sdgrrl, I agree with Rich about examining how long you want to actually own the property but for a different reason. If you guys are actually purchasing VA, the you could have a 100% loan. You say the sellers are refusing to pay any of your closing costs and your VA Funding Fee at 2% will be a hefty $7700 (if you pay $385K for the house). With your other closing costs and possible loan costs added to the funding fee, your closing costs could come to $12K or more which would mean that you will already “upside down” by ~$12K at the close of escrow (COE).
That’s not a good (financial) place to be in that area if you’re not planning on holding the property for at least 10 years, IMO. As you can see from the lower prices up there, Lakeside does not hold its value or appreciate at the same rates as closer-in (incorporated) communities in SD County do.
A few observations:
The 2011 “street view” pic reveals the following. There are no sidewalks or storm drains on this street (in an unincorporated area). The home is lower than the street. The crawlspace of this home could have been flooded multiple times in heavy rains over the years as there doesn’t appear to be any french drains installed in the front or side of the lot to drain off the backyard, which is lower still. The home and lot were likely in gross disrepair when the current seller/flipper purchased it. The June 2011 street view pic reveals a 20+ foot industrial-type trailer (as ucodegen mentioned) parked on the property in front of the house. A previous owner (before the flipper/seller) could have purchased it for almost nothing from DRMO or a local GSA auction.
I feel they may have acquired it to use to dispose of wild, overgrown landscaping and termite eaten and dry-rotted/moldy construction debris (due to previous flooding) as renting a “roll-on” can be prohibitively expensive. (The flipper/seller could have purchased the property with the trailer still there.) When the previous owner was gutting it and found the extent of the damage, they decided they didn’t (for whatever reason) want to put the money into it because in 2011/12, the market had literally gone to sh!t out there. They hung onto the property until they could unload it on a professional flipper in late 2015 and recover their money out of it (and likely more). The owner who sold to the flipper was likely a longtime owner or even an “heir” who very well may have borrowed money on it during the loose-lending era of the aughts. (Note: I have not viewed the public record chain-of-title on this property.)
The lot is essentially sloping down from the street to the house, with a third, lower tier as the backyard. The parcel may slope a little further downhill from the backyard but we can’t see it from the pics provided. The driveway in one place, in front of a window has an offset crack (we can’t tell exactly by how much). This nonetheless indicates soil movement because the concrete is so old that it is likely a tree was never growing there. The driveway was not repaired/replaced by the flipper/seller. There is another 1-2 feet of dirt between the driveway and a short retaining wall. The house is 1-2 feet lower than the retaining wall and was completely re-stuccoed, so we can’t tell if that crack (from moving soil over the years) has affected the short retaining wall (which could have been easily repaired) or penetrated the actual stemwall of the house.
In addition, its former roof (in 2011) was decrepit and probably leaked in one or more places. However the walls inside (possibly originally plaster) were likely replaced with drywall by the flipper.
If your offer is accepted and you open escrow, I would get a highly-qualified home inspector (or better yet, a civil engineer) out there pronto and go through the crawlspace with a high beam flashlight and a fine-toothed comb and whatever other meters/tools they use to look for dryrot in the subfloor and evidence of seepage (from cracks) and mold along the stemwalls.
A more expedient (and cheaper) way to get the info you need on whether to proceed with this transaction would be to insist on seeing any reports on that property paid for by previous buyer-principals who walked. You need to make this request immediately after your offer is accepted. And reject the reports promptly, if necessary, within your contingency period in order to get your earnest money back.
Good Luck and be mindful of your dates! I’m not sure properties in this particular area are for first-timers … especially those who are putting little money down and have low to moderate incomes and minor children to support (not saying that’s you, btw, sdgrrl).
