A house preowned by drug dealer

[bsrsharma]

Will you and your family get hurt?

I read about this sometime back: A guy who had bought a nice car for less at an auction in US drove across the border and was re-entering from Mexico. I think a customs dog smelled the tires, he was stopped, the car was stripped and for reasons I don't remember, he ended up in Mexican jail. Pretty horrible experience for an innocent guy; of course he lost his car too, since it became 'evidence' (and was probably pretty badly cut up anyway).

[HLS]

NIC,,,
Find out how long the guy gets and just sell and move before his parole date. Nothing to worry about. !!

Life in San Diego is a risk…
Even people in La Jolla have faults…

But never forget..the weather is ALWAYS good, and EVERYONE wants to live here…

I wouldn’t worry about anybody coming back for anything.
The drugs will affect their brain and they will have forgotten where they lived.

[Wrangler]

HLS,

Interesting posts. Is there way to find out a criminal’s term in jail? Any one knows how to find it? Links?

[Critter]

Make sure it wasn’t used as a meth lab. Haz mat experts have to come in and detoxify the place to make it liveable – very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Somebody related the following RE horror story of his friend – rented out small house in the sticks – cops roll in on meth lab – EPA jumps into the fray – renter gone & in jail – EPA says house is “toxic” – must tent / nobody allowed to live there – two years later EPA say the house needs to be torn down by Haz Mat crew – $200k billed to owner / house now gone!

Ouch!

MGL

[MANmom]

Yes, you better have the walls and carpets tested, my brother bought a house in Oregon back in the 80’s. It was unknown that it was a Meth house. He tore out the carpets (the urine smell was really bad, the owner claimed it was several big dogs) took out the cabinets, stripped the walls, then found out it was contaminated…needless to say, he never lived in that house, it was eventually burned down, I think. A total loss…he still has check-ups and is afraid he will get some wierd cancer eventually.

MANmom

[Anonymous]

Carefully interview the neighbors to make sure you understand the situation…

There are paid services such as intellius.com where you can do a criminal records search on a name and city/state.

Get a thorough home inspection. Also check for mold under kitchen sinks, in the bathrooms and anything else suspicious. I would suspect anything freshly painted. I hope they’re not using those air fresheners during the showings–they’re often used to mask odors.

If the drug story is true, I would consider getting the police to go through with a drug dog before you buy. If you are in possession of the house and something illegal is found you could be charged.

If the story is true about the former owner being convicted of drug charges I would definitely use that to negotiate the price down, assuming you’re still interested.

-K

[bsrsharma]

Another hint: If an inspection reveals rewiring for large Amperage (heavy gauge wires), get a proper electrician to check out circuits & circuit breakers are OK (for domestic currents). You don’t want a short circuit in your toaster NOT to set off the circuit breaker and cause a fire. Many of the weed growers & Meth cookers need high currents for their “Job”.

[NicMM]

Many thanks to all the repliers, especially Critter, mglsharkson ,MANmom , ralleia and bsrsharma. Your experience /stories shared really educated me. There is so much risk out there for this house that I am not interested in it any more.

If we translate this extreme story to a generic question, don’t you agree that buying a new house has less risk involved than buying a resale one? Everything starts from scratch.

[NicMM]

Many thanks to all the repliers, especially Critter, mglsharkson ,MANmom , ralleia and bsrsharma. Your experience /stories shared really educated me. There is so much risk out there for this house that I am not interested in it any more.

If we translate this extreme story to a generic question, don’t you agree that buying a new house has less risk involved than buying a resale one? Everything starts from scratch.

[bsrsharma]

buying a new house has less risk

One thing that worries me is the ground compaction problem Many newly graded lands in hilly areas like SD take a few years to settle. Since the new homes are built before that, you may end up having large settlements & cracks (mini version of La Jolla problem). If you buy after 5 years or so, the settlements have mostly finished and you can see if there is any damage.

Second issue is: in the recent run up, last 5 years or so, a lot of builders used illegal and unskilled labor both for profit and due to worker shortages. I have seen videos of building construction (including some larger buildings) on TV that shocked me – poor skills even in estimating & measuring steel and wood – they would order beams & columns too long or short and then fix in the field by cutting or joining/welding. I don't have any construction experience, but their stupidity was too obvious! They just couldn't read a drawing properly and get the right materials. I would be very concerned about buying anything built in the last 5 years or so.

[bsrsharma]

buying a new house has less risk

One thing that worries me is the ground compaction problem Many newly graded lands in hilly areas like SD take a few years to settle. Since the new homes are built before that, you may end up having large settlements & cracks (mini version of La Jolla problem). If you buy after 5 years or so, the settlements have mostly finished and you can see if there is any damage.

Second issue is: in the recent run up, last 5 years or so, a lot of builders used illegal and unskilled labor both for profit and due to worker shortages. I have seen videos of building construction (including some larger buildings) on TV that shocked me – poor skills even in estimating & measuring steel and wood – they would order beams & columns too long or short and then fix in the field by cutting or joining/welding. I don't have any construction experience, but their stupidity was too obvious! They just couldn't read a drawing properly and get the right materials. I would be very concerned about buying anything built in the last 5 years or so.

[NicMM]

Do you think builder reputations would make any difference? Or should we start to learn a land-grading-101, and watch the construction from the scratch?

[NicMM]

Do you think builder reputations would make any difference? Or should we start to learn a land-grading-101, and watch the construction from the scratch?

[bsrsharma]

Problem 1 is a geological/engineering issue that can be guarded against but almost never guaranteed unless pretty high end construction is used – not likely for production homes. Best guarantee is test of time – I use 5 years as my criterion. More for unusually steep slopes/hillsides (but I am never interested in those anyway at any price) and less for flat lands.

Problem 2 may be resolved if you know someone very familiar with builders. Some real estate professionals on the board may have some knowledge of various builder’s labor practices.

But because of problem 1, why bother with problem 2?

[Author]

Posts