A1 Foundation Crack Repair is on speed dial with many realtors for a good reason. In this episode, Adam explains how a foundation crack can cause a costly delay in the home sale process.
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over two5 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: Can a foundation crack cause a costly delay in a home sale?
Narrator: So, Adam, A1 Foundation Crack Repair is on speed dial with many realtors for a good reason. Can you explain how a foundation crack can cause a costly delay in the home sale process?
Adam: Yeah. This is unfortunately not too uncommon for a lot of realtors and homeowners who are in the process of buying or and or selling their homes. When it comes to repairs of the foundations, a lot of banks and lenders look at these issues as a huge risk. And they may have assessors or underwriters looking at the foundation issues that are called out. And they might be very simple. They might be just a simple foundation crack. They could be huge structural issues, but they kind of just categorize them all into one major bucket as risk.
When they see this risk, they look for a laundry list of things to basically affirm that the investment that they are making on the loan isn't a bad investment. And so when it comes to some of these issues, we get pulled in at the eleventh hour and fifty eighth minutes because a deal is going to fall apart because certain items haven't been satisfied and the lawyers are now involved in this issue.
We have a case example for a house in Clinton, Massachusetts where it was in the sales process. And far into there, the P and S were signed. Home inspections went through. The bank had gone through. They were supposed to close the next day, and the lawyers were looking through all the information and came to find out there was an unsatisfactory condition in the paperwork and that related specifically to a foundation crack. And this foundation crack was one we see every day. Nothing special about it. It was a vertical crack. It was probably a quarter inch wide, maybe even less. There were signs of sun moisture there, but it wasn't actively leaking on any inspection.
It was made into a huge deal. And probably not rightly because it was a pretty straightforward type of foundation issue, but it didn't matter because it was in writing and everyone looked at it at risk and they had to delay the closing. And these people had moved out of one house and were living in an out of a storage container essentially and a hotel stay. And they were supposed to move in on a Friday, but then it got pushed into the following week several days later because this issue came up. So how do these issues get resolved?
Number one, they can get resolved by doing the work ahead of time. And I know nobody wants to spend money, especially in this climate where their sellers are holding a lot of the cards because the inventory is so low. But when we sell a house, these issues, which tend to be kind of non-issues for most people, can be huge issues for lenders and for the legal teams in this process.
It's important that these issues are addressed ahead of time so that these don't turn into one huge negotiating point for buyers because generally, you know, if it's a thousand-dollar repairs, it's going to be a $10,000 negotiating point, or it doesn't end up at the table in the last second causing huge delays and disruptions. A family of five, they had three young kids, and they were living in a hotel room for five extra days while still trying to get their stuff carted from one place to the other.
In this case in Clinton, we were able to make the repair satisfy the conditions of the documentation, and they were able to close on the house. And the overall cost was about 20% of the cost these parties incurred from the delay in closing. So simple things like this happen all the time, and it's not something to kind of brush off because it does have real impact at the closing table.
If you see an issue in a house early on or if it comes up in a home inspection or if it comes up later in the appraisal, this is something that should be addressed early. Just getting an opinion as to whether it's a settling crack or not sometimes won't satisfy the banks or the legal team.
Making sure that you do cross these things off your list is important because one is people's lives and two it's a lot of money at stake. So, we want to make sure that these house sales go through and that the foundations are repaired in the mirror that gives these people a long-standing life of the house and no issues moving forward as they take on.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for explaining how a foundation crack can cause a costly delay in a home sale. I guess the moral of the story is if you have a home sale being held up for a foundation crack, give Adam a call and get that sale back on track.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call (866) 929-3171. Or you can email info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.