I'm buying a house and have found out the property has flooded before - What does this mean for me?

Question

I'm buying a home and have recently written out the contract. No flooding was disclosed anywhere in the contracts. Before giving the realtor my earnest money, I received pictures from a neighbor of the entire back and front yard under water from last year.

After showing these pictures to the realtor, he spoke with the seller and said, "This was only a one time event".

What are my options here? I know that I can re-write the contract because it wasn't submitted with the original offer. If the property is selling for $129,000, how much would that go down considering the flooding? Also, no structural damage to the house, water never reached there.

Thanks in advance for any advice and help. First time buyer and college student - so I'm still learning...new to all of this!

Answer 1

There is an evidence of lack of dosclosure here on the parts of the sellers. You need to check into insurabilty of the property. You went to not being told to finding out via an outside source. Apparently the neighbors, not the owners, felt it was important enough information to share before the sale. What else aren't they telling you? This is a big decision and they have already proven untrustworthy.

Answer 2

I don't know what stage you are in your contract. Sounds like the offer has been accepted and your earnest money has been deposited. You should have a financing and inspection contingency in the contract.

your options are the following.
option 1
If you want out of the contract ask the agent to submit a signed mutual release to the seller asking for your earnest money back based on the fact that you have new undisclosed information on the property. Tell them why.
They should let you out now if you want out.
Your Agent and her manager need to get involved.

option 2
If you still want the house. simply tell them that you want the sellers to remedy the problem by installing french drains or what ever needs to be done to prevent this from happening again before you move forward with the purchase.

The other issue is to make sure that you will be able to acquire flood insurance and what that will cost each month.

did all of the neighbors have floods as well? whats going on with that. Is the house near a river? Does the house have a basement? if so have a sump pump installed by the sellers as well.

There are lots of things you can do to negotiate this out.
But NO you are not stuck with going through with the purchase if you want out get out now.

Ir your Realtor is good They will know what to do

Answer 3

They are a possibly the flooding could have been in 1993 and at that time they were water everywhere.
It you are getting a good buy talk to the Realtor about this.
Maybe keep in mind to get some low cost flood insurance

Answer 4

If it flooded once, it will do it again. No one can control the weather, if they could why did it happen the first time. It also means that there is probably hidden damage to the property. Hidden moisture that will turn into mold soon.
If you do go ahead make sure that you can get flood insurance, and make sure what is covered. If there is no chance of this happening again, why is the price so low?

Answer 5

i'm a college student too, but i live in california, so we don't really have the flooding problem here.. i don't know for certain on that one, but i think that not disclosing the flood would be grounds for re-negotiating!! at least i would hope to think so!! i think you should maybe call another realtor in your area and explain the situation to them and ask what can be done.. or try to find someone online that can help.. but i see you aren't getting very many answers on here!! well, i haven't gotten many answers to my question either, so don't feel too bad lol good luck!! i hope it works out for you!!