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Why you need a feasibility study during escrow

We made an offer on a property in Bellingham Washington. The seller checked ‘no’ on the seller disclosure statement regarding issues with drainage, or if there was anything that would otherwise materially impact construction.

We hired a company to do a feasibility study anyway. Our agent was very persuasive about doing this, smart lady.

Welp, the city said soil conditions were limiting, (the seller later said the soil condition was in winter a 1’ water table), the lot only has a 1,799 sq ft impervious allotment, and there is no remediation possible to the stormwater problem to get a variance — according to the city.

As the bad news rolled in we asked questions to the seller and turns out he knew this before — and provided additional detail.

We declined to buy and asked the seller to pay for the feasibility since he didn’t disclose. No way we would have moved forward if we knew. He’s balking saying he did — maybe with a blank city template about stormwater issues and a 5000 allotment they were supposed to fill out for something else? I wondered why they sent that.

What this means is on a nearly 10,000 sq ft lot you can build a 2 car garage and a 800-900 sq ft footprint house with eaves — and that’s it. This lot is advertised as the place to build the home of your dreams! 😂 It will be back for sale in a few days if this is someone’s dream.

And the seller? They’ll be your next door neighbor.

submitted by /u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1bf7iru/why_you_need_a_feasibility_study_during_escrow/

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