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I visited a three-story (plus cellar) brownstone for sale. It sorely needs a gut renovation, and is priced accordingly.

(Asking price is 1.1M. The selling prices of post-reno comps are in the 1.6M to 1.7M range.)

To my eye, the exterior walls look okay.
The interior, however, is a wreck.

My concerns involve the roof and the electricity.

It looks like part of the roof is collapsing.

In the master bedroom (on the top floor) there is a hole in the ceiling, two feet in diameter. You can’t see through to the sky, but you can see that the ceiling is rotting.

Toward the middle of that same room, not far from the hole in the ceiling, there’s a home-made, impromptu, floor-to-ceiling support beam, made of cardboard boxes piled on top of a home exercise machine (!) which seems to be holding up part of the ceiling.

There are a couple of garbage cans in the master bedroom to catch the water when it rains.

Although most of the water damage seems to be in the master bedroom, there are additional water stains in other parts of the building, both on walls and on ceilings.

The view from the backyard shows some of the roof sagging over the back of the building.

As to the electricity, it was non-functioning in much of the brownstone. The realtor had to use a flashlight to show us around.

Does anyone have any thoughts about whether banks would be willing to provide a mortgage for a place like this?

Or, would banks consider the building to be unhabitable, and deny a mortgage?

I’d rather not make an offer and hire an inspector if I’d just be wasting my time and money.

Does anyone have any additional thoughts?

Thanks!