I found a property that looks good but it was sold 3/30/12 and the listing then said "
Disclosure: Foundation Inspection Recommended. Disclosure: Uninsured due to repair cost exceeds 5K."
It has been remodeled/flipped and just now got back on the market. I've googled around but I don't know where this disclosure came from (FHA Appraisal?) or if the person(s) that bought it would have been required to fix any foundation problems.
Anybody have any insight?
I will of course have the foundation inspected if we decide to put an offer down, but I was hoping to have some more information before that.
Edit: I should note that this property is about 1000ft from a reservoir which is roughly 1500ft in diameter. I'm no expert but I'm assuming property close to a body of water will have a higher water table and possible issues because of it.
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
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I'm not saying that you shouldn't think about it, but before you do, read this thread. Then, read every thread by Dr. Frenchenstein since then that mentions house or legal troubles. Then consider, deeply, before you jump into this thing.
STAY AWAY. I would think something like this could be fudged to fool an inspector, and like thanatos said, the problem might be deeper down. like the foundation is actually fixed now, but whatever caused it to crack in the first place could still be going on. in 5 years time, you could be looking at a very costly repair bill!
if its definitely a house you are interested in, get a good foundation guy (not the one who did the repairs) and have him thouroughly inspect it to make sure it wasn't a shoddy repair. i would bet the entire foundation is solid since the sellers would otherwise be stupid to waste money on the remodel since a bad foundation is a deal killer.
however you definitely don't want to get frenchensteined™.
i think with a good inspection, it is defintiely worth springing for the foundation and survey in this instance to keep you from getting sunk later on. (pun intended)
The fine print: The foundation company has a lifetime warranty on that specific spot they did the foundation repair on (area right under the front of the garage). Since then, I've started to notice cracks forming on the complete opposite side of the house. I regret my decision of buying the house now.
Summary - If there are foundation issues, you could get them fixed (which definitely isn't cheap), and possibly even get a company that has a warranty like mine...but that doesn't mean you are all taken care of. And usually, if you have foundation issues, it is very likely that you will continue having them in other parts of the house.
Stay away.
This isn't your diamond in the rough. I know during a house hunt you can fall in love with a place and want to overlook and hand wave certain issues, but don't overlook something major like a foundation.
Move on.
Another friend mentioned that I can have our Realtor contact their Realtor and ask for the documentation about the disclosure since it should be public record.
I will look into this a bit more but I will be extremely extremely wary.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Do not purchase that house
You're better off leveling the structure and building a new house.
Not necessarily, it's possible the owner just hired some 2 bit outfit to come do a cheapo fix, or god forbid they fixed it themselves, maybe dumped some epoxy in a crack or two and covered it up with drywall.
Which is why I'd want documentation of the fix, and I'd want copies of the engineered drawings. And then have my own soils/structural inspection done to verify if the fix was proper and is performing acceptably. And that won't run cheap, I'd guess any savings on the initial buy price would be eaten up fast, and I'd still have to disclose the foundation issue if I wanted to sell down the road.