Flooring

So, now that we have closed the work has started on repair the house. My friend Nate and I went out the night of closing and began pulling out the old carpeting. We bought filter masks and gloves to keep from inhaling too much of the dust. And there was a lot of it.

After three hours or so, we completely removed all of the carpet and padding from the house. Jennifer came out and used a shop vacuum to get up the dust. She went out to the house again yesterday and scraped up the tile and tacking strips. Once the nails from the tacking strips are pulled, we will be ready to begin with laying new floors.

Closing

After several weeks of back and forth with out lender, we have finally closed on the house. Of course, since the house was unoccupied for so long and no one was taking care of it, we have plenty of work for us. The yard is completely overgrown -the neighbors have been leaving notes saying the property is a safety concern, the floors are even worse, the pool is completely green. It is all overwhelming.

FHA Required Repairs

So in previous posts I mentioned some of the items that need to be addressed/repaired at the house. Well, we have heard back from the FHA inspector and the only thing that he noted requiring repair is the screen in the lanai. One section of screen is missing, as can be seen in the photo where the rubber strip around the screen is hanging down. He did not mention the floors, the AC unit, nothing. It just shows how silly the FHA requirements are.

So in order to close, we have to either pay a handyman to come out and fix it prior to closing or put twice the amount needed for the repair into escrow. If we have it repaired, the inspector has to come back out and note the repair was made. This is all kind of silly.

Since the FHA inspection, another section of the screen has become ripped during a heavy thunderstorm with hail as can be seen in the upper right of the photo, so now that needs to be repaired.

The truth is, that the banks and seller should be relieved that we are purchasing this house. The property is deteriorating everyday by being unoccupied and not maintained. Property values in this area are still falling and interest rates are climbing.