Buying a flooded home..... appraisal?

**JasonO131** · 06-19-2008, 06:23 AM

About 2 weeks ago we made an offer on a house, less than the appraisal, and it was accepted. Last week the whole town the house was in flooded. This house is not on a flood plain, in Iowa everywhere got flooded, but ended up with about 4 feet of water in the half finished basement. The current owners are in the process of gutting the whole basement, ceiling included even though it wasn't touched by water. Replacing furnace and water heater as well. I've done research on clean up and we will be involved in supervising that so I'm not as concerned about that. I am concerned with property value however. We are having another appraisal done when the repairs are made, how big of a difference will we see?

**VancouverWa** · 06-19-2008, 10:21 AM

I'm not an appraiser, but I can't imagine it changing too much. Since the appraisal will include the same recent sales.
I would be concerned with your home owners issurance going way, way up.
Was this a biblical flood? A 100 year flood? A 500 year flood? A Levee failure?

I guess most importantly will it happen again..

Best of Luck

**Mike Taylor** · 06-19-2008, 10:25 AM

I agree...I can't see it changing the value of the home. Can you get flood insurance on the property in case it does happen again?

**JasonO131** · 06-19-2008, 10:31 AM

We are in the process of getting a quote for flood insurance from our guy to see what that will be and what the policy will actually cover, we've heard some folks policies are only covering cleanup. This flood was the worst in history as far as I know. The house we are considering is not on the flood plain like I said and the house actually sits on higher ground than all the other houses in the development. We will play a big part in making sure the actual cleanup goes at it should to prevent mold but some family have told us we shouldn't even consider buying it now because they believe property values will drop like a rock and we were kind of skeptical of that.

**JasonO131** · 06-19-2008, 10:34 AM

As far as it happening again...... if it happened once it could happen again I guess but this was an unusally bad flood and I think the odds of it happening again would be pretty slim.

**minnesota-mls** · 06-23-2008, 07:35 PM

You really should not see a huge difference in appraised value. The value is determined by comparing the home to others in the same MLS Area, same square footage, year build, etc. Nothing can change those items really.

**Carlidin** · 06-24-2008, 09:03 AM

If it was me I would be very leery of purchasing...once it has flooded it could happen again. We had a 100 year flood in 1993 and here 15 years later it is happening again. Be sure to get that flood insurance.

**malikiqbal** · 06-24-2008, 02:33 PM

We had the same situation and when we did the appraisal it came back higher because everything was old when submitted an offer but after replacing most of the stuff appraisal came back higher.

**mWoods** · 12-10-2009, 11:13 AM

Technically the appraisal should come back in the same range. Are you familiar with the area? If so you should be able to tell if this was a uncommon or common occurrence. Your post does not sound as if you are terribly upset by this so my guess is you're familiar and willing to deal if it were to ever happen again. Just think, you'll have a new basement to enjoy.