Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast herein

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan Mccune realtor right here in

Greenville you can find all of my

contact information in the show notes if

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appreciate it today I want to talk about

structural problems okay this is

something that comes up with

regularity with me as a realtor

and also you know with hommes

that I flip as well obviously those

of you that know me know that on the

side it's not a big thing that I do

but I flip houses on the side and

structural issues used to be a kind of

a taboo thing for me I would avoid homes

that had them I would you know it was

something that I wanted nothing to do

with but I have educated myself over

the years other people have educated me

over the years and I feel like

I'm at a spot now where I understand

how to diagnose structural issues

relatively well you always still need an

inspector to come through and look at a

home no realtor is a substitute for a

good home inspector but that being

said I have enough experience around

structural issues now that I can speak

somewhat intelligently towards them and

I just want to say a few things here

structural issues are one of the things

that scares people the most when they're

looking at a home m and as I already

said that used to be a big concern for

me but I've actually learned one one of

the most valuable lessons I've learned

over the years is that most structural

problems are really not that hard to fix

they're not even that expensive to fix

oftentimes it's really really simple

and it's just something that just gets

people scared now where it can be UNS

simple there are a lot of

scenarios where it could be not very

simple for instance let's say termites

get in the house and they get into the

walls you know it's not easy to

remediate termites once they've gotten

into walls particularly if they've

really been spreading for a long time um

but a little termite damage in the crawl

space not typically a big deal right if

it's just isolated damage maybe a single

joist that needs to be repaired or

sistered or supported or whatever the

case may be but okay as I've already

alluded to it's not true that all

structural issues are simple and

easy to fix some are major repairs that

could be costly to fix and it's very

helpful to identify the presence of

structural issues before ever putting in

an offer on an house and that way you're

just prepared when the inspection report

comes in if nothing else you know you

don't want to be blindsided I hate

surprises no surprises in a real estate

transaction is one of my primary

goals so let's talk for a second about

10 signs that a house may have

structural issues now no no one of these

that we're going to talk about is a

guarantee that structural issues exist

but the more of these that you start to

see in a home the more likely it is that

a structural problem exists it's like

building a thing you know if you've ever

watched a show that deals with like

trials and juries and

whatnot it's like building a

circumstantial murder case right we may

not have a Smoking Gun but the more

evidence we can acrew the more the

picture is painted

that leads to the conclusion that

something is going on that's the case

with structural issues, you've got to put

all of the pieces together to form the

puzzle and by the time you're done then

you have something that you can say okay

there are structural issues there aren't

if there are issues here's perhaps

what's going on here's the likelihood

that they're serious issues etc etc I

put made these 10 in no particular order

so we're just going to start at the

top and go from there so the first

one that I put in here is in a house

with multiple structural issues is if

multiple doors and or Windows do not

latch properly this is one that people

don't think about right you go into a

home and you're opening closing doors

they're not latching properly

oftentimes you people assume yeah wow

these were just installed poorly

actually that can be an indicator that

there are structural issues now it could

just be normal settling so the vast

majority of Builders are not going to

build a house with doors and

windows that don't latch properly but

what happens after a year or is a year

or so there will be some settling

that happens and some doors and perhaps

even some windows will no longer

function the way they did when

the home was first built that should remedy

itself within a year or two of a home

being built and that's why most good

home builders have a first year you know

come through and fix you know any of

those things kind of Arrangement

as part of their warranty but if

you're buying a house that's 10 15 20

years old and it's having this or or

older than that and it's having doors

that aren't latching windows that won't

stay open or that won't can't open or

whatever that is again one indicator is

not a end all be all but that is one

indicator there may be structural issues

this home may still be settling and it

really shouldn't still be settling right

after a couple of years after the first

couple of years everything should settle

out the foundation should be doing

its job preventing it from settling

further and that's

that so if you're going through

ha ouse that is 10 20 30 40 years old and

you're seeing these multiple doors

multiple windows that are not

functioning properly that could be an

indication that there's some kind of a

structural issue that's causing the home

to settle more and that's causing

those those things to not function

properly another indicator on to number

two cracks in the sheetrock or the

drywall depending on your flavor of

what you call construction materials

but cracks in the sheetrock in multiple

places I specifically say multiple

places because in my experience usually

a single crack you know of a door frame

or off a window frame is not that big of

a deal but once you start getting it

into multiple places, you're seeing over

multiple doors over multiple windows now

that is a potential problem that's an

indicator that there could be a

structural issue because the home is

leveling out in a lot of different areas

causing different cracks and you

know remember that sheetrock isn't super

expandable but it takes a decent bit of

pole for sheetrock to crack and so

having multiple cracks that's

something to look into for sure

number

three in a similar vein is if you see a

single major crack in the sheetrock

particularly one that was patched and

has come back right that is a Smoking

Gun is if someone attempted to patch a

crack you know perhaps put mud you know

sheetrock mud in there or taped it and

mudded over it or whatever the case may

be and the crack came back okay this is

more than just an old crack that

happened when the house was first built

and first settled now we know for a fact

the house is still settling that to me

is a big deal that's something that

certainly needs to be looked into and

again you put these different things

together let's say that you've got doors

that aren't latching properly plus

multiple cracks all over the place in

the sheetrock plus a major crack you

know perhaps off of a door frame or

something like that that the sellers

attempted to patch at one point and then

it came back the crack bled back through

reopened and now is even larger not

good once you start putting those things

together those are not good now it

doesn't necessarily mean again that it's

a very expensive repair it might be

really easy and the sellers just didn't

realize how simple it was but it's

something to keep in mind number

four this one goes without saying

