A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #4)(5)

Chase grinned. “Right. Will be interesting to see what awaits inside.”



At first glance, the interior of the house didn’t seem too bad. It obviously hadn’t been lived in for some time.

“Do you know when someone last lived here?” Beth asked.

“It’s been a few years. The owners bought it as a summer home, but they live in New York and haven’t made it here for the past two seasons. They were thinking about renting it out, but they know it needs some work and just didn’t want to deal. My brother knows the owner somewhat. They went to school together. They are pretty motivated for a quick sale now.”

That was somewhat reassuring to hear that Lauren, or her brother, personally knew the owners. A friend of Beth’s had found herself in a nightmare situation in Texas when she and her boyfriend had bought a house that was also from motivated sellers and they quickly learned that there were some major issues that hadn’t been disclosed, like tree vines growing into the septic that was a disaster to fix—and Texas was a buyer beware state, so even though they took them to court, they really had no recourse and lost quite a bit of money,

Lauren led them through the house. It had three bedrooms, all good sized, and the master bedroom had its own bathroom. There was another bath and a half, though they were both really dated and downright ugly.

“We’ll have to totally gut and redo all the bathrooms,” Beth said, and Chase nodded as he made note of it on his iPad. He filled out an estimate form as they went through the house, so they’d have it to refer to later as a ballpark idea of what they’d be looking at for costs.

The kitchen was also going to need a total over-haul. Everyone these days wanted white kitchens, and this one was dark wood with avocado green appliances. Chase made a face when he saw them and looked at Lauren.

“When was this built?”

She glanced at her data sheet. “1972.”

He laughed. “That’s what I figured. At least there’s no shag carpet.” The floors were all hard wood but they were in poor shape, full of scratches in different areas. Beth guessed that whoever had lived here had a dog. And it looked like the sealing on the floors hadn’t ever been redone. The floors were swollen in spots and uneven.

“We’ll have to replace the floors. It looks like they had some water damage at one point.”

The living room was a big room, with a fireplace, but it was closed off from the kitchen. It was the older style home where all the rooms were closed off. Buyers these days all wanted open concept.

Chase assessed where the walls were. “It doesn’t look like this one is load bearing, which is a good thing. We can knock this down and open up the living room to the kitchen and add a big island here, with a few stools.”

Beth nodded. “Good, I was hoping you’d say we could do that. A good island makes the kitchen.”

“I sold a gorgeous one last month,” Lauren said. “The island was oversized and looked like it was marble, but it was one of those quartz countertops that are more durable. It made the kitchen look stunning.”

Beth looked at Chase. “We could do something like that here.”

“We could.” Chase walked into the next room, which was meant to be a den or an office and stopped in his tracks. “It smells like something died in here.”

Beth followed him into the room, and her eyes immediately started to water. “It does. What do you think it is?”

Chase walked all around the room and stopped in front of a small closet. He leaned in and took a good look. “I think I found the problem. There’s a small door here that goes to a crawl space. A squirrel or something might have gotten stuck.”

“That’s disgusting.” Lauren wrinkled her nose and quickly left the room. “I can call the owners and tell them to get someone out here to investigate and exterminate or whatever they need to do. But, that might take a little time and more people might get wind of the property. Right now, you’re the only ones that have seen it.”

“Give us a minute,” Chase said and pulled Beth aside.

“What do you think?”

“Aside from the smelly closet, it’s actually better than I thought it would be. It looks like your biggest expense will be the roof?”

Chase nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. We can use our credit line to make a cash offer today and close in a few weeks. And I could line up an exterminator to clear up the closet issue so it’s done before we start work.”

“I think if we could get this house, it could be an awesome flip.” Beth hoped that a close-to-asking-price offer could do it.

“Okay, we’re ready to make an offer. We’ll do five thousand under asking, as we’ll have to get that dead smell situation cleared up before we do anything else. But we can pay cash and close in two weeks. I can give you a check for the deposit now.”

Lauren looked pleased. “I think that’s an excellent offer and I’m assuming you’d want to get someone in to exterminate before we close?”

Chase nodded. “Ideally, yes. The longer that sits, the worse the smell will be.” He wrote out a check and handed it to her.

“Great. Thanks. Let’s get this offer written up and hopefully we’ll have a fast answer. I know he’s looking to get this done ASAP.”