I'm in the market for a house and found a great short sale on a really nice home but the listing say it has foundation issues (specifically it says about 6k in foundation repair). That kind of turned me off to the place but my dad doesn't seem to think it's that big of a deal. What do you guys think? Is foundation damage a deal breaker, or worth it if the price is right?
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I agree with Arizona. Moreover, I agree with your ideas. Thanks for sharing useful information with us.
If you really like the house and it's in a nice neighbourhood, put in an offer subject to a home inspection, engineers report and a foundation repair company estimate. If it all goes bad you will be out of pocket for the home inspection and engineers report so that would be in excess of $1,500+ but it would be peanuts compared to owning a house you could never sell.
It makes me question why the seller would not address this issue if it was only $6,000 to fix. I could be way off but it just makes me think it will be a lot more than $6,000.
I agree, you have to get someone who knows what they are talking about to see the foundation before you can do anything. You have to know if the seller's assessment is under or over stated and what is involved in cost and hassle to fix it.
I can tell you the house I have now I got at a reduced price because the previous buyers backed out over the basement. It has some spalling which they felt was dangerous and would cost $50,000 to fix (as estimated by their inspector who I am guessing was either an idiot or was convinced to make a big deal out of it so they could back out of the deal). I knew they were nuts as a lot of the houses have the same problem caused my some dummy painting the concrete with normal paint (it doesn't allow ground moisture to evaporate so it ends up popping off and taking the top layer of concrete with it). It looks like a problem to those who don't know what it is, but reality is it just needs a skim coat for cosmetic reasons (which I just am getting quotes on and it looks like it'll cost a few hundred to have done by a pro). it's not a structural issue at all and the basement has no water or any other problems. If I was up for finishing the basement, I could actually ignore the whole thing and just cover it the same as any other basement reno. So the seller here took a big hit on the price because they didn't know what it was either and got worried about it instead of getting their own inspection done.
Also know there are new systems out that basically take care of all sorts of foundation problems without all the hassle of digging and repouring and basically being a huge job. it depends on what the issues are.
Try and get someone other than a house inspector to take a look. Probably an engineer of some sort or a really good contractor could tell you what it is what.
If the price is right - well to know that you would want an ironclad inspection done that tells you exactly what that cost would be. Now here is the hard part - nobody will likely be able to give that to you.
They can come close, but until they actually start the work they really won't know what other problems might crop up. However if you are aware of that and base your offer with some 'flex space' you might be able to get the seller down to where it doesn't really matter.
Negotiations are on your side if they really want to sell. Just be sure you have a very competent contractor doing the estimate so that you don't end up getting shafted.
I wouldn't touch a house with foundation damage if they gave it to me. You can get into $$$$$$$$ trying to fix things like that. I would get an indepedent inspection and a contractor to look at it and see what they woudl charge you to do it. My guess is it is a huge that is why it is so cheap.