Structural Issues

[Christine Ong]

Help! My offer was accepted! Going in I knew this particular property had structural issues. And I had inspected the property with my contractor. He had quoted me with the more expensive method of repair and we took that into consideration when I made an offer. 

But now that I am on my due diligence period I want to make sure that the problem is what we accounted for and not worse. The structural engineer that made a visual inspection said that the property clearly demonstrates vertical settlement and recommends we do a manometer survey that costs $1,800.00 Do I just bite the bullet and pay for the survey? He is also recommending a leak detection test. My contractor recommends that instead of spending money on all the investigative work, we just kill the mains and lay a new line altogether. What should I do? How far should I go with the investigation? I don't want to spend $5K on investigating only to walk away from the deal in the end. But on the other hand I don't want to do a sloppy repair that may potential be a hazard. 

[Jennifer Lee]

I would first of all TALK TO THE SELLER!

you have based your offer on the "potential structural issue"

Now you know its WORST than you thought. Before you incur any more or REAL due diligence dollar, FEEL OUT THE SELLER to see if there is any more room to negotiate.

You should be honest with him, b.c he will HAVE to disclose your findings to the next buyer.  Get everything in WRITING and FORWARD To the seller.

Secondly, DO YOU STILL WANT THIS? DOES NUMBER STILL WORK

If you have talked to seller, and he is willing to negotiate a credit or price reduction based on your finding, see if this still FITS into your numbers. 

IF it doesn't WALK AWAY, if it does just negotiate with seller and find a WIN-WIN solution.