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She closed on the house in March that year. In August, her basement flooded.

Neighbors warned her: “‘That house floods all the time,’� she remembers them saying after she moved in. “And that was the first time I heard it. I said, ‘Are we talking about the same house?’�

“I just started getting a sinking feeling, like, ‘Oh, my goodness. I think I’ve been duped,’� she said. 

Then, three summers ago, a record-shattering rainstorm filled her basement — and her ground floor. And that was it. Rogers knew she couldn't stay.

States across the country are forcing home sellers to disclose when their homes have flooded. But not in Missouri. Here, where homes are flooding and flipping by the dozens, there's nothing in state law that specifically requires sellers to disclose past floods. And experts say homeowners should only expect more floods to come.

“There’s definitely a trend toward disclosure that we’ve seen in the last five or six years,� said Joel Scata, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council who focuses on climate change impacts, such as flooding and extreme weather events. “I think there’s a recognition that flooding is just becoming more severe.�

And with that, he added, is a recognition that people’s biggest investments — their homes — are at risk, upping the chances for financial suffering. On average, just an inch of floodwater can cause $25,000 in damages to a home, Scata said.

Missouri, however, is one of 14 states to receive an “F� grade on the annual “Flood Risk Disclosure Laws Scorecard� from the NRDC.

Missouri requires home sellers to disclose problems with the home being sold. But the disclosure forms rely on the seller’s honesty, experts say. And one of a buyer's only recourses, after purchase, is to file suit against the seller, which is expensive and laborious, the experts say. That all puts the onus of uncovering a house's past on the buyer.

Some, like Rogers, are frustrated that Missouri homebuyers can be left in the dark.

"I just can't believe there aren't any guardrails or something to make sure that prospective buyers are aware of the flood history," she said.

Two months after the 2022 flood, Rogers sold the house for $30,000 to a franchise of HomeVestors of America, a Dallas-based company with franchises that buy and sell “ugly houses,� and that often target desperate homeowners after natural disasters.

“I hated to sell my house,� Rogers said. “I just felt like that was my only option.�

Months later, the home had new paint, new flooring, new appliances, a sump pump in the basement and was back on the market.

Dozens of homes flooded, sold

In July 2022, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ was drenched with just over 9 inches of rain in a 15-hour span, including almost 8 inches in a six-hour burst. More than 220 homes across the metro area were declared condemned, nearly all of them in hard-hit University City.

It's left many homeowners forced to choose: Repair and brace for the next flood as the warming climate produces heavier, more frequent major downpours. Or sell.

A Post-Dispatch examination of sales and home ownership data shows that the cycle reflected by Rogers’ home on Groby Road — flood, condemn, sell — was not unusual: In ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, at least 56 homes that were condemned after flooding that summer have since been sold.

At least 13 sold multiple times.

In fact, according to the analysis, the condemned houses were more than twice as likely to sell than other homes in the region.

And almost one-third of those homes are now owned by limited liability companies — double the number prior to the flood. In some cases, the properties have been purchased by out-of-state entities from across the country.

In University City, entire streets flooded in some neighborhoods.

Rogers' old neighborhood, for instance, is a quiet few blocks of small brick houses and big trees. But it's just downstream from the sprawling parking lots of Olive Boulevard and just feet from the River Des Peres itself. Here, dozens of homes flooded. Some remain empty, with faded bits of condemnation signage lingering on doorways. Others have boomeranged back from blight and vacancy.

Almost two miles downstream, on Vernon and Dartmouth avenues, another several dozen houses flooded.  

A few residents in those neighborhoods said they were from the area and knew it flooded, or were told by their real estate agents. Others said they had no idea it flooded so much, or didn’t learn about it until they bought their homes and were shopping for insurance.

Many said they were renters — and there are no requirements in Missouri for them to be told of their dwelling’s flood history — who said they didn't know, were too new to the area to know, didn't appear to understand the question, or didn't want to talk about it.

Many said they didn't speak English.

Only on a few rare occasions did residents say they had clear knowledge of their home’s flood history before moving in.

Buyer beware

In Missouri, experts say there are very few things that must be disclosed about properties for sale. Lead is one exception, thanks to federal policy. And the state requires that both property sellers and landlords disclose if a property “is or was used as a site for methamphetamine production.�

Otherwise, state law also obligates real estate agents to disclose “adverse material facts actually known or that should have been known.� But it states that sellers’ or landlords’ agents don’t need to conduct their own independent investigation of a given property nor “verify the accuracy or completeness of any statement� made by a client or inspector.

“We don’t have to do deep digging,� said Tina Siebert, a local real estate agent with Redkey Realty Leaders. “But if we know about it, we need to share that information.�

Sometimes sellers truly don’t know the nuances of a home’s history — when, for instance, it belonged to a relative or is an investment property they haven’t lived in — which could make it hard to have a “hard and fast� disclosure rule, she said.

Siebert said that she strongly encourages sellers to disclose as much information as they know. In cases when information is lacking, she said buyers can back out of a contract if they learn a property is in a 100-year floodplain, even after making an offer.

In practice, though, the homeowners — not the real estate agents — are ultimately the ones who fill out disclosure forms for a house that’s on the market, said Joe Hostman, a local real estate agent for Re/Max Results. While agents must then answer truthfully if asked about certain problems, homeowners are financially “kind of incentivized not to tell the truth,� he said.

“It’s exceptionally backwards,� Hostman said. “It’s really a loose system that just relies on the seller being a good person.�

Disclosure forms often don't provide much information on flooding at all, he said. When they do, he recommends taking it with “an extreme grain of salt.�

Moreover, he said, defining terms in such disclosures can be difficult. “Like, is two inches of water a flood? ... Is a broken water pipe a flood?�

Hostman suggests asking home sellers for insurance claims, if possible.

He also suggests a thorough examination of a home's basement and foundation — fueling his distrust in finished basements.

“They hide everything important,� he said. “You do not know what’s going on behind that wall.�

Lessons from flood victims

Neither HomeVestors nor the home’s current owner responded to requests for comment.

Rogers now lives in Ballwin, in a home away from high-risk flood zones. “I just decided not to be anywhere near a floodplain if I could help it,� she said.

Other local flood victims have taken similar, hard-earned lessons to heart in their searches for new homes.

Hannah Briick lives on Wilson Avenue in University City, where two residents died in flooding in 2008, and where flood-prone homes along one entire side of the street were later bought out and replaced by a grassy park.

The home owned by Briick and her husband flooded in 2022, days before they were set to close on selling it.

Now they feel trapped. They want to sell their home, but not for cheap. They hope they might, too, land a buyout.

But when the couple sees listings for different homes that feature plenty of upgrades, especially for basement appliances like new water heaters, they see them as warning signs.

“We’re like, ‘Nope!,’� she said. “‘We know what you’re hiding. We know why that was replaced.’�

They also do their own sleuthing with the naked eye, looking carefully for signs of water damage when they visit a home that’s for sale.

“It’s a lot of effort,� Briick said.