We are looking into sheriff sales in our city PA… what percent is good to go off of if you cant see the inside of the house(but the exterior of the house looks good and foundation)?
Your guess is as good as anyone else’s.
Alot depends on the rules of redemption in your state.
Well, that’s the pickle. May look good on the outside, but the previous owner could have damaged the inside. There could be broken pipes, water damage, missing mechanicals. Assume that you are going to need to at least repair mechanicals, if not replace. Can you at least peek through some windows, if it is vacant?
Like Lori stated it could go either way, I have gone into some locations where the evicted party took everything they could and I mean everything! The AC, heater, hot water heater, cabinets, toilets, carpet, light switch covers, ceiling fans, and even the kitchen sink! No joke! They know its coming so they take what they can (I guess there is some sense of entitlement). Also, when a house sits bugs have a greater likelyhood of moving in, including termites. I would say make sure the reward mirros the risk. For some reason I have found that the driveway tells alot about the prior owners, if it is fairly stained in oil, the inside will mostlikely match! Good luck with your purchase. :biggrin
My rule of thumb: Don’t buy what you don’t know.
I would never gamble on real estate, at least not in this way. If I can’t inspect the property then I don’t buy / bid. To me, it just isn’t worth the loss of money if there turned out to be something expensive to replace/repair.
There was a house that I was planning on bidding on a few years back. It was locked up and boarded up very tightly. Everything I could find on the property looked like a really good deal, including my drive by inspection. The day of the auction, on my way to the court house I stopped by the property one last time, luckily for me, someone had kicked in the front door. So I pulled out my flash light and took a look.
I had intended on bidding on the property, up to $70,000. I had the cash in my pocket. When I got in the basement I found that one wall was already collapsed and the other three where bowed out greatly. This of course is a really expensive thing to repair.
The property ended up getting demoed to an empty lot. I count my blessings and have hence forth NEVER bid on property that I could not inspect first.