First I will preface this with I am a real estate attorney, so I did all the due diligence, looked at court pleadings, had a title examination done, etc.

The property was 15 acres with a 1999 modular home on a full foundation with egress windows and a 20yr old nice 3 car garage. Potentially worth $300K-$400K in these parts. Potential great hunting.

I came upon the property after buying some stuff at their online auction a couple months ago. I got to see a lot of the property at pick up time, the garage was nice but wasn't able to get into the house. BUT EVERYTHING REEKED OF CIGARETTE SMOKE. Especially from inside the house. With the owner living there 20yrs, I could only imagine the smell inside there. PLUS, they had a big dog and other "pets" according to the Demand to Delay Sale. I was thinking of getting the place for my Mother in Law to live in a couple years from now after cleaned up or otherwise rent it out or flip it if things didn't pan out. Starting bid was only $153K, only 8 other bidders showed up. I knew how it all worked but this was my first time actually participating in one.

I bid for awhile, most of the bidders dropped out around $190K, I think each was expecting to get it for starting bid plus $1. I just kept imaging the smell inside the house and the massive headache and expense it would be trying to get rid of it. I can handle alot of things, but 20yr fermented cigarette smoke is not one of them. It ended up selling for $237K, which even if you remove the house is probably a decent deal. However, it was still occupied by the guy's girlfriend, so now if you can't get her to move you have to hire a company to haul her stuff 100yrds away to the county road during the eviction.

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Plus I could feel my wife's icy stare from her workplace 30 miles away during bidding... I was pricing in possibly $40K for a professional smoke mitigation of that house along with new HVAC and appliances.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
I just kept imaging the smell inside the house and the massive headache and expense it would be trying to get rid of it. I can handle alot of things, but 20yr fermented cigarette smoke is not one of them.

Yep.

Heavy old cigarette smoke is (damn near) forever. Would that $40k have covered tearing the entire house down to the studs and foundation and then rebuilding everything - walls, flooring, window coverings, fans/light fixtures, cabinets, and the entire HVAC system including the entirety of the vents?

Not around here it wouldn't...

If you wanted only the land for building or hunting, it might have been worth fighting for it, just for that.

But with your hopes of cleaning up the existing building and moving in your mother-in-law, I'd say you dodged a bullet there.

I grew up with smoking parents. They owned numerous houses that we lived in and then rented when we moved to the next one. My dad was a carpet layer and always kept decent carpet and pad from jobs to use in the houses. In my experience you can kill cigarette smell by completely painting the house and removing every stitch of carpet and pad. 40k for mitigation is crazy. Of course I’m saying that because we always used “old” carpet and pad and free labor. Me and my sisters. Lol

Thorough cleaning. New interior paint, new flooring, duct cleaning and it would be good as new.
Sounds like it could of worked out depending on the final bid.
But not a steal. Sounds like the location and acreage was a big plus.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I grew up with smoking parents.

In my experience you can kill cigarette smell by completely painting the house and removing every stitch of carpet and pad

Perhaps that would be adequate for it to smell "non-smoking" to someone who either smoked or was used to living in a smoking home...

But the cigarette smell literally pervades the entire building materials.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I grew up with smoking parents.

In my experience you can kill cigarette smell by completely painting the house and removing every stitch of carpet and pad

Perhaps that would be adequate for it to smell "non-smoking" to someone who either smoked or was used to living in a smoking home...

But the cigarette smell literally pervades the entire building materials.

I'm going to have to go w/ Rogue on this. An old friend ditched Kali and picked up a house back here where the owner most likely died w/ a cig in his mouth.
Friend ripped out all soft flooring and I helped him scrub ceilings and walls before repainting.

You can still smell the stench but a bit better.
Time will tell. It's been two yrs. now and it's still there. Not "punch to the face" style but noticeable.

I hadn't got any estimates as I didn't have access, but it was a smaller modular house (not trailer/manufactured), 3 bed, 2 bath, about 1400 sq feet and same for basement. I watched some Youtube videos on people using BIN paint to completely encapsulate the walls to cover that, but you would also have to do it to the floors after ripping out the carpet, plus the possibility of dog pee. And 1999....so there is the chance you get popcorn ceilings...all that smoke will be in the duct work also. Every single light switch, plug, window, anything air touches, brown with smoke tar. If you don't smoke, you smell that stuff.

I wish the buyer luck.

