Termites (or wood ants??) devouring my dream home...

[Texas_Ranger]

Well, one of the big advantages of this house seems to be a price tag that makes it possible to pay cash. So basically this boils down to whether you'll be able to afford the repairs. DIY tasks are somewhat affordable, even though materials add up too, but once you have to get the pros involved things get expensive very quickly. What if you need to get things done your "family" contractor can't?

[Don M]

How much land comes with this place & what out buildings are there? It sounds good!

[KelsieG]

Hey Don--Approx 4 acres comes with the property. The best part is that those four acres are surrounded by a forest preserve and farmland, so there are no neighbors for a mile in all directions. Additionally, we spoke to the man who owns the farm field across the road and he told us that a). we can use the pond anytime we want and b). if he ever decides to sell his field, he will give us the option of buying a few of the acres fronting the road so that we won't have to worry about someone building a house near ours. As for outbuildings, there's one brand new 2 car garage, an older two car garage that was once a horse stable (it has a attached room with a loft that would be great for storage), and another smaller barn that has stalls and a chicken coop in it. There are fruit trees on the property, as well.

At the moment, I'm in the midst of collecting estimates for new heating/cooling units and a new roof. From there, we'll see what happens, I suppose! A friend with an electrician's license has already offered his expertise if we find ourselves in need of wiring help, so things are slowly coming together...

[eclecticcottage]

Considering getting a septic and well inspection...the well, from what I've heard, is superb. Not sure about the septic, though. :/

When we bought the Cottage it had been vacant sevaral years. We had a septic inspection, had to in order to close per county law. It passed, but all they had to do was run x number of gallons into it with some dye and check to see if the dye appeared where it wasn't supposed to. If it wasn't a "summer/vacation" cottage, we would have had to live in it for a month or two first (we actually meant for it to be a part time thing for several years originally), before they could test it, and they would hold the $$ for replacement of the system in escrow in the mean time.

[KelsieG]

That's something I was curious about, actually. I know some states/counties have laws that the SELLER is required to have a septic system inspected before a property can be officially sold to the new owner. Was this what happened in your case, or did you have to pay for the septic inspection? I'm going to find out what the law is for Illinois/this specific county, but that would be one area of concern taken care of if there was such a law in place.

[Texas_Ranger]

A friend with an electrician's license has already offered his expertise if we find ourselves in need of wiring help, so things are slowly coming together...

Unless there was a fairly recent total rewire with permits and inspections I'd say that's not a question of "if". You WILL need wiring help, unless you're good at electrical things yourself (and can get homeowner permits in your county). Just my personal experience... unfortunately spotless wiring is very very rare, particularly when DIYers are involved, but not necessarily.

[eclecticcottage]

That's something I was curious about, actually. I know some states/counties have laws that the SELLER is required to have a septic system inspected before a property can be officially sold to the new owner. Was this what happened in your case, or did you have to pay for the septic inspection? I'm going to find out what the law is for Illinois/this specific county, but that would be one area of concern taken care of if there was such a law in place.

It is supposed to be the seller here. We had a very unusual sale-we worked directly with the seller although we had lawyers, we never met him though. He lives downstate. We just wrote him a letter to see if he would sell and he said yes.

Anyway, when we were under contract, his lawyer sent back the contract with a clause stating he wouldn't be responsible. We disagreed, our lawyer went all legal eagle on his lawyers...and we contacted him directly so the lawyers wouldn't make a mess of things. We had agreed on a sale price that was a good bit less than he had it on the market for a year previously and he didn't want to be out any more money on it. So we agreed that we would pay the testing fee if he turned the water back on and paid for the water. We actually had the town out to turn on the water and repaired the lines that were blown out in order to get the test done. We mowed the lawn all summer too, lol (we closed in the fall).

In NY, on a foreclosure, the seller (bank or government agency) is NOT responsible for septic. We found that out when we looked at a foreclosure we really liked. We just didn't have the $8k extra to put in escrow until we lived in the place long enough to get it tested, so we couldn't go for that one.

[downtowndahlgren]

I believe that in most cases of foreclosure, you buy the house "as is, where is", same as at an auction. Any problem with a system automatically becomes the buyer's issue. You might want to check on the existing septic permit or perc certificate with the county to make sure that it is rated properly for the number of bedrooms, and that it is for a conventional system. If it turned out that you needed to repair /replace it with an alternative system, that's BIG bucks.