Economy proof your home
Now is the time to economy proof your home. Tough times dictate bold financial moves to protect the value of your home. The real estate market has become much more demanding of quality in the last year, and homeowners need to do the groundwater problem diligence to protect their home equity or lose it.
Few situations will tip the equity scales negative like having a home drainage problem. An existing home drainage problem that has not benefited from a solution that is known to be sound, like hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems, becomes a huge overhanging physical and mental problem to a buyer on your home.
The buyer is expected to start making application for the loan, pay for a home inspection and appraisal, and they do not expect to be forced to make the decision of whether or not to walk away from the home and lose money because of the home drainage problem that the sellers say they will not fix. If the lender does not have evidence of a solution to the home drainage problem, usually groundwater in the basement or crawlspace, they likely will not make the loan to the buyers no matter how much they want it or how secure they are on paper. Lenders do not want properties back in this market. Especially properties with home drainage problems that no one has solved.
The lender game has totally changed over the last 12 months. They do not see properties as eventual additional profit. Properties are liabilities to a lender in a market where they cannot even sell their paper to major brokers as in the past. Banks cannot afford to make loans that become portfolio loans that remain on their books.
Changing lending habits and properties with repairs both require homeowners to economy proof their homes prior to the sale of the home. It may be too late to hang onto the buyer or the lender if your game is to play it like homeowners have sometimes done in the past.
To many buyers, an unsolved home drainage problem in conjunction with a homeowner/seller that will not pay for a solution prior to closing, is the absolute worst thing that can happen during the purchase of a home. Repairs that are ordered late in the transaction and finally done will disrupt the buyers closing and the sellers closing on their new home as well. This is additional lost money to everyone. Don’t back yourself into this corner. Bad news at the last moment in the home sale process. Home drainage problems require a professional home drainage contractor to evaluate the condition of the home with respect to groundwater entry below grade into the crawlspace or basement. This is not what either the seller or the buyer can afford to happen.
Economy proof that home by doing the home drainage projects that you have put off. It is not likely that hanging onto that cash in lieu of solving the homes groundwater problems is going to do anything but cause you to lose big money when the chips are down and everyone is counting on timely performance as stated within the earnest money agreement.
If you are a seller, prevent yourself from falling into the “head in the sand” denial program where you do not disclose the groundwater problem when the home is listed, or when the home disclosure is filled out, only to be trapped into paying for the hand excavated french drains eventually or not make the sale. Even if it goes the way of the seller actually paying for the repairs, in addition to that probability, the buyers may reduce their offer just to make sure they feel compensated for the time and problem that has held them hostage.
The result of that procrastination program is that sellers get double dipped financially because they never dealt with the groundwater problem in good faith before they put the home on the market. If the seller had completed the home drainage construction work, usually the installation of hand excavated french drains, prior to listing the home, they would have been able to show the realtor that a value added feature was completed for the homes health and structural soundness. The evidence of hand excavated french drains is a positive, not a negative. The sellers could have added the home drainage work to the price when they listed it or find another agent who would, and they would have saved big bucks by economy proofing their home prior to the sale of it.