REO home on Piers vs Concrete Foundation

[CJ Clark]

Im looking to BRRRR an REO property in Montana. Im skeptical though of the foundation being on piers. Im worried about when I go to refinance. If you were to compare the home on piers to an identical home on a concrete foundation, would you expect the home on the concrete foundation to be valued much higher? There are a lot of older homes on piers obviously in the area, and there are also older homes on concrete foundations as well. I was comparing it to other properties, but noticed majority of them were on a concrete foundation. Thanks for any help, I'm a newb planning on submitting a cash offer this week and I don't want to overlook anything

[Will Fraser]

Hi @CJ Clark!  This is a perceptive question and one I hope I can add value to you on.  I'll second what @Account Closed said above regarding "what is normal in the area."  That will dictate a lot of what you should expect from this home. 

I'll also add this:  there is a about pier-and-beam foundations (sometimes called Traditional foundations) and I'm researching right now to figure out what I'm going to start doing on my new construction homes -- I'm leaning towards building them on pier-and-beam foundations.  When you look at the centuried homes (at least 100 years old) you'll see the original form of pier and beam, usually featuring a stem wall on the outside of the house and a network of beams throughout the home, held up by piers.  Those beams supported the weight of the floors and interior walls, while the stem wall ringing the home supported the remainder of the weight that the roof system displaced to the exterior walls.  By the middle of this century a modification started happening wherein a secondary stem wall was placed under the main load bearing wall in the home, which significantly reduces movement of the foundation over time and mimics our modern slab-on-grade foundations.

The reason I'm dabbling with a preference for traditional foundations can be highlighted by what is happening at my personal home right now.  There was a leak . . .somewhere.  Called my plumber and $1,040 the leak was found (in the slab of course), worked around, and fixed.  Then came the drywall repair and flooring repair.  Two weeks later . . . another slab leak.  Damage for this one?  TBD. 

Had this been a pier-and-beam foundation home the plumber would have likely used the crawlspace access, spent 2 hours or less under the house, and have the problem identified and possibly worked around.  $350 instead of $1,040 + TBD.

Want to move a bathroom?  Want to move that fireplace?  Want to do anything plumbing related?  Significant savings every time.