Foundation issues

[John Whittle]

I got my first property under contract for 43k.  Its a 109 year old 2 family.  Its one block from where I live now.  Not the best neighborhood but not horrible and 43k is a great deal for the area.  I did my own inspection w/a contractor buddy and a real estate investor I work for that does most of his own maintenance.  

We found a fairly major foundation issue.  One side of the house dropped about 3".  The brick exterior buckled at a corner leaving almost an inch crack between multiple bricks.  It has old limestone lintels and 5 of them are cracked one majorly one other has had a steel plate put underneath it.  There are multiple cracks on the exterior of the house.  Most thru mortar joints some have cracked the brick.  The house was recently painted and you can see minor cracks coming thru the paint like there fresh cracks.  On the inside there are major cracks in the wall.  By the basement door the ceiling looks like it has been patched multiple times and is currently cracked at the patch.  The basement door frame is about 2" from the exterior wall.

I was going to walk when the seller offered to pay a structural engineer to asses it.  I got the report this morning.  It was only a page long and only addressed the foundation nothing else.  It basically said the foundation has shifted 3" due to gutter issues and needs to be monitored.  So I was mad I expected the engineer to tell me something I didn't know.  He didn't address any of my concerns with the exterior wall.  Nothing saying how to fix it.  

I called the engineers employer up asking what the hell this report is about because its not telling me a godd@mn thing.  The engineer ended up being in the area.  So I met him over there.  The first thing I pointed out was the giant cracks at the corner.  He said he saw them but didn't mention them in the report.  Next I showed him the lintels,  He kept saying I see this all the time no guarantees but it should be fine. I'm thinking no **** buddy I work in 100 year old houses with cracks all the time too.  I'm asking if THIS house is a problem. Then I showed him where the exterior wall was bowing out.  Again he said I don't think its a problem at this time the foundation shift is older and its settled at this time.  I said ok well if this is old, what are these cracks inside?  He said oh I didn't see these.  He seemed to be a little more concerned at this point and actually studied it for a few minutes.  Thats when he started talking about things I can do to shore it up.  Continuing to talk out of the side of his mouth.  Saying things like if you wanted it to stop it you could...if you had to you could...it would be about 10-12 grand.

So as I type all this I realize its time to walk.  This property isn't perfect for me and with the risk its not worth it.  Also even if I get the seller to reduce the selling price along with the other stuff I found I most likely will be at min. loan amounts and would have to convince the seller to do the financing.   Although I typed all this up I might as well get opinions from the experts here.  

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