Never buy these types of houses in Alaska! | Moving to Alaska

Everybody knows there are certain houses you just should not really approach, and today we're going to be talking about what those houses are here in Alaska. My name is Jamin Gerker. I'm an associate real estate broker in the state of Alaska. My mission, as always, is to help you to build an intentional and significant legacy for yourself and your family by coaching in real estate. And the purpose of today's video is to really kind of talk about the types of houses you should really never consider purchasing. And I'm sure this is going to be a little triggering for some of you. I'm sure there's going to be some horror stories in the comments section, so do make sure if you have one of those, do make sure you go throw those down below. I'd love to hear kind of what other houses you can think of that you really shouldn't approach. But before we get started, though, do make sure you give this video a like, subscribe, do all that good stuff. We are getting close to about 10,000 subscribers on the channel, and that is a huge milestone. So if you can do me a solid and make sure you subscribe, I would be deeply indebted to you. Now, without further ado, let's go and jump into today's video talking about the type of properties you should avoid. Now, the type of property where I am probably going to avoid it if it was me purchasing it is going to be the type of property where the seller is avoiding disclosing material facts. And this is really an important one. And this is a seller where they're trying to like tell half-truths, or they're trying to hide something about the property, like there's issues with the roof leaking, or there's something wrong with the foundation. And sellers that are just trying to keep that close to the vest and not tell anybody, or trying to kind of tell it but not fully give you all the information, those are going to be houses where you need to do a complete 180 and avoid it entirely. Because that person is going to go to court, and you want to make sure you're not having to go along with them. Whether you're taking them there, or they're dragging you into court for some other reason. So just avoid those like the plague. Now, the next type of property you should probably avoid, I'll give you some caveats as soon as we're done with this one, so it's not completely black and white. But for me personally, I'm going to avoid properties that are sitting right on a fast-moving river. So if I'm sitting on a river where it is losing a ton of soil on a regular basis just because the river is moving so quickly, I'm going to be a little hesitant to purchase any property there just because in Alaska there's no there's no compensation for that property that you're losing. It's just gone. You're not losing like we'll say about five feet of waterfront like on a on every like two or three years, and then you just get a couple more feet you know every couple years somewhere else. No, it's just gone. And you know for that reason you really have to think about that when you're considering these properties that are riverfront, especially if it's a fast-moving river, and that is just something that you just make peace with. And some people are perfectly fine with that. You know it's that's perfectly fine if that's where you're at. You know we just know that the soil is eroding here right along the bank. We're going to build the structure a little further back, and that is just going to be okay. You know if it's a big enough lot, sure I'd be willing to deal with that. If it's like a quarter acre, and it's a fast-moving river, and I'm losing like we'll say a foot every year or something like that gets to be a little concerning. So you just have to look at the specific scenario if the soil erosion is not a big deal to you. Great property, and you get to be riverfront, and that's really cool too. But just know what you're getting. Another type of property I am usually pretty hesitant to purchase if it were me personally are going to be properties that are right on a busy thoroughfare area in an area that has a lot of development and a lot of people moving into it. The reason I am very hesitant is just because there's going to be a lot of development going on, more people coming into the area, and that means that road is probably going to get broadened out. And for those of you who don't know, imminent domain means that if it's in the best interest of the entire community, the powers that be can actually just broaden that road. And if your property is right there blocking the way, they are just going to take it. I mean, they're going to compensate you a certain amount, but even with that, if they take a certain percentage of like let's say that the leach field and septic tank and all that, then they just they take the entire property. You are compensated, but it's also a bit of a headache. So for me personally, I would really like to avoid properties that are right on busy thoroughfare roads in developing areas. All right, you know what? This one's a bit of a no-brainer, but if the property is too big for you and your family, you should not buy it, especially in Alaska, because you're gonna have to pay to keep that thing heated and the utilities are gonna be higher. And so for that reason, if the property is too big, don't buy it. Like that's pretty straightforward. All right, let's go and take a break real quick here. For those who've been watching for a bit, you do know that I host a podcast