I had watched another place go for sale last year right up next to a river, it was 15 acres also, on the cusp of a flood plain. The house looked like a real gem of do it yourself. It sold to one flipper company for the $258K or whatever starting bid plus $1, the occupants were serial bankruptcy filers and doing all sorts of stuff to delay things, the first sheriff sale got rescinded for some reason and the first buyers backed out and a different one bought it for the same price a 2nd time. Sellers appealed to the court of appeals but didn't actually perfect their appeal so it got dismissed. The flippers tried to sell a year later for $350K after I'm sure going through a nasty possession process. I drove out there and all of the previous owners RVs, junk boats, cars were on the neighbor's 20 acres and a home made sign was put up just outside the property line "Beware, 50yr old do it yourself septic system, burial grounds, hazardous waste, abandoned wells" or something like that, which hit all the checkmarks on Iowa's groundwater hazard disclosure. I had called the county to check about septic permit, they had no record of any permit and any sale would now require one... It's under contract right now by some buyer.

Well we will agree to disagree. I’ve done it numerous times. You can get rid of the smell. You guys are acting like you have to tear the house down to studs to get rid of the smell. That is complete bullshit. Any house built in the 70’s or earlier was smoked in constantly and nobody is tearing down drywall for this. Lol If you are still smelling smoke after doing the reasonable stuff you are doing it wrong. Been there, done that.

My thought was not thinking about the cigarette imbedded smell but a "1999 modular home", I read that as a double wide on blocks.... ain't worth nothing... just push it over and haul it off... it surely is not worth the price you were thinking to try and clean the place... let alone deal with the girl friend and what she will probably do to the place on the way out... but you got out of it and so I'm thinking you need to just keep looking...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I agree. You can get rid of the smell, but some people cannot get rid of it in their head. Many people refuse to buy a home where a murder has taken place. Again it is all in your mind.

A double wide is a "manufactured home." A "modular home" is a notch above that, real 2x4 house bolted together from 2 or 3 sections, all on top of a full at least 8' basement with egress windows.

The trashing on the way out is always a problem. If I was successful at a far lower price (like the other 8 people were hoping) I was thinking about giving her the carrot of "move this stuff out yourself with your kin and I'll give you $_____" which would be the cost of me hiring the movers to do it. With the "or else" clause being "your Option B is I show up here with the sheriff, a locksmith, and the moving crew to move you out and put your stuff along the dirt road." Luckily, in Iowa you don't have to file a separate eviction case, just petition for a Writ of Possession, which the judge enters the same day and then you are off to the races.

Wow, $40k for cigarette smoke remediation. But I certainly don't find fault with your actions. You know your business.

quote:

It ended up selling for $237K, which even if you remove the house is probably a decent deal.

Well… better luck next time?

I follow the tax sale auctions up where I hunt. I've come to the realization than anything decent, the average person doesn't stand a chance. You're bidding against real estate agencies, with access to finances and financing that mere mortals and working slobs never will. I say this from seeing the properties re-listed on agencies websites (with a very substantial markup) literally two days after the auctions end.

Kinda like buying the K9 cruiser from your local LE.

I know exactly what you’re speaking of in regards to the reek outside the home. My dad has a rental duplex. He lost his sense of smell years ago. Once he had me stop by and check something for one of the tenants and as I exited my vehicle and walked towards the house I was astonished at how it smelled like a giant ashtray. My mom smoked 3 pks/day when I was a kid, and our house NEVER smelled like that, inside or out. NEVER. Nor did our car.

I also smoked for a while as an adult, so I’m not being squeamish about this. It was rank. After we scooted those tenants, ripped out the carpet, repainted, and cleaned, put in an ozone machine for a few days, and it was gone. He had me come and do a sniff test. Ya, this was an older home, and definitely people had smoked in there before. I just don’t know how much of a pig you’d have to be to make it smell like that outside.

I’m sorry you missed your chance, Scuba, but having someone ensconced in the home would have been a bigger pain to get rid of than the stench, imho.

Better luck next time.

Yup. A lot of fear mongering over a fixable problem. You pay me 40k and I will make it smell like whatever you want. Lol

Like I said, we did this all the time when I was younger. If you couldn’t get rid of the smell there would be a million unliveable houses out there. If your house is old, somebody smoked in nearly every room.

We’ve done this a few times as well. We have a remediation company that will come in after we’ve done the first phase of clean up and removed all the carpeting etc and use a commercial Ozone generator for a few days.

Good as new! The a fresh coat of paint some new carpeting and Bob’s your uncle.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:

If your house is old, somebody smoked in nearly every room.

My house is 37 years old. Nobody has ever smoked in it.

Yea but you bought it brand new V Tail. lol

Any house built in the 70's and certainly earlier that you aren't the owner of from the git go has probably been smoked in.