As a Home Inspector we are very like the family doctor, observing and suggesting a remedy or referring our client to a specialist.
Recently we inspected an old farm house in Jamestown and as we finished the client arrived, smiling and happy with the “how is it going comment”, any “deal killers” says the Realtor?
When we mentioned the crawl space and its list of problems: 40% of the sill plate missing (this is the wood on top of the foundation and it takes the weight of the house),
Sections of the supporting foundation missing in about 6 locations, Rotten beams,
Exterior foundation bricks that could be removed by hand……..
The buyer was not upset but furious, amazed, incredulous…..and we wondered why,
They had heard from the listing agent that there was possibly a foundation issue in the crawl space and had hired a structural engineer (with lots of credentials) to inspect and evaluate the crawl space before making an offer to purchase, his report left them thinking they had only minor repairs necessary.
Buying a home is stressful and the cost of the home inspection is often a major expense, on that in this case saved the buyer from potential disaster.
(We heard later that a local construction company quoted between $25,000 and $30,000 to repair the foundation and on further examination refused to touch the job fearing the house would fall down during the repairs)
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