Can You Sell a House With Foundation Problems?

Hey you guys, Carter here with CB Home Solutions and today we’re going to be discussing, can you sell a house with foundation problems? And the answer is yes. It just depends on how you want to go about selling the property. What I want to jump into in this blog post is the different aspects of foundation problems. Because you could be on one side of the spectrum, where it’s a leaky basement, or it seeps water on occasion during heavy, heavy rain or spring thaws, because we live here in Wisconsin and that happens. Or you can be on the other side of the spectrum, and the basement’s caving in on itself, and a whole new foundation needs to be poured. So the difference between the two is pretty drastic, obviously as far as costs go, and as far as other items pertain to it.

Minor Foundation Problems

So for a leaky basement, pretty much what I would recommend doing, if it’s a Fieldstone foundation, they’re going to seep. It’s just when the properties were built back in the early 1900s, it’s very common for old Fieldstone foundations to seep water and leak. The most important thing is, get the grading away from the property, get the downspouts out and away from the property, just so it’s as dry as possible. If you have overflowing gutters or downspouts going down next to the house that needs to be corrected asap to stop water issues.

Cracking Foundation Wall

Now, if it’s a little bit further progressing down that line from minor to severe, say the basement has a little bit of a crack. An example would be a block foundation, it’s cracked in one area, and the water comes in there. Well, then what I would recommend doing is buying concrete epoxy that seals under pressure.

We have used this before on properties that we have remodeled, and it patches up the hole, it seals it, no water ever seeps in. Which is amazing, and I would highly recommend it. It was about $200, or you could pay a foundation company to come out and do that, and it’d be about $750 to $1,000. It took about 2 hours total (need to let dry for 24 hours) to complete the repair if you do it yourself.

Bowing & Cracking Foundation Wall

Another example: It’s a block foundation and it’s cracking. You have the step cracks and vertical cracks, and some horizontal. And you can see that the wall is no longer completely straight, it is starting to bow in.  Now, the rule of thumb is, if it’s greater than 3/4 of an inch, the differential, the bow,  you’re supposed to excavate next to the wall, push the wall back, and then beam the wall.

So the cost with this is very, very significant. It’s 5, 10, 15, $20,000, easily. Rule of thumb is typically, $5,000 to $6,000 per wall. So on a normal-sized basement, you’re talking 20-24,000 for the entire basement foundation repair, which is expensive.

So that’s if your foundation is that bad, and most of the time it’s just one, or two, or three walls. So you don’t have to do every single one.

Foundation is Caving In

Now going in a little bit further, say the walls are cracking, they’re bowing, and now brick is starting to to come in. You can see daylight. In that case, they’re going to excavate. They might even have to rebuild part of the wall. So now, not only do you have the excavation bill, you have the new brick and mortar bill coming in.

They’re going to need a specialist to come in and rebuild that foundation wall, structural engineer to verify everything. You’re talking probably right around the $30,000 mark to repair your foundation, if not a little bit more expensive, depending upon how severe the work is.

So it can go from a very minor seepage to a very major cracking, a whole new foundation needed to be poured and everything like that. If you totally need to redo the entire foundation, you’re talking 40,000. We’ve had property before where our foundation companies come out and give us a quote, and that’s generally speaking where they’re at, is about 40,000 for a brand new foundation under an existing home.

Can I Sell My House With Foundation Issues?

The answer is yes.

But it comes down to, how much less are you willing to take for another individual to take on those foundation repairs? Our company will buy any house no matter what the foundation is, but it really depends on what you need at the end of the day as far as price points go.

We’ve had a lot of experience with bad foundations, so I will make you aware of it. I will tell you the cost associated with it, and we base our offers upon that,I estimate  how much I know it will cost, just based upon experience.

So if you want to receive a cash offer for your property, you can sell it to a we buy houses company like ourselves here at CB Home Solutions, or you can possibly go about putting it on the market with a real estate agent, and then doing an escrow for the foundation repair at the time of closing so you don’t need to come out of pocket.

Chances are, most normal home buyers and first time home buyers will not be able to obtain a loan on a house that has a bad foundation. But we buy houses companies, we buy houses for cash. So it’s very easy, convenient, and you don’t need to worry about a thing.

So if you want a free cash offer, click the link down below, fill out the form, or give us a call on our office line, which is (920) 215-4201. I look forward to talking to you soon, and have a great day.