Buying/Selling home with foundation repair.

Sold a home that needed foundation repairs.  What do you want to know?

My husband and I purchased a home last year that had cable lock piers placed under it. We’re moving to another state due to job relocation (if/when we can sell). I am wondering if this is going to make it even HARDER to sell my house in today’s tumbling market. The repairs were done by a company that is very large and has been in business for over 70 years. It comes with a transferrable warranty.

Of course the Zestimate on the house is well under what we paid which is quite discouraging! When we purchased the home we intended to stay here for years to come and didn’t even consider having to resale the home or that the foundation repairs could possibly negatively affect the sale.

As long as the house is now stable, I doubt that it would be a huge issue.  The transferrable warranty sounds like a selling point too.  The neighborhood we sold in had lots of houses with foundation problems and repairs.  Generally houses in this neighborhood sell quickly since they are in the 100 - 150K range they don't last long.  It looks good in my opinion that you corrected the problem.

The house we sold several years ago we had dug up the garage floor, added some piers, and a sump pump.  The house sold in 5 days.  However, the person that purchased us ended up suing since the basement started to leak.  Insurance companies ended up setting out of court and we paid 2K.  The buyer ended up having some major repairs from the looks of the yard when it was under repair.

People keep talking about tumbling markets.  Fortunately, it doesn't seem too bad where I am located.  Houses are selling at 97% of asking price in an average of 3 - 4 months.  We were taking off the declining market list a month or so ago too.

I wouldn't trust Zestimate to be accurate!

Amberleighe

A property that has been remediated properly with the engineer certification that the property has been repaired per the engineer's specifications and is stabilized should make the property more desireable than surrounding properties with similar soil conditions but have not been remediated.

If the project engineer was both geo tec and structural engineers, all the better.

It is important to disclose the remediation to potential buyers and provide them with a copy of the engineer soil analysis and the engineer completion report and warranty.

Since the soil analysis reports tend to be quite lengthy typically 60-80 pages), it is helpful to scan the reports to your computer to email to prospective buyers and/or their agents.

Should the prospective buyers and or their agents have questions, suggest they call the engineer(s) on the project. The engineers are more than happy to explain the situation and the remediation to the public.

At closing, it is important to pass the original reports to the buyers BUT have the buyer's sign receipt of the reports to keep for your records.

Consider hiring an agent experienced in selling properly remediated properties, this will not be a discount agent. Your agent will know how to market your property and will know how to handle the other agents and the public not experienced in this situation.

The public as well as agents tend to fear and stay away from situations of which they are unfamiliar or unknowledgeable.  A good experienced agent knowledgeable in this type of situation representing you in your sale will effect your home being sold faster and for a higher price. (Properly remediated properties are again full value once the repairs are made.)

Best of luck