Community Help

To make a tragically long journey short, I need help.

I'm not one to ask for it, especially from friends or strangers, but at this point desperation is setting in. I just bought a house that was supposed to be a cosmetic fix, but as I dive deeper into this monstrosity, I'm learning that there is no such thing as cosmetic, and I'm officially depleted of funds, resources and energy.

If you'd like to help me raise funds to repair and replace broken plumbing, and a dead AC, any help would be greatly and forever appreciated! You can donate to my cashapp $sassyyhippoo

Here's the thing.

From a friend, we decided to buy their home. Sight unseen. Was it risky? Absolutely. Was it a risk? It was not supposed to be.

The seller had this house with tenants that had been here for about 10 years. The seller, we'll call him Kyle. He decided he no longer wanted his rental and knowing that I was in the market, he brought the idea to me. He confirmed that there was truly only cosmetic damage; dull paint, mismatched siding color. It wouldn't come with a fridge but would come with an oven and a dishwasher. It came down to the wire when we were scheduled for closing and the tenants still were not out of the house. Kyle also recommended that we get a cleaning crew in to clean the house before move in, and was really pushing for this. On closing day, is when we got to see the house FINALLY.

I must mention that in the seller's disclosure he confirms of a front door issue, but it was repaired prior to closing. THAT'S IT. While we were doing the walk through, not only did we find that the front door was not fixed, but there was a bigger issue. The joist and frame were completely rotted. On top, we found that the only bathroom in the house, the tub was cracked and just filled with some type of foam and cement.

We fixed it up, repaired the joists, and the frame. Project 1 of 2 done. Or so we thought.

It seems like at every turn, we find something worse. After the front door issue, we started cleaning the house. We initially were going to keep the existing flooring and eventually replace it later, but then while we ripped up the existing bathtub to replace, we found that the flooring was completely rotted away and moldy. Not to mention about 4 inches of stagnant/standing water below. We decided before we started on any additional projects to just rip up all the floors in the house.

Here's what we found.

The smallest back bedroom, the floors were soft and the subfloor rotted, joists, also rotted. The bigger back bedroom, soft floors, joists ROTTED. The kitchen, floor and subfloor holey and rotted away, the joists, just about gone.

The house on top of this, was staying warm. We kept the temp at 70, because that's comfortable for me and my daughter. The small room, because the floors were up, we assumed that the house wasn't staying cool because of the hole bringing in so much heat from outside. Upon further inspection, the duct tube had a huge hole. Of course! What else could go wrong. Problem found. Easy fix. Except, when the AC guy went under the house, he found that every single tube had 1-4 sizable holes, AND our AC unit is 18 years old.

So where are we? Well, we had to replace the stove because it at some point had been caught on fire, and the tenants just did not use it, so it was rusted, burnt and unusable. The dishwasher had never been used so there was molded water in the tubing and spiders nests inside. IT HAD TO GO. We bought a fridge because there wasn't one. So we purchased in our first 3 days, a fridge, a stove, a new tub/shower kit, plumbing for the bathroom. Only the bathroom and the front door area got new supports, joists and flooring. This is where we're dead in the water. And were I am asking for help.

It's getting to be summer and temps are rising. We don't have a working AC, and now plumbing will need to be replaced throughout the house because of the abuse this house has taken. We need to replace the flooring and fix the joists and supports so that we have a solid foundation for the house. I understand that this is costly and very very expensive, but I do not have what I need to even get started and I don't qualify for any assistance or loans.

Anything would be amazing. My goal is about 6000. This will be enough for a deposit on a new AC and plumbing, and it will help with building materials.

If you're here at this point and you ask yourself about why we didn't back out, or go after the seller, let me just tell you that we tried.

On a purchase, there is no rescinding period. Because we bought the house, "as is" under the assumption stated by the seller's disclosure we legally were accepting the house under it's condition. A few lawyers said I had a case, but not a strong one, and the lawyers I talked to didn't have room on their books.

"But what about an inspection or an appraisal?" Well, we did both of those too. An appraisal was done, and they required repairs to be done. The seller did those. One of the requirements was a crawl space inspection. The seller gave us a contact for the inspection and we had one done. The inspector, we're going to call him Greg. He did the inspection, turned in a report to us, and the home appraisal passed.

Upon repairing the front door issue, and finding the ducting issues... we decided to reach out to Greg and ask him why his report says one thing but we're looking at something different. Here's where it gets fun.

He first said that he did the inspection at Kyle's request, and did everything. We informed him that the notes on his report don't match up. There is significant moisture, the support is not adequate. Greg's response was a confession! He confirmed that 1 he never did a crawlspace inspection, he simply looked under the floor at the front door to ensure the front door was stable, and after mentioning to Kyle that there was rot and moisture, Kyle asked Greg not to disclose because he would take care of it before closing.

So here we are with a liar, a cheat, and an ugly house. I'm assuming it can't get much worse from here, so Cheers! To the next 30 years in this awkward smelly house.