Found A HUGE Problem After Buying House!

Chad recently bought a house and thought everything went great with the inspection until they discovered a pretty big problem about a year later. He calls Dave for advice on what he should do.

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[jfarmer]

This show needs a segment where these people call back and tell what happened afterwards.

[Ghostriderx]

I live in Billings and came very close to buying a home in the same area.
This gentleman unfortunately is not exaggerating. There is currently a class action lawsuit against the home builder and original engineers. Cause of foundation issue is hydro-collapsible soil.
It’s mind boggling that real estate agents are still showing these homes to prospective buyers with no disclosure whatsoever.
A good lesson for all prospective buyers.
Do your research and if you have doubts, don’t be afraid to walk away.

[domesticviolencemastery]

Dave you took the words out of my mouth! I'm a licensed real estate agent and couldn't believe what I just heard. Wow! They all failed him!

[jvolstad]

Never trust a Realtor's preferred vendor.

[LaMaiStyle]

I can vouch for this owner that his story is true. We almost bought into his neighborhood 6 months ago. The whole neighborhood has hydro-collapsible soil. The red flag for us was the many homes for sell in a nice neighborhood. After research we found that the builder is being sued. They are still building beautiful homes there. We told the realtor why we didn't want to buy in that neighborhood and she tried to talk us into buying anyways. Oh my god! We almost made the same mistake as that guy. We did buy a home closer to town and just as nice. But we have small issues. Ants. Birds living in a duct work. Hot mess but not as bad as a sinking foundation.

[logdon]

When I bought a well taken care of home from 1960 I was worried about problems, but then I realized it had been through decades of weather and abuse and was still structurally sound. My friend bought a 10 year old home and realized his basement is a bathtub and due to other ground flooding issues his chimney is sinking and tipping over.

[stephanielevonne]

Home inspectors (in some states) have a clause in their contract that says if you havent brought up issues in the first 2 weeks (after the inspection, NOT after you've moved in) then you cant sue them.

[KTSpeedruns]

Wait, so one engineer says one thing, then another contradicts him. Get a third opinion? One of them might be trying to scam you for thousands of dollars of unnecessary labor.

[jpstewart]

This same thing happened to my family and was rampant in our neighborhood. The neighborhood sued the home builder and won. The home builder had to purchase our house back at market value.

[cleanuppros]

I’m a master home inspector. I hope that second engineer was exaggerating. That’s terrifying to miss something like that.

[Hemmings-qdhg]

If a qualified engineer issues a report, would he/she not be professionally liable?

[InvestingHustler]

Get a licensed home inspector to give you a 3rd opinion ! Not another engineer. Something doesn’t add up here

[michaelh]

I will give you a tip if you are having a home built... Insist that 30 days go by after the foundation is poured before construction begins.

My brother is a plumber. He says he sees foundation cracks all the time in homes that are only a few years old. Said you got to let the foundation properly cure.

Builders are quick to start after a few days.

[raulgolfs]

This probably would have been me if I bought a house last year in baby step 2 in Austin TX. My inner child is screaming “you needa buy a house! You needa buy a house!” So hard to stay on baby step 2. Controlling my spending! Let’s do this!! 🙌🏽

[evanekstrand]

Why would the real estate agent be liable when an engineer stated the property was fine?

[TheMahonj]

There’s a huge epidemic of crumbling foundations in Connecticut right now due to a bad batch of concrete from a local quarry, billions of dollars worth of damage scattered throughout half the state and less so in parts of Massachusetts as well. Often times the houses are basically totaled in the same way a car is totaled. It would be cheaper to just buy another house than to try and fix it. Hope it’s not something like that happening in your area.

[Recovering_Californian]

Some states don't require a disclosure of anything. Buyer beware.

[Kablemodem]

I basically have the same issue. The previous owner hid the signs of a failing foundation and the cracks didn’t reappear until several years after I bought the house. I got two estimates to repair the foundation and fix the damage, both for about $50, 000.

[adrianr]

My home here in Australia was built in 1934, solid as a rock to this day, paid $72, 200 for it in 1989, over the years tho I have seen some homes fall apart not too long after someone bought it, really pays to get the right people to inspect it which might save a lot of money and tons of heartache.

[ocky]

I love that Dave is calm and keeps things simple. The reality is that someone was wrong and/or lied. If someone hid that degree of damage, that is worthy of a lawsuit and perhaps revoking of someone's realtor's license.