Unfortunately, sometimes there are big red flags that we want to look out for when you’re house shopping. The first one is foundation cracks. Concrete cracks are totally normal. Concrete cracks all the time. But if that crack is more than about a half of an inch thick, it can be a structural issue. I am not a structural engineer, but I’ve seen enough of these things and walking all the way through to the home inspection, if we see those really, really big cracks that haven’t been repaired or reinforced and don’t have an explanation to go along with them, we probably want to engage a structural engineer before we even pay for the home inspector to come out because there tends to be a good chance that there’s an issue. The other thing that can be a huge issue besides just those thick cracks would be a stair step crack all the way down a cinder block foundation. This tends to mean that the whole wall can be bowing in, so you want to watch out for those stair steps cracks as well. And again, maybe have it professionally evaluated before you invest in the full home inspection, checking the other components because a structural issue is usually a deal-breaker.
Other big red flags that we really look out for are excessive dampness in the basement. We can do waterproofing and drain tiles and things like that, but if there’s a lot of evidence for a lot of dampness and water in the basement, these things can be pretty expensive and we wanna be having those conversations upfront. And then another really big red flag that we sometimes see is a DIY addition where the seller has put on maybe a sunroom or a porch or something like that, and it’s not structurally sound and it’s breaking off from the back of the house. So we really kind of want to look at what that footing looks like and watch out for those as well.