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House hunting

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MattP

MattP

Jedi Knight
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This evening before work I looked at a house that seemed a little low for the market. 2 story 4 bed 2 bath with a second 3 bed 1 bath house in the back yard. It was located on the edge of the Ft. Smith historic district, in a really nice neighborhood. It was 45,000 USD with a 4500 dollar repair bonus for a full price bid. Odd.

The place looked nice enough from the front, just a little paint here and there. Then around back there is this blacked area around some of the windows.

"What happened there?"
"That was where the Meth lab blew up."
shocked.gif


I didn't even look inside. I can swing a hammer but a hazardous waste site I can do without.
 
I've heard that's getting to be a big problem.

People will rent your house and grow drugs in it, they prey in particular on rentals where the landlord doesn't live in the city. By the time you get the house back (usually after they've been busted) it's so trashed that it's virtually un-repairable.

Trying to screen for bad looking characters? That won't work... they always send a clean cut average looking person as a middle man to sign the rental lease.
 
If that were in a decent neighborhood where I live and the house was decent, I'd easily go over $150,000 for it black spot and all. I'm sure the police will keep an eye on it now!...that's a plus.

My current house, our starter house when I first got out of school, a 4 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath, 1800 sq/ft ranch on a .25 acre lot would go for around $115,000, and that's with the single car garage which is now the bain of my existence.

Y'know, a little to my west, in the grand old town of Gary, IN, I could pick up houses all day long for between 8,000 and 20,000...but I don't think I would want to llive in them.

[ 02-27-2004: Message edited by: lawguy ]</p>
 
In this area, fixed up, the house could easily tip the scales at 200,000. But I read online that major cleanup of a major methlab could run 150000. That doesn't leave a lot of breathing room to take out the apartment divisions, repair the other "minor" problems and so forth. On the other hand, it could have been the first time they cooked Meth and that is how they blew it up. More gamble than I am willing to take.
 
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