All Forum Posts by: Peter Buccowich

Returning with the outcome and lessons learned in case another newbie stumbles upon this:

• I got a third-party structural engineer (a company that does not do foundation work) and sure enough, the house was in bad shape. 
• A warranty is only as good as the company that did the work. In my case, both the work and the warranty were bad. I was seeing a lot of movement in the house so took corrective measures. 
• I got in contact with 5-6 foundation companies. It was immediately obvious which companies were trustworthy/knew what they were doing and which did not. 
• I picked a company that recommended interior mudjacking and 17 exterior piers. Total $14k
• During the repair, they identified a leak in my pipes under the house (a potential source of the sinking). Plumber work was $4.5k total
• After/during the repair about 7 large drywall cracks appeared. Easily remedied in a weekend. 

Lessons learned: 

• A foundation warranty with measurements only along the outside may be hiding something. What do the interior numbers look like?
• Exterior cracks are pretty meaningless when it comes to identifying areas that may need foundation work. The regions I was most worried about due to visible cracks had moved the least. 
• Mudjacking is preferred on older (1960s) homes to interior piers since the slab is weaker. The mud distributes the load better.  Mudjacking, however, is not permanent and may only last as few as 5 years.

@wayne brooks Thanks for the reply! They placed 24 beams around the entire house, so they stabilized everything

Hi everyone!

Been a couple of months so I figured I'd give an update. I'm getting a structural inspection next week but I'm pretty sure I know how it will go. A couple of new major exterior cracks have formed and new interior cracks have formed/grown. A couple of doors now don't close. In other words, pretty certain the foundation work wasn't up to spec.

I spoke with the foundation company that did the work today and they told me they wouldn't honor the warranty unless the inspection said it was one of their beams that failed. Assuming that isn't the case, any recommendations on how I should proceed? 

Should I try to convince the company that came out in the first place to do some work? I'm pretty sure if the house settles unevenly they are liable under the warranty below. Should I consider talking to a lawyer? Should I just pony up the cash and go with another company?

Here's the wording of the warranty:

"Should any adjustment be required during the life of this home due to setting, our company will re-raise areas previously underpinned without cost to the owner. This warranty is transferrable to the above state address, provided that no major structural changes have been made

Thank you again everyone for your guidance!

@Genny Li thanks for commenting! The foundation work has been 100% been my biggest concern with this property. Flipper had work done on it in March '21 but in the last couple of months a few external cracks have grown and internal cracks have appeared. The work came with a transferrable warranty but to be honest I don't really trust the company that did it. Any suggestions on how to get an impartial inspection done? I'm concerned if I get someone out here they'll look for reasons to do work/take money. A few people (through these forums and in-person) who are just real estate investors have assured me it's purely cosmetic but some of these cracks look pretty gnarly. 

@Dave Spooner thanks! Hopefully, I'll drop another post here in a year :)

@Dave Spooner Thanks for the reply! That's really the lesson I learned myself. With this property, I purchased expecting a turnkey and paid a bit more for what I thought would be easy to manage and all I'd have to worry about would be renting it out. At this point, I'm almost just waiting for the next thing that was "rehabbed" to break. 

And yes, I'm saving up for the second now. hoping to buy again June 2022!

@Andrew Postell Great to hear from you! I've been visiting those forums pretty frequently and some of your responses in them helped get me ready for buying my first place both by helping me know where to look for spots and breaking through the analysis paralysis

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $229,000
Cash invested: $26,000

This is a 3 bed 2 bath home in east Fort Worth that I'm house hacking right now. It's both my first home and my first investment. The home was purchased from a flipper who fixed up most of the house and made this 1963 home look modern and attractive, especially to younger renters.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

3/2 SFHs in Dallas Fort Worth are plentiful and finding comps for price and rent was easy. Initially, I wanted to look at Duplexes and Triplexes but realized that I didn't have the capital necessary to house hack that if I wanted to purchase when I did

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found on the MLS, and as an old home, it did very poorly on the inspection. Most of the issues were not concerns for me but we were still able to negotiate down the price based on the content we saw in the report.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional financing, 5% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Some of the things the seller did in the flip added value, but a lot of the updates were fast and had poor workmanship. I was looking for a low-maintenance first property so many small updates were needed. Unfortunately for me, the ways I'm adding value don't have a huge ROI. Those include adding new windows and potentially some additional foundation repair.

What was the outcome?

Last week I was able to grab two tenants to fill the rooms! I was able to get more than I would normally had I rented the entire unit out. My entire mortgage, insurance, PMI, and Taxes are paid for each month by their rent. There's still some work to be done but so far everything is turning out okay!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I was in a position where I needed to buy quickly which is not a great position to buy in. I'm not sure I want to work with a flipper in the future since the quality of work was so poor and they only performed the minimum work. I was left with needing to buy new windows and potential lingering foundation issues.

Secondly, I did not shop around for lenders and I need to do that in the future.

Either way, great learning opportunity!

@Mike Reynolds Done by Mr. Foundation Repair - I've been trying to get them out to talk about the changes they did but it sounds like they may be in high demand. However, now that I know it's a thing I've noticed similar cracks in plenty of other surrounding homes. 

Additionally, something the inspector didn't point out but has me concerned is this bowed out wall next to the garage: 

Hopefully, when the people that did the work come out we can talk about this wall. I appreciate all the feedback, you all have been incredibly helpful!

Thank you, everyone!

This helped put my mind at ease. I guess I'm suffering from first-time homeowner panic :)

First off, sorry for the pun. I recently purchased a property in Fort Worth, TX from a flipper that had some foundation work performed. They placed steel piers all around the foundation, absolutely overhauling it. 

The property comes with a foundation warranty, which covers only the foundation. The inspector pointed out some issues with the house that may suggest that there were foundation issues present including some sloping floors, cracks in exterior walls, or poorer drainage. I felt somewhat comfortable ignoring that because the seller just repaired the foundation, so I would expect that there would be signs of damage, since I knew the foundation was recently in disrepair. 

This leads to my question. Some exterior walls still have major cracks in them. They are not bowed out or seem to be on the verge of collapse. (see below). I know cracks can be scary as a homeowner because they can indicate serious foundation issues. Are cracks by themselves dangerous, or are they scary because they indicate foundation problems? In other words, if the work was already done, should I be concerned? Should a high-quality foundation fix have closed these cracks? I talked to the company that performed the work and they indicated the only work they did on the cracks was putting nonstructural foam in them for aesthetic reasons. Is that standard?

Of course, I plan on talking to a professional about this but was hoping to get some unbiased, educated opinions first. Thank you everyone and hopefully someone reading this can learn from my mistakes :)

Thank you!