Looking for an old post about a flipped house July 31, 2015 11:31 AM Subscribe
I remember reading a post here about a guy who had bought a house that turned out to have been flipped by someone incredibly shady, and the house was full of stuff like vents leading to nowhere, architectural details secretly supported with popsicle sticks, etc. He and his friends then documented the process of making the house livable. I'm having trouble finding it.
Yes, that's it! Thank you!
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:10 PM on July 31, 2015
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:10 PM on July 31, 2015
I am so glad you asked about this -- I missed that post the first time around. Holy shit, I can't stop looking -- his experience is SO CLOSE to mine, down to the joists being cut through to route the plumbing and the hot and cold taps hooked up backward. It's like a mixture of horror and terrible understanding.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:04 PM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:04 PM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh my god. And down to the building materials left scattered around the property. Thank goodness we didn't have a basement for them to remove support beams of, since this was central Texas.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2015
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2015
Oh, fantastic. We're going under contract today, hoping that the lender's appraisal gets up to the sale price (since we don't have high hopes for a seller lowering), and between reading this whole thing (between e-signing documents) and these two Asks, that's not adding to my stress at all.
AT ALL.
We're not waiving shit, though. CONTINGENCIES ALL THE WAY.
posted by supercres at 3:14 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
AT ALL.
We're not waiving shit, though. CONTINGENCIES ALL THE WAY.
posted by supercres at 3:14 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
Hey, supercres. A car exploded in front of our house two days before signing.
So you could have that to look forward to too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:55 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
So you could have that to look forward to too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:55 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
That was a fascinating and terrifying read.
RENTING 4EVAR
posted by desjardins at 8:25 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
RENTING 4EVAR
posted by desjardins at 8:25 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I don't know, I've been renting for a while and I want to just be able to fix stuff, instead of, you know, having stuff not get fixed because you have a scummy landlord.
On the other hand, wow that's a terrible story. I guess being screwed as a renter could never be as bad as being screwed as an owner...
Ha, and now I'm thinking of all the times landlords were hilariously awful. "That's not sewage, it's gray water!" Hot and cold taps being mixed up is not even something I worry about, at this point.
posted by teponaztli at 10:43 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, wow that's a terrible story. I guess being screwed as a renter could never be as bad as being screwed as an owner...
Ha, and now I'm thinking of all the times landlords were hilariously awful. "That's not sewage, it's gray water!" Hot and cold taps being mixed up is not even something I worry about, at this point.
posted by teponaztli at 10:43 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
"I am so glad you asked about this -- I missed that post the first time around."
Me, too. I just spent more than two hours reading that whole page and then the thread. There's a whole year of developments in his story that postdate the thread. I'd really like to see some more discussion about it, especially some of the legal stuff. (Such as, the county attorney can't pursue action because the seller didn't return their phone call?)
One thing, among others, that I found interesting that no one mentioned in the thread is that in my opinion a lot of the flipper's remodeling looked really good -- a big improvement. I can see how a first-time buyer would be enticed and gulled by it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:16 AM on August 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Me, too. I just spent more than two hours reading that whole page and then the thread. There's a whole year of developments in his story that postdate the thread. I'd really like to see some more discussion about it, especially some of the legal stuff. (Such as, the county attorney can't pursue action because the seller didn't return their phone call?)
One thing, among others, that I found interesting that no one mentioned in the thread is that in my opinion a lot of the flipper's remodeling looked really good -- a big improvement. I can see how a first-time buyer would be enticed and gulled by it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:16 AM on August 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah. It's not a coincidence that the only two houses we liked after looking at them for more than 60 seconds were houses that had been lived in by the rehabbers for years post-rehab. Flippers are counting on that first 60 seconds to carry people through to closing, and I can totally see how an unscrupulous buyer's agent could contribute to that.
posted by supercres at 12:08 PM on August 1, 2015
posted by supercres at 12:08 PM on August 1, 2015
Thanks for bringing this back up - that was a fascinating and sobering story, and I'm glad to read the updates.
posted by Dashy at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Dashy at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hey, supercres. A car exploded in front of our house two days before signing.
Although i wasn't buying the place, the day i was moving in to a rental house i had just signed a lease on that i was prettyyy sketched out about(for reasons that turned out to be right, and the house itself was constructed this amazingly poorly and illegally) i was pulling up to the place and watched an SUV flip over, skid along it's roof, and smash in to a bunch of parked cars.
And start smoking and burning up, like a freaking action movie.
No one was killed, or even seriously injured, but it was totally an omen.
posted by emptythought at 3:00 AM on August 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Although i wasn't buying the place, the day i was moving in to a rental house i had just signed a lease on that i was prettyyy sketched out about(for reasons that turned out to be right, and the house itself was constructed this amazingly poorly and illegally) i was pulling up to the place and watched an SUV flip over, skid along it's roof, and smash in to a bunch of parked cars.
And start smoking and burning up, like a freaking action movie.
No one was killed, or even seriously injured, but it was totally an omen.
posted by emptythought at 3:00 AM on August 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
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posted by neushoorn at 11:50 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]