Tell me about buying drug houses from owner/ somebody?

[look 171]

Looking at a house that's boarded up due to a chemical explosion. This is in a lower middle class neighborhood (still around 300-350K for a little house). According to the neighbors, its been boarded up for 6 months. what's involve in terms of cleaning and getting it back to normal. The neighborhood will support new ownership. If fixed up and design well, it will sell within a week. Anyone have any suggestions? Who was the guy in the sawed off shot gun thread?

[porsche4life]

Need to find out the cause... If meth, you better plan on leveling it...

[ewave]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Need to find out the cause... If meth, you better plan on leveling it...

Wow- You sure talk like you are an expert! What exact toxic chemicals do you think would still remain after 6 months? Not exactly an air tight structure.

[Eric Coffey]

Besides fixing it up and making "normal" repairs, you will likely have to (by law) remediate any meth/chemical residue to "habitable" levels. This can be expensive if the house is permeated with meth. Do your homework/due-diligence and be careful!

[pwd72s]

Definitely...learn the cost of the mandated by government "fixes". After penciling these in, Sid could very well be right. Might be cheaper to level it, but even then there would/could be rules on getting rid of the "hazardous waste".

[onlycafe]

Originally Posted by look 171

Who was the guy in the sawed off shot gun thread?

i think that was fastfredracing.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by ewave

Wow- You sure talk like you are an expert! What exact toxic chemicals do you think would still remain after 6 months? Not exactly an air tight structure.

Alright hot shot, then why don't you tell us why it wouldn't need leveled.

If they were cooking meth in there, the fumes will be in the carpet, and wall board, at a minimum. Meth is BAD, BAD news, and if there was an explosion, combined with the remediation of the chemicals, you might as well start new.

[svandamme]

Meth cooking = total Hazmat affaire.
those who know about it won't even go near it without protective gear.

Some fun reading material if you need convincing.

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/methlabfaq.pdf

[Hugo930]

We looked at a small apartment complex that had a similar issue. To be honest, I couldn't really get a straight answer whether we needed to have a contractor with a specific license to fix it up or if we could fix it through our own channels. Structure was built after 78.

Someone bought it while we were doing our due diligence. It was a sweet deal but without knowledge nor guidance from the city, who knows.

[LWJ]

Meth is bad. I wouldn't consider it due to the clean up.

A pot house? Probably a great buy.

Just my opinion.
Larry

[rusnak]

+1 totally agree on the Meth avoidance.

I would NOT buy a house that was used as a meth lab.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by look 171

This is in a lower middle class neighborhood (still around 300-350K for a little house).

I'm still having a hard time getting around this... 350K for a small house in a lower middle class neighborhood ??

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by ewave

Wow- You sure talk like you are an expert! What exact toxic chemicals do you think would still remain after 6 months? Not exactly an air tight structure.

The city I worked for once required all new sheetrock, carpeting, and cabinets before the house could be inhabited again....Poor landlord had no idea it was a Meth house....

[look 171]

It will be gutted down to the sub floor. We do that to most of our flip properties.

I am worry about the city or whatever officials that will or can stop us beside gutting the inside.

[Hugo930]

That's all fairly inexpensive to remove/replace...I would imagine that insulation should be replaced as well.

Outside of the hysterics and captain obvious remarks, I'd love to learn more about the topic.

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

The city I worked for once required all new sheetrock, carpeting, and cabinets before the house could be inhabited again....Poor landlord had no idea it was a Meth house....

[Hugo930]

That was my concern as well. Also, if you have to use specific subs for the job, it could get very expensive.

Originally Posted by look 171

It will be gutted down to the sub floor. We do that to most of our flip properties.

I am worry about the city or whatever officials that will or can stop us beside gutting the inside.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by 74-911

I'm still having a hard time getting around this... 350K for a small house in a lower middle class neighborhood ??

Working on one similar for the kid of an old client located about two block from there. That's how I found out about this one. My client's is a 3 bed 1 bath that need lots of work. People were fighting over it. He paid 330k for it. 1200sq'. Yep, nuts isn't it?

[aigel]

If there was an explosion you can be pretty sure it was a meth lab and not a pot growing operation. There is a reason nobody picked up the house after 6 months - you will need a contractor that is licensed to clean this up. It will be tough to estimate the cost before buying the structure. Here the information and regulations for CA. Needless to say, CA is one of the states that takes hazardous waste and exposure to hazardous chemicals very seriously.

Methamphetamine Drug Lab Cleanup Program

You can't even buy this assuming it is worth only the lot. Your cost to dispose of the waste and the possibility of having to excavate soil make even that tough to calculate ...

I guess it would really take an expert to buy this. Someone that is a certified cleanup contractor, has access to the testing for contamination levels, can test before buying and has a clear idea what disposal of the contaminated materials will cost.

I have read that some of these houses are burnt down in controlled burns. Not sure if that's legal in CA.

G

[andrew15]

My wife works as an underwriter up here and occasionally her company repos a grow op / drug lab house. It seems that to make it right and get it on the market to recoup their money, they have to sink in an amazing amount of capital and work.

From my very limited experience, remidating a grow op would be easier than a meth lab.

A grow op is mostly mould eradication and getting the electrical sorted - both can be pretty expensive, but its's usually limited to the house structure itself.

A meth lab is like inheriting a mini toxic waste dump and you can be looking at an environmental rehab situation involving soil disposal and replacement if chemicals were dumped in the backyard as well as removing contaminated parts of the house. It can get really expensive, really quickly.

In short do your due dilligence with local authorities - it could easily turn into the most expensive cheap house you have ever seen.

AM

[look 171]

Originally Posted by andrew15

My wife works as an underwriter up here and occasionally her company repos a grow op / drug lab house. It seems that to make it right and get it on the market to recoup their money, they have to sink in an amazing amount of capital and work.

From my very limited experience, remidating a grow op would be easier than a meth lab.

A grow op is mostly mould eradication and getting the electrical sorted - both can be pretty expensive, but its's usually limited to the house structure itself.

A meth lab is like inheriting a mini toxic waste dump and you can be looking at an environmental rehab situation involving soil disposal and replacement if chemicals were dumped in the backyard as well as removing contaminated parts of the house. It can get really expensive, really quickly.

In short do your due dilligence with local authorities - it could easily turn into the most expensive cheap house you have ever seen.

AM

Getting into toxic soil clean up Is what I was trying to stay the heck away from. I have no experience dealing with that. Electrical and plumbing will go and that's not an issue. We can do that in house all day long at a fraction of the cost.