Buying a house with known foundation issues

[yellowstang]

Lyn's niece is looking to buy her first home. She has found one that has known foundation issues, and the seller has a quote to get it fixed ($6700) so they discounted the list price by $6700 and opted to let the buyer get it repaired.

Would you buy a house like this? If she does buy and get t repaired, then sell it several years down the road, will she have to disclose the foundation repair and the homes value be lower than if it never had any issues?

She is calling the repair company tomorrow, to see if they offer a lifetime warranty or whatever, and if it would be transferable if they repaired it.

[talisman]

She will have to disclose it. I would make the sellers fix it. There are a lot of homes in the dfw area with foundation issues, so I don't personally consider it to be a big deal as long as it is fixed. Other people likely have different opinions. Most places do offer a transferable lifetime warranty.

[Unicorn Jeff]

She will have to disclose it. I would make the sellers fix it. There are a lot of homes in the dfw area with foundation issues, so I don't personally consider it to be a big deal as long as it is fixed. Other people likely have different opinions. Most places do offer a transferable lifetime warranty.

X2.... The seller most likely doesn't have that much coin so that's why they're doing that.

[SSMAN]

I would not buy it. If they ever want to sell, it will be a deal breaker for the sale in most cases.

[yellowstang]

So... if the seller fixes it and then she buys it, would she have to disclose it then (when she sells later on), since the issue did not happen, or get repaired under her ownership?

I'm, with you Barry, I would probably walk away, especially if I had to pay to get it fixed. If I bought one with a repaired foundation and it passed a foundation inspection after several years of being repaired, I might feel better about it.

[diablo rojo]

I would not buy it. If they ever want to sell, it will be a deal breaker for the sale in most cases.

See post #2

I sold my house in January 4k above asking, and 8k above market. It had just had foundation repair done in December.

Like Eric said, it's pretty typical in this area, unfortunately.

[yellowstang]

^^^ Good deal!

She's calling the repair company tomorrow, so she'll find out about the warranty they offer, and I'll check if I can find anything good/bad about them with Google.

[white trash wagon]

With slab houses, it's not a question if the has had foundation repair, it's a question of when will it need repairs. A receipt of fresh foundation repair, along with the engineer's, and the certificate of transferable warranty are frankly.... a selling point.

But buyers need to be aware they have only 30 days to do the transfer.

[kobuzz]

Make them fix it first. When they raise the part of the foundation that is sinking you risk breaking any pipes that are in the slab and most foundation places will not cover pipe breakage. I know someone who ended up with broken pipes in three places and had to pay an additional $4500 in repairs.

[yellowstang]

^^^ Good point. Told my wife this and she said they are only offering the discounted price and the new buyer is responsible for repairing it. They will NOT repair it themselves. Probably for this exact reason, LOL.

She'll walk away!

[bcoop]

With slab houses, it's not a question if the has had foundation repair, it's a question of when will it need repairs.

Yep. Good luck finding a house that doesn't have foundation issues. That pretty much restricts you to new houses.

[lincolnboy]

wtf..
ya did not ask the day old question.

[DON SVO]

I know that it is damn near impossible to get financing for a house that fails an inspection for the foundation needing to be repaired.

[Sgt Beavis]

My only issue here is that the Seller isn't doing the repair. That means the repair is all on the buyer. What if $6500 doesn't cover all the repairs? What if the repair is botched?

In my very amateurish opinion I would have the seller make the repair and then have my own engineer validate it. If everything is good, then no problem. I agree with Talisman that a properly repaired foundation has little effect on the value of a home. My only beef is that the seller isn't taking care of it first.

[jewozzy]

I had the foundation on my house fixed when I sold and it became a bonus for the next person because of the lifetime warranty. I used Crowns Foundation repair guys name was Joel 817-455-3999. Was the cheapest and quickest bid I was able to get. Ran me around 800 to get two sections of the house fixed with 10 beams or whatever they're called.