Buying a Home?
Don't Forget the Inspection!
I copied this article off of a website forum. We home inspectors like to get together and talk about just about everything that has to do with this profession. This is an actual post by one of the members, and they run their business right here in San Diego. This is just another example that shows how valuable a home inspection is. _________________________________________________________________
I had my most satisfying inspection today. I always pull the public records prior to an inspection, and this one showed a 979 SF SFR built in 1972. Buyer's agent had told us that it was a 1,500 SF SFR, confirmed by listing agent's flyer as a 1,498 SF SFR.
When we got to the inspection, something just didn't look right. The stuccoed foundation was huge, about two feet tall, very unusual. The rear had cracks every four feet, again very unusual. Looked like a raised foundation at right and rear, but a tall slab at front and left. Weird. No access to crawl space.
In looking at the cracks at the rear, I decided to take off one of the vent screens to see what I could see. We normally don't take vent screens off since we normally have access via a crawl space opening.
Well, low and behold. A manufactured home! The cracks at rear were where the skirt sections met. They were metal but had been stuccoed to match the rest of the house.
Buyer and buyer's agent were aghast, absolutely aghast, not to mention pretty angry. Reason?
House was selling for $475,000, definitely the price for a 1500 SF house in that neighborhood. The most expensive manufactured home in San Diego County that I can find is $175,000, and that's for a 2300 SF 2004 double-wide, double-long, double-tall, double this, double that model. $300,000 difference. Whoa! Of course, now that the can of worms has been opened by me, the home will never appraise for $475,000.
Interesting thing is that the current owners paid $235,000 in November 2000, and the owners before them paid $165,000 in June 1994, all normal prices for 1500 SF houses in this neighborhood for those time periods.
Conclusion?
No one ever had the home inspected before and had no idea that it was a manufactured home.
