I bought my first house at the age of 26, I'm now 31. My wife and I bought the house knowing that it was not our forever home, but the perfect starter house. We've owned the home for 5 years and have added two perfect daughters to our family and plan on having more. We've reached the time where we've outgrown the house and want to move on to something bigger and better.

Here's the only issue: A couple of months ago, I started noticing cracks up above the door frames. A few short weeks ago, we noticed that some doors weren't closing properly. I figured it would be a good idea to have an expert foundation company come out and take a look at what we had. It really wasn't the news I was wanting to hear and was like a gut punch. We have pretty significant foundation issues and also what he suspects to be a slab leak or a sewer leak underneath the house. He estimated the foundation repair to be about $13,500. I haven't had a plumber come out and inspect or give me an estimate yet, however.

My question is this, should I sell the house to a cash as-is type of company or pay for the repairs out of pocket and then list the house at full value?

We owe around 97k and the house is worth about 155k. What is the right move??

So that stinks man. You have an inspection and therefore have to disclose......

It's worth your time and money to find out what the problem is. Engineer report to identify the issue. Then line cameras to nail down the exact problems. It will be the best money you can spend. At that point you can make some hard decisions.
Busted lines under the house suck, but are not always the end of the world. If you caught it early your may only need to fix the leak and not the foundation. Most of the soil in Texas will swell a lot given the chance and will contract just the same if you remove the source.
If the leak is near the side of the house they dig in from the outside. If it is in a bad place, a good contractor can pick a good place to go in. i.e. closet or under a cabinet.

Good luck!

Deats99 said:

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So that stinks man. You have an inspection and therefore have to disclose......

It's worth your time and money to find out what the problem is. Engineer report to identify the issue. Then line cameras to nail down the exact problems. It will be the best money you can spend. At that point you can make some hard decisions.
Busted lines under the house suck, but are not always the end of the world. If you caught it early your may only need to fix the leak and not the foundation. Most of the soil in Texas will swell a lot given the chance and will contract just the same if you remove the source.
If the leak is near the side of the house they dig in from the outside. If it is in a bad place, a good contractor can pick a good place to go in. i.e. closet or under a cabinet.

Good luck!

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Thank you! Where do I begin to find a good engineer to come out and inspect? As long as I have all the pertinent information the decision will become a lot easier.

Where are you located?

Dr. Venkman said:

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Where are you located?

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Ennis, TX

What does your Home Insurance policy look like?

It may seem assumed, but was the purchase of an existing home? If it was new, you are still under 10 years and a foundation issue belongs to the builder.

Assuming the answer is that it was an existing home, follow the above and get an engineer our. If you are in Ennis, you may be able to get someone like Eric Davis Engineering to come out. They may offer a one off inspection - out of Forney and owner is an Ag. Or just google residential engineering for Ennis. Its going to cost you a few hundred bucks but it is a non-biased assessment.

As noted above, whatever inspections you already have had or do have must be disclosed. But it sounds significant enough that an inspector will not it on an inspection during the sale and you are still hosed.

Would agree you are best off determining the issue and repairing. You other alternate is to keep the property and rent it if the cash outlay to fix if troublesome. I would think letting a buyer discount for the issue during an as-is purchase probably nets you substantially less value.

Any intelligent buyer is going to expect an estimate to be conservative in case they find additional issues and will price the house accordingly. They are not going to take a chance on a problem. The earlier advice is correct. Find an and fix the problem properly. Disclose it and provide documentation from a reputable company stating that it is fixed. Don't hire somebody off the street that claims to know what they are doing.

I agree with all the fix it now posts. Also make sure your warranty is transferable to the new owners if you go that route.

I am neutral on the engineer. Do get several bids though.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Wife wants to sell to cash as-is buyer and not deal with the headache as we have two little ones at home to deal with as well. I want to get an engineer out, make a claim on insurance, and go from there.

Not 100% sure but insurance will only cover damage from water.

My mom had a slab leak that caused the foundation to bend and her insurance (State Farm) covered at least part of it. I do not have it as an endorsement on my insurance policy because our neighborhood is on a rock and I'm not worried about foundation/slab issues. Your agent would hopefully know if you're covered - talk with him/her before you file a claim.

My dad called a few different foundation repair companies and had bids from $3,000 - $13,000 and they all proposed different work. We went with an engineer who told us what work should be done and asked the companies to bid on that. Now it's been about 10 years and as far as I know everything is still good.

Hope this helps.