HOW STURDY IS THE FOUNDATION ON THAT NEW HOME YOU’RE ABOUT TO CLOSE ON?
February 22, 2024
Here in Edmonton, homes sell fast. Sometimes you have to make a deal before you’d like to because there’s someone biting at your heels with another offer, waiting for you to decline. Unless the home you’re looking to buy is newly built, there’s a real chance it’s not in perfect condition. Let’s say you’ve already closed on the home you want. After weeks of house hunting, you’ve finally found the one that fits, only to discover that it has undisclosed issues with the foundation. While this might be unnerving, the thing to know is that in most cases, you can still enjoy many trouble-free years in the house.
Buying a house is often one of the biggest investments you’ll make. When things don’t work out the way you thought, it could be the start of a stressful home ownership experience. If the foundation problem is causing loss of sleep, here’s a few things you can do to take some of the emotion and anxiety out of the equation and quickly get things moving in the right direction again.
Try to stay calm. Buying your dream home doesn’t have to turn into a nightmare, even with a foundation issue. In fact, they might help reduce the sale price in your favor. With a qualified foundation repair company like Shield Foundation Repair, many problems can be resolved, often for less than you thought.
Arm yourself with the right information, starting with an engineer’s report from a licensed structural engineer. Shield also does home pre-sell and pre-buy inspections and can refer you to a structural engineer for confirmation. You can find our helpful buyers and sellers guides on our Home Inspections service page.
If you are interested in purchasing a home that you suspect may have foundation issues, calmly gather the facts from an independent source. Use the findings to identify pricing and project timelines by sending the report to a reputable foundation repair expert. A foundation repair company like Shield can price the engineer’s recommendation at no additional cost.
Even though the house may have foundation damage, remember that these kinds of problems are common, depending on the active soil conditions where you live. Although we tend to think of the ground under our feet as solid, the fact is that soil expands, contracts, and shifts constantly with changes in weather and moisture. In most cases, you can not only correct the immediate fault, but also help protect your home from future damage. It’s best not to stress and instead focus on getting a plan in place to restore the foundation to a satisfactory condition.
A good foundation repair contractor or foundation repair company can give you trustworthy advice on your repair options, cost estimates and timelines, but to a prospective homebuyer, these estimates are usually not what you want as your first bargaining chip. Make sure you have a validated and official report.
Once you have this technical report in hand, now is the time to share this information with a reputable foundation repair expert like Shield Foundation Repair for advice and estimates to get things fixed. The best companies will work closely with the structural engineer to help you select the most effective repair solution from the options available to you. Home inspectors can sometimes identify obvious foundation issues, but they may not spot them all. This is where information from an experienced foundation repair company can give you an advantage.
What makes this process so tricky is when a transaction is still in progress. If you don’t yet own the home, the seller must give permission for inspections by engineers or evaluations from repair companies. When done properly, the information provided might help you to lower the price of the house. If repairs are completed before you close the deal, the good news is that warranties like the Shield transferable lifetime warranty can be passed on to the buyer.
The good news is that foundation problems don’t have to be a deal breaker when you’re closing on a new home. As we’ve discussed, they can sometimes help you land a better deal and discourage less informed buyers.
Take your time, knowing that knowledge is power, and work with the right partners in the right order. Chances are, you’ll end up with a properly repaired foundation that won’t give you any problems for a long time.
