How to tell if a discounted house has major foundation damage
Discounted homes often hide structural issues like daylight showing through crawlspaces or sagging walls that signal expensive repairs ahead. Relying on standard home inspections is not enough; buyers need a dedicated assessment from a licensed structural engineer before moving forward to avoid buying a money pit.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1getting estimates for the repair and factoring them into the purchase decision
- 2hiring a reputable foundation contractor to evaluate onsite
- 3Hiring an independent home inspector or structural engineer
- 4Requesting repairs as a contingency for buying the house
- 5Steering clear of the purchase entirely
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Looking at possibly buying this home. The foundation under the home is fine, but here under the attached garage there are problems. You can see daylight coming through under the crawlspace. Is this a huge concern in the future?”source ↗
“I would not move ahead with this house until I got an inspection from a structural engineer. Not a house inspector, but a bonafide residential structural engineer.”source ↗
“This is the right side of a small house I'm considering. It's marked down way under market so I'm concerned this right side wall is a major issue.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How serious is a sewer scope belly under the street?
- 4Should I buy a house with conflicting roof damage reports?
- 11Is a basement wall crack structural or just cosmetic?
- 5What to do if your rental house has severe structural damage
- 2How to estimate home repair costs before buying
- 3Is my house support beam strong enough for the load?