long should it take?
and if we do purchase it, how should we go about finacing the rehab?
I'm a newbie. and any info is great. thanks.
Be real careful here. As this is your first home make sure you get a great home inspector in there before you commit to anything. Depending on how bad the damage is on the interior you could be looking at a total rehab which could run you into quite a bundle. As for the cost to rehab look into a 203k program with a reputable lender. Wells Fargo has a good program.
would our mortgage broker even look at a fire burned house if we could find the money to rehab? I'm sure it has bigger risk.
I would try and assign the deal to cash buyer/rehabber who knows what they are doing.
If this is your first home, fire damaged aren't the easiest from what I hear
thanks. I know it's a lot of work, but the prices are so high around here. I like the idea of getting a deal and fixing up.
Cha-Ching,
Had a fire in a building a few years back the unit that I owned was not burned, but there was a whole lot of smoke damage. Smoke literally diffused through all the walls in a matter of minutes.
Good news - it's fixable, with some work. In my case, I ripped out the carpets and some drywall, sealed the walls (Kilz is your friend here - as any reputable painter what they use to seal walls under the curcumstances). Oxyclean pulled it up off of the tile (with some elbow grease), and after everything else was done, I ran an ozone machine for about a week (be sure not to stick around when the O3 machine is on, since it will bond strongly to blood molecules, similar to CO). Oh, yeah - be sure to have any vents & air conditioner ducts professionally cleaned.
Good luck!
-e-
You must be careful with fire burned houses. Along with the fire and smoke damage you must consider the water damage from putting the fire out. In cases where I have rehabbed a burned house,I completely gutted all drywall,carpet,electrical,and plumbing. Just my 2 cents. You will probably not be able to get a mortgage until rehab is complete. I bought my house from the homeowner after they settled with their insurance company. They sold me the house for lot value. If you want to do this try to offer lot value only. I know your lots in the D.C. area are expensive. Do not let analysis paralyze you. Just do it man.
Smoke and fire damage is seriously nasty issue. Shitrock needs to be remove ecause the water and because the smell.
Now it all depends how bad was the fire but considering the distraction damage level to be at 1/4 of the house, I would say that $30.000-$40,000 play for remodeling will NOT BE enough so you might end up with just oposite of "the deal".
If you do not know nothing about rehabbing fire damage, get someone to give you an estimate before you get yourself in trouble. Be careful! Just like your mama sad. Right? Surely right.
----------------------------[ Edited by omega1 on Date 02/21/2004 ]
NOt a big deal if your versed in the field. I have never had to remove all the sheetrock and Kilz generally seals it pretty good. GEnerally what happens is there is a fire in one room where there is fire/water damage. The rest of the house is generally smoke damaged and just requires a lot o9f cleanup.
[addsig]
I was really fortunate in that I had to deal with no water damage whatsoever. I didn walk around the two units next to me a bit, as they were completely gutted by fire.
-e-
What about a house that has maximum damage from a fire? Is it ever a good idea to buy the land and have the house torn down and then sell the land? An airplane crashed into a house a couple of blocks away from mine and there is no roof of course, as well as major fire damage. The lot is in a coveted and well established neighborhood. Surrounding lots (not the houses on them) are worth 200-300,000. Any advice?
jonna_nixon,
To answer your question, it depends on a couple of things. First, what will the seller of the "crashed into" house sell the property for. Also, what would be the projected value of a new home on that lot. If the lots in that area are selling for $200-300K, the new home on the lot should be worth somewhere in the $800K-1 mil range depending on whether the buyer is a builder or is an end user. Another consideration is what the current zoning permits and the suitability/feasibility of building on the property.
Nixon,
Try to buy as cheap as possible. See what if anything is recoverable from the house. Leave at least one wall up and when you apply for new building permit go in as a rehab. After all you have one wall standing. This cuts down on the biggy bucks they charge for new construction. Fire damage is pretty straight forward. You clean clean clean and seal, seal, seal. Stick the ozone machine in for a couple of days, clear the vents with pole brushes and use an industrial style vacum and thats it. No biggy. Dont laugh I lived in one while I restored it. The big jump was when I moved from the back seat of my car, ok I cheated I took the partition out to the trunk. I spent ten days living in the car, then the bathroom was finished. So I could shower. My close personal friends were very happy on that occasion. Next room finished was the bedroom, then kitchen, then next bedroom and finaly the great occasion the living room. Had to replace part of a floor, had a hell of a time getting it stained, sanded, re sealed, stained again. I goofed the first time. I was so excited when the living room was finished and ran across it, slipped and broke my arm. Very funny, have you ever seen someone painting a house with a broken arm. My future wife told me it was some of my best work. Yes my secret is out, I had to use an airless spray cause my brushwork was bad....
I enjoyed it. It was a challenge, of course I had a problem going to sleep at night cause every time a firetruck went by I freaked out.
Cheers Lucius
Thanks for the advice Nancy and Lufos-I laughed all the way through your post! I'm going to look into it more this week. I don't know exactly what is going on w/ the property right now, but if it's something good for me I want to be ready! Thanks!
[ Edited by jonna_nixon on Date 02/21/2004 ]
cha-ching...
The house you have your eyes on may be a deal, or may not. As one poster said you can offer just the value of the land. As far as how much this is going to cost you largely depends on how much of the work you are going to have to pay for. I can offer you a few tips, since a subsidiary of the company I work for primarily goes out and finds distressed houses (read: fire damage) and rehabs them and sells them for a profit.
Here are some very important questions:
1. Is the property for sale free and clear of any liens or claims? While this seems elementary, you'd be suprised at the number of slimy individuals that will take your money for a property like this that comes with $200,000 of debts.
2. How long has it been since the fire?
A few things happen with a home damaged by fire. Vermin moves in. Picture this: The average fire is put out by firefighters using around 30,000 gallons of water. Does this home have a basement? Water flows down, so as the water drained through the walls and the ceilings and whatever, it took whatever chemical byproducts from the combustion with it. All that goop is now in the walls. Because its probably been boarded up, sunlight can't get in, and in the absence of sunlight and people, mold and critters show up.
So you'll probably have to rip out the sheetrock or plaster ...If the house has been boarded up for more than 2 months, you can count on ripping out all the carpet.
3. Where did the fire originate, and for how long did it burn? These are usually items of public record, so I would recommend getting a copy of the fire marshall's report. The reason you want to know these things is it can give you somewhat of an idea as to how much damage to the electrical wiring has been done by the fire. Was the house occupied when the fire broke out? If it wasnt, the fire would have had more of a chance to fill itself up with smoke before being discovered. Many people think that smoke causes the most damage in a fire, when thats not true at all. Smoke kills people, but for rehab purposes, water is your biggest enemy, simply because it wrecks everything and goes all over the place.
This is a big gamble. For first time homeowners, I would NOT recommend you undertake this project. There are so many things that you will tackle as a first time homeowner in a house that DID NOT have the single most devastating thing happen to it.
[ Edited by jfmlv1950 on Date 06/08/2004 ]
Well, even thought it would have been a challenge, the market was so hot here in British columbia that the house sold within a week. So i didn't get a shot at it. but i think it sat for a month or 2.
but i did find a fixer upper for my first house. smokers were in it, but after kitz, and 10 gallons worth of paint, (i painted the whole upstairs in 4 days cuz my fiance was on holidays and i wanted to surprise him) and the house looks incredible. I loved it. i actually like rehabbing.