Spring to Action: House Hunting in Marietta, GA

The first house I saw in the winter was being renovated. I did not realize that there was mold until I revisited the house during the latest of spring showers. The second house had roaches so bad I almost threw up in front of the realtor. They weren't there last fall or winter. It is springtime, and I am house hunting in Marietta, GA.

The low interest rates and rock-bottom prices are nothing to sneeze at in the Atlanta area - one seller I know has 95% equity in a million-dollar home and can't refinance the house. One tax-lien property sold for $9,000. It was worth $50,000 and up, depending on who you ask. Not all bargain buys are this good, so I advise all buyers in Marietta, GA or the Atlanta regional area to perform due diligence and buy in the Springtime season.

Why Spring? I've observed the following three reasons:
1. The crazy weather - while it may be fun to laugh at out-of-towners suckered by the hot day into wearing t-shirts on a subsequently freezing night, it is nothing to sneeze at if you're buying a house. These weather fluctuations conveniently bring out the best and worst qualities of the house you are buying. If the pipes aren't properly insulated, you'll find this out in the early spring season when you swing by early in the morning and can't run the water.

2. Springtime is pest time - if you see more than one large roach, or you find tiny little bugs that look like they might be ants but aren't (baby roaches) - you can be sure that you'll be shopping for pest control if you buy that house. Other undesireables are fleas, scorpions (for the Texas buyer more so than the Atlanta area shoppers), snakes, rats, and mice.

3. There is still hope - both mortgage and real estate brokers want to look good, so they are eager to meet whatever quotas they have for both the year and the month as soon as possible. Plus, attitudes are better - winter weather is ending and people are feeling better because warmer days are better for business.

There are seven common things to watch out for:

1. Rats - drop a bag with chocolate in it somewhere and check on it a few days later. I had set down a purse, and it ended up with a huge hole bored straight through... until the chocolate ended. I had stashed a h-u-g-e Hershey's bar into the purse and left the house in bitter disappointment. One of the more tell-tale signs of rats are their droppings. Little soft, black pellets that are no more than a quarter of an inch long. You'll can find them in garages, on window sills, on shelves (near the back), and on furniture. Rats can get as big as cats, they spread diseases, and they can bite you in the middle of the night.

2. Roaches - I spent the night on a friend's living room couch in her apartment and woke up, repeatedly, to a VERY large roach running up my leg. The absolute worst roaches to see are the smaller ones. A friend of mine has been fighting the german cockroaches in her apartment for years. It's really creepy to see them run out of the electrical wall sockets. If the roaches are big, you shouldn't have to fight them too hard, but - buyer beware!

3. Foundation Problems - Are the walls buckling or turning? Does the house have cracked bricks? Then the house could be suffering from one expensive problem. Concretenetwork.com has an excellent short list of symptoms in a small article about this problem. They are better used as a resource decorative concrete or as a referral source. The URL is: http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/foundation_repair/warning_signs.htm

4. Basement Flooding & Leaking - Pill bugs and water bugs were everywhere in the basement of a house I once lived in. The concrete was cracked in a corner of a back room down in the basement, and there was a peculiar smell in the humid air. It dawned on me later that the basement had been leaking. I was picking up a box only to have the bottom fall out from water rot. Marietta, GA has lots of water running along the ground in some areas, so one of the most important inspections that you can make involves basements. Smell the air - if it is damp and odiforous, you may have mold as a result of leaking water or flooding. This problem has the potential to severely affect the future resale value of a house. Atlanta area inspectors that I have spoken have placed emphasis on special mold tests on foreclosure homes due to vindictive homeowners destroying their former homes with deliberate mold infestation. Douglas Pencille wrote a very informative article on this topic, posted on dspinspections.com : http://www.dspinspections.com/basementwater.htm This is a basic guide that new house hunters can use to go fish around for any water problems in the basement.

5. Roof Leakage - you definately want to know if the roof leaks. This is an urgent matter because in Marietta, mold can quickly become a secondary problem to roof leaks. One obvious clue is a large blue tarp covering the roof. Another very obvious clue that makes spring season an ideal inspection season is any leaking of water from the ceilings. If you go up into attic space, you may smell the scent of mold. The Atlanta area spring showers offer one of the best opportunities to discover roof problems.

6. A/C & Heater Failure - I did not test the "brand new" A/C unit. If I had, I would have found out early on that the power line to it was cut. The heat worked great - it was mid-winter and the frigid temperatures were tamed by gas central heating. Be sure to test both A/C and heat so that you are better informed and can make a better descision. There are reasons as to why the Atlanta and Marietta areas are dubbed 'HOTlanta' by tourists. Unless you are a fixer-upper type, test all units and go with the house that works, or arrange for the seller to compensate for anything broken. Buyer Beware: not all sellers are honest, so you are responsible for due diligence when buying a house.

7. Air Leakage - if there is an air current in a closed room in cold weather, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is air leakage. Air leakage from windows uncaulked or without effective storm windows WILL cause your heating bill to skyrocket. My Atlanta-area gas provider billed me 300+ for December 2007. You may have to consider caulking and storm windows for an older home.

Spring weather provides great opportunities to see your potential new house in action against most of the extreme weather conditions available here in Marietta, GA. The best way to inspect is to bring in a professional inspector during weather fluctuations. I found out that a major road drains its water straight down the side of my driveway. This turned out to be a wonderful thing because I will never have to irrigate half of my yard. The grass grows green even in the dead of winter, and I just recently found out that we have a yard full of snacks - a horticulture fan I know just recently told me that my yard is producing wild onions!

One Last Tip - take pictures of the plants that pop up in your yard and see about having local horticultural scientists give you a review. Sometimes people never realize that some plants are very poisonous, and some are edible (chives, rosemary, wild garlic, wild blackberries) and some aren't (foxglove, poison sumac, etc.). For information on Wild Onions vs. Wild Garlic visit an article by professors of Purdue University's Department of Botany and Plant Pathology - URL: http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/3-10-03.html

SOURCES:
1. "Warning Signs of Foundation/Slab Failure", ConcreteNetwork.com
2. Pencille, D. "Basement Water Problems", DSP Structural Consultants
3. Bauman, T., Hardebeck, G., Johnson, W. & Nice, G. (200). "Wild Onions and Wild Garlic - A Nuisance In Wheat Fields And Lawns", Purdue University