New Investor South Bend Seeking Recommendations

[Nadja Pritchard]

Hello everyone! We are new out of State investors in the South Bend, IN area. We are originally from Omaha, NE and our initial goal was to start investing there. The market there is currently crazy and after a year of looking at investment properties and loosing a few "bidding wars" we decided to look elsewhere. South Bend met many of our investment criteria and we decided to look at some turn key properties as we thought that it would be the best route to go for a first time investor from out of state (even out of country as we are currently located overseas supporting U.S. Military).

Long story short, we got two properties under contract and were very excited about these opportunities until we received our inspection reports back. High levels of moisture in the foundation walls and even standing water was found in the basements in both properties (please see attached pictures). Both properties are older ( 1921 and 1910 ) and have a hollow block/ hollow block and poured foundations. There are also signs of settling and even bowing in the foundations (see pictures).

We would like to have an independent licensed foundation/ waterproofing expert inspect both properties and gives us some feedback on the damage and how to remediate. 

While looking in the Omaha, NE area, even at older homes, I have not seen anything like this before. We know that foundational and water issues can be either fixed easily or end up costing many thousands of Dollars and affect the value of the property. WE need to ensure that we are not getting ourselves into a huge mess. 

We would be grateful for any recommendations for a licensed foundation expert in the South Bend area as well as any input from the investors in that region. 

Thank you!

Nadja