An inspection by a structural engineer will be realistic and will indicate what needs to happen if it is a problem.

No advice, just wishing you good luck and please let us know how it resolves.

I'm in a totally different situation, been in our house for 29 years and don't plan to move, but we are having foundation issues and had an inspection by a civil/geotechnical engineer. They have far more expertise in such things than a general contractor or home inspector.

Agree with rrah. Start there.

Thank you all so much... I'm having an architect friend stop over today, but wouldn't know where to start to find a structural engineer. I will keep everyone updated!

Your architect friend will know some structural engineers.

Architect is a no-nonsense guy that would not be afraid to tell us if our house was falling down. He came over tonight and said 100% absolutely unequivocally that the crack is not from the foundation settling. On the other side of this wall is a garage and he said it basically cracked because it wasn't braced when they backfilled the garage. He fiddled around and took a bunch of level "readings" and said he was positive.

He gave us the name of a structural engineer who is also going to come out onsite and verify.

Will keep everyone updated.

Tell this to the buyer and give them a realistic time period to remove the inspection contingency. Tell them if they give you any grief over the cracks that you will move ahead with the other four offers.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with your foundation, I mean, you are the owner of an adorable Boxer, right? I have a couple of my own and they make everything perfect. ;-)

Anyway, my mom had the same problem. The inspector completely ran off a buyer. They had a structural engineer take a look and he found no problems with the foundation. These inspectors should have to state somewhere that they are not foundation experts and any findings they make should be followed up with a real professional inspection.

Update!

• Formal inspection report came back. It actually noted NO STRUCTURAL issues and said that noted concrete cracks were normal.
• Apparently the buyer's brother in law is an "engineer" and was the one that freaked them out.
• Hired a structural engineer to come on site today. He said there were absolutely no structural issues.

Buyer officially backed out this morning and then decided to give it one last shot after speaking with our structural engineer. That conversation should happen later today.

I'm done with this buyer and ready to move forward with another offer when the contract allows to (tomorrow evening or when they officially back out).

Will keep you all updated!

good luck with the buyer. sounds like you may have more headaches with them if they decide to move forward. Keep us informed.

Did they or didn't they officially back out? (your post says "yes" in one place and "no" in another)

It sounds like they did back out, and then they decided they would wait to formalize it until after they spoke with the structural engineer.

They verbally backed out and their agent told them they should at least review the engineers assessment. They agreed. Also, just learned that the brother in law that killed the deal made his assessment remotely from CHINA!

It's almost laughable at this point. I wish we could back out of the contract, but apparently they have three business days post inspection to back out. That takes us until midnight tomorrow....

cpartist - you are spot on... we will be relieved if they back out at this point.

These buyers sound like a nightmare. Good luck to you getting through the rest of this sale, hopefully with new buyers.

Wow! You are lucky! Same thing happened to us selling my late mother in law's home. Realtor noticed racks in foundation, common in the area. Structural Engineer did his inspection. The builder hadn't poured the slab with enough rebar, so we had to rip out the entire living room, hall and one bath floor to redo the slab. Not a cheap fix! This was done prior to any offers and the house was move in ready. Cash sale happened before it ever hit the market. Good luck with your buyers!

I just wanted to say that my son almost bought a house, but it had multiple inspection issues, it was built in 1950.

The inspector noticed horizontal cracks. He said horozontal cracking is the bad kind, not vertical. In our case he said it was probably due to water pressure from improper grading, and there were signs of water intrusion and the grading was sloped slightly towards the foundation. That, plus termites, windows that needed replacing, some plumbing leaks and the deck about to fall off are why we ran.....we would have been happy with your place!

Based on this small experience I would have guessed the vertical crack was not a problem. I agree, you might prefer different buyers, who aren't getting advice from relatives overseas! Good luck.

You cant really blame the buyers. If an inspector told you there could be structural issues with the house then how would react?

I would be worried if i was them too.

Good Luck with your sell.

all i can say is good luck to the buyers finding any poured concrete foundation without cracks! i remember a quote from a concrete guy when we were doing research for the pool deck about the only guarantee with concrete is that it will crack! we too have a house built in '98 with hairline cracks in the foundation. i don't know anyone who doesn't honestly. here's to hoping you find a more realistic buyer

Tlbean - that's the problem. The inspector noted the vertical crack as cosmetic and not structural! The structural engineer reiterated the same.

We are ready to move on one of the other four offers we had on the table... this family will be a nightmare, no question about it.

Legally they have until 5pm today and apparently are going to take it down to the wire.

Well??

What jewel asked.

Wow! You escaped! Very happy for you. Woo hoo!

Good for you! Hope it works out, and thanks for the update.

Are you sure you are out of the first contract? Here, it is the buyer's duty to terminate the contract at the end of the inspection contingency, if that is their wish. If there is no termination correspondence, then the contract is still in effect. Did the buyer's agent office return the deposit to you?

New buyer is retired Army, purple heart and silver star recipient that served four combat tours. We couldn't be happier to sell him the house, even at a discount over the previous buyer. Funny how these things work out in the end sometimes.

ncrealestate - yes, we executed a PA cancellation that was signed by all parties and they received their earnest money back.

So glad to hear this worked out for you! Those buyers, wow, all that just based on something heard from someone in China. I'm glad you are rid of them.

Mini Soda wrote:

"Oh boy.... what a roller coaster. Buyer #1 went off the reservation and never even bothered to respond to us with their intentions by the 5pm deadline yesterday."

I thought they never responded to you by the deadline? If they did not respond to you by 5:00, that would mean that they were wanting to go ahead with the contract or were in breach of the contract after the 5:00 deadline. Unless I am missing some details of the contract. If 5:00 was the drop dead deadline for them to make a decision, and they backed out after that time, you would have been entitled to the deposit. Again, unless your contract has some other wording.

Anyhow, I hope this one goes smoother for you.

NC--I agree with you, but I think they previously responded that they would terminate the contract, and then asked for time to rethink the termination.

Per most contracts that I have dealt with, if the buyer does not produce written termination by the deadline, then the contract is still in effect. And then if they terminate after this deadline, the deposit goes to the seller.

Hm, I could bet that in my contract, I as the buyer, have to lift/remove the contingency by the deadline.

I'm not sure exactly what time they signed the PA termination, but your point is well taken. Candidly, it's not worth the stress and fight for a $5k deposit at his point. Happy to have them gone!

I understand. But just FYI for other readers, it is not the time they signed that is important, but at what time it is delivered to you.

Out of curiosity, does an email with read receipt work? Or do you have to actually mail it? Or is that something in the contract?

Email works. Don't even need a read receipt.

Thanks, I knew that worked for non real contracts but real estate gets its own laws.

I am glad the structural engineer deemed the cracks minor due to normal settling of the house. However, we had major structural damage to our house (2 years old) and the cracks were vertical. Usually older houses have cracks that are normal with settling but not a new house. I do not blame the buyer for backing out as I am sure his brother in law, who is an engineer, has seen structural damage in houses. Dealing with it is a nightmare you do not want to go through.

Glad you got a clean report from the engineer and it looks like your house will sell quickly!!