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This is the story of how I got tricked by malicious criminals into buying a house that had been illegally remodeled to cover up multiple building code violations. 50% of the house is unusable, and will require as much as $100,000 in repairs to undo the faulty work.

Yes, the home was inspected before it was purchased, and the inspector did find some problems as expected. But most of the problems described below were cleverly hidden behind finished drywall, carpeting, and concrete where the inspector couldn't see them. All of this was done intentionally by the house "flipper" and remodeler to turn a profit on a house that is riddled with code violations.

It just seems so boring! Especially since I am not really buying a house but just window shopping!

Trust me, if you seriously start looking, you'll go from "Oh these carpets." to "Okay, when was the electrical panel updated and how new is the furnace?" pretty fast. Also, at least in Canada, your insurance might require you to upgrade any of those elements before you can be insured, and often mortgages won't be approved without proof of insurability.

After reading TOm's link, I think I may be renting forever. Oh my god. I think I would die if that happened to me. It probably wouldn't because I like original looking things, so I would be much more likely to be beset with problems from things just being too old rather than being flipped, but still.

It's one reason I want to move out of this house into an apartment building.

But I do want this house: It is only $46,000.

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Jebus.

That is adorable, Sophia. I don't think you could get anything other that a crappy condo in a senior community for that kind of money here.

Holy gleeble. Was it a meth lab? Is the housing market that bad in Rochester?

That's about $60/sq ft. In my neighborhood, apartments can sell for over $1200/sq ft, i.e. twenty times the price.

I'm on Tumblr, but at this point I think the whole world knows I'm on Tumblr.

And in re: you, Jilli, one of my oldest friends also follows you, and I don't think she knows that I know you. Which is a little weird. The Internet, man.

Clearly you have not been watching enough HGTV. Don't you know knob and tube wiring is a SCOURGE that cannot be known until you open walls and have to change your whole plan??

And it will cost over half the budget! There goes the new kitchen!

But I do want this house: It is only $46,000.

Good heavens. That's lovely. It will probably need some updating, but for that price? That's a steal.

At some point, when my mother dies, I think I am going to have to deal with her stuff, my grandmas stuff, my grandpas stuff and my stuff from high school and college.

I feel ya. That's exactly what my sister and I had to do when my mom died. She'd been living most of her life in her parents' house, the house where she (and we) grew up. It was stuffed full of her stuff, her mom and dad's stuff, our old stuff, her late husband's stuff, her uncle's stuff ("he never married, you know..."), and stuff from people who'd lived there in the Depression and just left stuff there when they moved on. (There were enough people living in our house in the Depression that one bedroom became the "women's bedroom" and one the "men's bedroom".) We got rid of tons of it and my sister's huge attic is still full. Anyone want a trunk full of clothes from the 1920s?