Here’s another article regarding concrete foundation repair and real estate issues. Thanks to Damion Rutherford of e-foundation repair.
Foundation cracks and settlement problems are viewed as serious defect to a home. Most homeowners realize this and simply will not purchase a home unless proper repairs are made.
In addition, many lending venues (FHA,VA,Conventional) simply will not lend on a home with these defects.
“It’s just a little crack. No big deal”. If only this were the case.
Many realtors struggle with this issue when trying to move a house off the market. The buyer will not buy unless it’s fixed (if they’ll buy at all), the seller doesn’t want to invest the money to correct the problem, and the realtor is stuck in the middle.
Sometimes, a homeowner will try to patch and cover up the problem to avoid losing value in the home. Depending on the extent of the damage, this sometimes does work.
When the problem does become worse, the situation turns into a nightmare. Now, the home inspector, the realtor, the buyer, the seller, the lawyers, all have to come to an agreement.
This nightmare normally turns into a lot of finger pointing, but does nothing to help the buyer or seller.If you are looking to sell your home, I would HIGHLY recommend a foundation repair specialist examine any cracks or settlement problems you have noticed.
This way, you’ll have a written estimate to either A) correct the problem and restore the asking value of your home,or B) provide to the buyer so they can have the amount deducted from the asking price.
Foundation Repair Newsletter issue #76 – September 18, 2002
technorati tags:concrete, Foundation, Repair
If a home is listed at $175k, then seller discloses to me that $14k worth of foundation issues have been found and documented. They say the home was appraised at $215k…didn’t say when.
So if we want the repair amounts (or a portion of them) deducted from the list, is that fair? Or will they claim it has already been deducted? I suppose finding out when it was actually appraised would be helpful. If it was appraised at 215,000 before the foundation report was made, I may have room to negotiate to bring the asking price down to at least $170 and cover the other $8k myself.
Does this sound about right?
Erica,
I think you are in the right. You need to figure the cost of upcoming foundation repair into your offer. If you get the house and go ahead with foundation work, be sure and get at least three bids from different foundation companies.
Good Luck!
Digger