It’s an age-old question: should you do a major home renovation or repair when your intention is to sell the home in the near future? In this episode, Adam explains why it’s a good idea to address basement crack repair issues before they end up stopping a home sale dead.
Narrator: It's time once again for the Crackman podcast, hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I'm Darren Kincaid and I'm here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam has 20 years of experience in the construction industry and as a civil engineer is A1 Foundation's resident engineer on staff, solving a plethora of unique foundation problems every day. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation's valuable insight will help avert the disaster of a flooded basement, health problems due to water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment, your home. The topic of today's podcast: Should you fix all of your basement cracks before a home sale or pass the repair onto the new owner?
Narrator: So Adam, it's kind of an age-old question. Should you do a major home renovation or repair project when your intention is to sell the home in the near future?
Adam: Yeah, this is one of those ones that's tough, and I always offer guidance for people. And I know that, you know, when you hire a realtor, they're going to do the same thing, right? They're going to tell you, "Here's your laundry list of things that you need to do to make your home the most sellable home possible, given your budget and what you're trying to make from it."
And some of those lists can be overwhelming, and some of them can be like, "I don't understand why I'm doing this because it's never been a problem for me, but it could be a problem for somebody else."
And part of that is the unfun stuff of doing foundation repairs. Why is a foundation repair necessary? Maybe it's never really been an issue, quote-unquote, for you for 5, 10, 20, 30 years, but why is it important that you need to do it now?
Well, unfortunately, your opinion doesn't matter when it comes to a buyer, home inspector, or an appraiser. Whether or not it was a problem for you is relevant when you own the house. Their influence has many different ways though.
We had a great example for a house in Worcester. It was a newer home. I would say it was probably built somewhere around the 2000 time frame, with a concrete foundation.
We had a big rainstorm come in. They had the house up for sale, and they had a little trickle of water come through one little spot in the foundation on a foundation crack.
So, they hired us. We went out there, we took care of it, and as part of the, "Hey, let's just look around, make sure there's nothing else for you guys that you need to be aware of," service that we do, there was another crack that we identified as, "Hey, this is here. You might want to think about repairing this because when you're in there, one's repaired, one is not. One is covered under a warranty, one has no warranty."
The homeowner told us, "Nope, I don't want to do it. There's no reason to do it. They've never had any issues with it. I don't need to do it unless the house won't sell."
And the process went on for a few days, a few weeks, and they got through the home inspection. The home inspection went fine, and they had their list of things that they had to correct.
It was noted in the inspection report because home inspectors always will take photos of deficiencies, whether or not it is a structural issue, a cosmetic issue, or something that's more in the maintenance category. And so this house was flagged with it.
The homeowners didn't want to repair it. The new owners didn't really care about it. So, the home inspector brought attention to it, and then they got through the appraisals, right? This is a conventional loan, so not a cash buyer and not a special loan like a VA loan or FHA.
And then they had the appraisal come in. And the appraisal does two things: they went through the physical property, made sure it's valued correctly, and then they noted any sort of risk factors to the loan. And this came up.
Because it was so late in the game and it was so far along in the process, this particular homeowner was essentially left kind of homeless for about five or six days because this came up. They wouldn't be able to close on the loan, they wouldn't be able to close on the property, and it pushed all of that timing back.
Well, they had already sold the house, so they were living out of a U-Haul in a hotel room for about a week, all because of a repair that was essentially about a $500 or $600 repair.
And again, I understand that every dollar counts, and you don't want to just spend money unnecessarily. But in this particular case, it cost them over 10 times the amount because of the delays in the home sale, when we were able to get back out there and take care of it for them on an emergency basis.
So, not to say that you have to make every repair that everyone always suggests, because then it becomes an issue of just forever maintenance. But, as part of a home sale, I often get asked, "What do you think about this?"
And I say, "Well, I think it's there. And if it's there, somebody else is going to see it, too."
And so it's really important to understand that by not doing repairs, you do open yourself up to risk on the actual close of the property, and you open yourself up to risk to potential buyers who do see it as an issue and maybe not understand that it's a simple repair, and they get spooked by it.
So, it's always best to kind of go in with all of the information and all of the ability to repair it, because in this particular case, it costs far more just in delays.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for explaining why it's always a good idea to address basement crack repair issues before they end up stopping a home sale dead.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or if you like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Adam at (866) 929-3171, or you can email Adam at info@A1FoundationCrackRepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.