Water Damage

[Kyle Boatright]

My parents (in their 70's) have found a house they are considering purchasing as a replacement for their current house which is far too much house for them going forward. The *new* house is perfect in every way, except that it suffered a serious flood in the basement recently. Apparently a washing machine hose failed when the owner was out of town. Anyway, the finished basement was flooded to 2' or 3' deep, immersing the heater, A/C coil, water heaters, soaking the walls, and making a mess of everything else in the basement.

I'm going to tour/examine this house this weekend. I can do plumbing, roofing, sheetrock, electrical etc., but I've never dealt with serious water damage.

Obviously, the systems will need to be replaced, as will outlets and any submerged electrical connections. Also, I figure any sheetrock in the basement will need to be torn out and replaced. One of the things I'll look for is to see if mold and/or mildew has spread beyond the areas that were soaked.

What else should I look for?

For what it is worth, the house is on the market at a serious discount versus similar houses in the neighborhood that don't have flood damage. I've advised my parents that whatever they save if they purchase the house, they should expect to put that money right back into repairs. I.E. there is no free lunch.

Thanks in advance...

KB

[Colbyt]

I think you caught the most of it.

Your parents should get a nice discount equal to at least the cost of hiring all the repairs done. There is also the stigmata factor to consider. The supervising and scheduling is a lot of work. Anything they can do for themselves is just a bonus.

If they are in the position to make a cash, no contingency offer, I would not hesitate to offer 15-20% less than fair market value after all the repairs are done by hired contractors. You or they will earn the 15%.

Colbyt

[Joshua Putnam]

To be safe, have them talk to their insurance agent first, too -- depending on the insurance market in your state, it may be difficult or very expensive to insure a home with recent water damage if the previous owners filed an insurance claim over the incident.