called the Alaskan Journey Podcast, where I interview people who've recently moved up to Alaska and we go into questions like what made you decide to pick this specific area that you're living in now? You know, what do you think about it? What was it like driving on the Alcan? And a bunch of other questions that are really useful for those of you who are considering moving up to Alaska. So if that's something that would benefit you, do make sure you check out the link to that podcast in the description section down below. And yeah, I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to see you there. Now let's go and finish up today's video. Now for this next one, I actually have an anecdotal story to go along with it, and that is properties that have a leak in the property, whether it's big or small, that the seller has just ignored over the years. So I helped some buyers purchase a property. I'm not going to name the area, but we purchased a property in an area where you would not expect to see this kind of negligence on the part of the owner. The seller knew there had been a little bit of a leak under the bathtub for a number of years, just didn't really do anything about it, just didn't really care about it. And what ended up happening though, is there was so much water damage because the water had seeped down and started to really deteriorate the structural integrity of some beams and everything that were actually structural and supportive, that they ended up having to take a big section of that house off just to go and do all the repairs that needed to be done. And then they had to install like an all-new like shower pan, bathroom, and like everything else there, and it was a huge pain to take care of. So for me personally, if I know there's been a leak for years, whether it's big or small, and the seller has just kind of ignored it, I'm gonna really think twice about it, because I know there's probably gonna be a lot of damage that the seller might not be trying to hide anything. But just because I know that there's been so much, there's probably been a lot of damage done, and whether they know it or not doesn't really matter, because it's still there and it's still gonna have to be taken care of, whether that's us or them. And that's a situation I'd kind of like to avoid if we could. I feel like about 95% of people are gonna be in agreement with me on this one, but if a property is haunted, that is definitely not a property that I see as being on the top of my wish list. Yeah, if it's haunted, I'm gonna be a little... I mean, if you want help, sure, but just know what you're getting into. I've heard of a number of homes in this area. Maybe I'll make a separate video as we get a little bit closer to Halloween, kind of talking about the haunted homes in the area. Oh, you know what? Actually, that'd be a great video. You know what? We're gonna do that video as we get a little bit closer to the Halloween time. But haunted homes, yeah, we've all seen like the movies and it's like it's all fun and games until, you know, you're trying to go to sleep and you got weird stuff happening. So for that reason, I kind of avoid haunted homes if I possibly can. But I don't know. You might be a weirdo. You might really like that. So something for everybody, I guess. Now, another type of house I am probably going to avoid, well, I guess it kind of depends, but these are going to be another type of house I'm probably going to avoid. And it's about what you can and can't do with the property. And again, this is just like more zoning, more regulations coming in and saying, you know, hey, you know, no more tire shops right in the middle of the residential area. You know, that's all fine and good. If there's something coming in, it says you can't park RVs on the side of your house or you can only have like, you know, one dog or one cat or something like that. For me, that starts becoming a little draconian. So as we're reviewing like any resale certificates, anything like that for associations or CC&Rs into a specific area, I'm probably going to be reading those and making sure they haven't been updated recently. And if they have, just making sure that there's nothing in there that would prevent me from using the property in the way that I intend to use it. Last but not least, if the property is not well adapted to the area in the environment in which it's built, I'm probably going to avoid it. Okay. If you are used to homes in Texas, you know that a lot of them have brick, for example, and might not be a whole lot of insulation. And that is just not going to fly if you're somewhere like Alaska. So for that reason, you really want to try to make sure that if there's a house that looks really out of place and it just doesn't look like a lot of other homes, anything else you've ever seen, that can be great. And you've just found a really unique little gem, or it could be a property that's not well adjusted to the environment in which it resides. And so you need to really make sure that you kind of understand which of those two it is. It could be a gem or it could be a complete lemon, and you just got to determine which one of those it is. So that has been my video talking about the homes that I personally wouldn't pursue, but everyone's a little bit different. So, you know, go ahead and put down in the comment section any other homes you would personally avoid if you were looking at purchasing in the near future. But thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.