Looking for a home in the $80k range in the Midwest. Would like 1200 - 1500 square feet with a minimum 2 car garage. A decent sized lot would be a nice bonus.
Recently looked at a place that is not on the market yet. It's a Limestone built in 1951, sits on .56 acres and has 1 car attached and 2 car detached garages only a few blocks from the busy part of town. Trulia estimates it's value at $78k so I was thinking I would hit the jackpot on my first try.
Wrong.
They guy had been renting it to his son, and he treated it like a rental. First thing I noticed was a few blocks of limestone on the front were "crumbling". There was a pile of dust under them as if someone were rubbing it with sandpaper. There was a small deck in the back yard that had a structure built over it that at one time had a retractable cloth cover and ceiling fan. The cloth was gone and the blades for the ceiling fan were broken off. A privacy fence surrounds the entire back yard which gave the son the opportunity to skip on mowing for apparently a couple years. The grass was more than waist high but I noticed a patch in the middle with cattails. "Yeah, that's a retention pond".

This is two blocks from the busiest road in a city of 70,000 in the middle of town and there's a retention pond? Apparently there are no storm sewers in the neighborhood. Red flag number one.
Once inside the appliances were dated, 60's or 70's style. Not a big deal since they can be replaced easily. The floors are either white tile with grout or original hardwood which I like. The second issue came up when I noticed there was a dip in the floor near the back of the house, and it wasn't a small area. It included half a bedroom and the whole bathroom (which, BTW, had a nasty looking de-laminated cast iron tub). The house is on a crawlspace which I hate. He said he cut channels in the crawl space to a sump pump which pumped water out to the road. You would run this sump pump by plugging in this cord that is sticking out of a hatch in the master bedroom's closet. This place has been unoccupied for about 4-5 months and it's been rainy as hell without this thing being plugged in, I can only imagine how damp it is and how much mold / wood damage there is. Red flag number two.
Finally I ask how much. $85,000.

No way this place is worth anywhere near that much. Everything I saw pointed to moisture issues. I would be reluctant to buy it at $60k with all the issues it has. To give you an idea what prices are like around here, a friend of mine bought a 1,200 sq. ft. house that was built in 2005 with a two car garage in a much more affluent area for only $25k more than what this guy was asking.