Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Is you sell a house as-is, can the buyer still come after you for any flaws?


A family member owes a ton of money on the mortgage. Over $40K on a refinance loan. Not sure if the house will even sell for enough to cover that, but I have been fixing up what I know how to fix, to try to improve the value. Some of the stuff like house drainage issues/foundation issues can't be fixed by me and would cost thousands to fix. For instance, an improper sump pump in the basement that has water flowing over a fairly large surface into an open sump hole. No french drain, water leaking from a retaining wall that wasn't installed properly by former owners, etc. Possible foundation issues (after 2-3 days of rain, sump comes on for sometimes days, and gets sump flows upwards of 75 gallons per minute during the heaviest of rains with a saturated ground). Possibly underground creek somehow under the back yard, but nothing confirmed. An openly visible creek down the road in the back yard of a house on our side of the street seems to "disappear" up through the yards further up. Not sure if that is underground on our property or not.

The inside condition of the house is decent, but needs work. The house needs a full remodel with no money to do it. I'll gladly help the said family member out financially, but putting too much money into the house seems like a money trap. Refinanced mortgage from over a decade ago.

Any advice? Try to sell it as-is to someone who can fix it? I doubt they'd offer much money, though. I don't think Chase mortgage would do a Deed In Lieu.
Added (1). Foreclosure… There is concern that the house would get destroyed in the process of waiting for them to take it back. Bad neighborhood. Plus, it wrecks the credit, of course.

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