sloping floors right and that could be

you know a slight slope or that could be

like floors that are really wavy I've

been in both that's an indication

particularly if it's a cross-space home

that something is going on in the crawl

space right joist are starting to Sag

maybe there's termite damage I've seen

that before with sloping fors it it

could be that it's just a really old

house i' I run into this frequently with

those real Old Mill houses that they

will have slipping floors and could

be for a variety of reasons there could

be water damage old water damage that

caused that old termite damage could be

just that just that the the joist and

and sheathing on top of the joist

subfloor has just started to warp

over the years there's just a lot of

things that could happen but if you're

seeing sloping flors not an immediate

giveaway there is a structural issue

but again it's one piece of the puzzle

going back to the outside of the

house if you see large cracks in these

siding and or or veneer like if there's

a brick veneer or stone veneer if you're

seeing large cracks again an indication

now it's not in common for for bricks or

stone or whatever to develop

cracks in them again as a home settles

there's not a lot of give in Brick so if

there's slight slight settling it's

going to crack but if you start to see

large cracks right and if those cracks

are are are you know I don't know I

don't a quarter inch you know obviously

a half an inch is a massive crack in

brick that's when you need to start

being concerned and again if you're

seeing multiple of these cracks in

different places that's when you need to

be concerned I've shown homes

before where you go to a corner of of

the outside of the house and you can

just see major displacement happening

where you know the bottom part of of

the house is moving in One Direction the

rest of the house is moving another not

good so again cracks on the

exciting and the veneer of the house not

uncommon but you can tell if it's just a

hairline crack versus one that is that

has grown and has expanded that's

something to look into at that point

number six here's another one we're

gonna this is this pod is not going to

go too long and I'm not complaining

about that hopefully, you guys aren't

either I run into this quite a bit

actually house shakes when you either

walk in it or if you jump in it and this

happens a lot with older homes that

are experiencing some structural issues

you you you can kind of feel it feel the

flooring kind of giving when you walk

jump in it see what happens when you

jump in the house particularly if it's a

house that doesn't have you know a lot

of furniture if it's a completely vacant

home you can really feel the the shaking

of everything when you do that if you

don't feel anything shaking great then

maybe it was just in your mind that you

were walking around and felt you know

felt things shaking

taking but that's a major indicator

that there is something underneath the

home that needs to be addressed another

indicator number seven here is if you

see cracks in floor tile or coming

through other floor coverings I just

looked at a house recently that had

lolium flooring in the in the kitchen

for those of you that don't know lolium

is a form of vinyl flooring that's just

like a sheet um and pretty popular in

production Built Homes particularly back

in the 2000s and 2010s it's still

built-in some cheaper homes today even

though it's not the cheapest material

but it's it's simple to

install well I saw a home that had

lolium flooring the sheet kind of

flooring in the kitchen and a crack was

coming through the slab Foundation

coming through into and opening up

the lolium flooring very very bad

indication let me tell you it

cracks in a slab Foundation are not

uncommon at all but they should not be

coming through the flooring okay that's

that's a big deal at that point that is

a structural issue and if you have tile

it's not in common for tile to break

but if you're seeing tile breaking on

its own in a certain pattern there's

like a whole line of it I've seen this

multiple times very very bad indication

with regard to how the home is

settling

and so that's something to look into

again if this is happening 10 20 30

years after the home has been built that

should set off some alarms in

your mind number eight similar but not

the same flooring planks okay so not

tile plank flooring like luxury vinyl

plank or perhaps hardwood planks if

they are pulling apart in an area and

it's and that area and that pulling

apart is not explainable as bad

installation I've seen this multiple times

you see flooring planks and they're

again pulling apart in one area of the

home and it's not like okay this was

clearly a bad installation right the

rest of the home was installed just fine

there's no indicators that that the

flooring was installed improperly

that's something that you need to

look into and see okay what is going on

here why is there this section or

perhaps multiple sections where the

flooring planks are starting to pull

apart here's another one similar number

nine loud floor squeaks everywhere in

the house now I got to be careful here

floors flooring squeaks are very very

common okay but if you have loud floor

squeaks all throughout the house that

could be now this is probably the most

minor out of all of these so don't

don't freak out if you have Flor

squeaks in your house but if it's all

throughout the house that's something

you really need to look into because

that could be an indicator that

the joist are starting to are starting to

slip starting to get displaced could

could be a variety of reasons that would

cause that to happen now it's again it's

not uncommon for it to happen in a

corner here or place here and sometimes

just the installation of the flooring

itself can lend itself to four

squeaks in the

future but if it's a lot of loud

Force squeaks all throughout the house

you should look into that to see okay

is this just a the way this flooring was

installed it was just wasn't installed

super well or is this something more

nefarious happening all right number 10

we're here at the end the trim

especially the crown molding,not lining

up okay so when you go to a home

obviously when there's crown molding or

baseboards or whatever usually there

are sections of it right it's not just

one massive you know 50 foot long

stretch of crown molding that they put

up there they'll put up a 10ft section

another 10ft section they'll it and

try to make it look good but what

happens if if a home is settling

sometimes the molding will and the trim

will get a little off off level right it

won't be quite entirely Plum

but if it comes down again this is a

there's a little bit of an art and a

science to it when it obviously it

matters when it happens right if it

happens within the first couple of years

not typically a big deal might still

be worth checking out depending on again

if you're having some other issues in

the home but again look at how far

down the displacement is if it's just a

very minor you know it could be either

separating east and west or it can be

separating North and South if it's

very minor if it's just a slight little

crack okay that might not be something

worth talking about but the the more it

separates right the further it separates

the bigger the Gap gets between the

crown molding and the crown molding next

to it or the crown molding and the wall

or or whatever it's displacing itself

from is more of an indication that

excessive settling is happening right

and that's ultimately what Foundation

issues are is is it's

excessive I'm thinking this in very

simplistic terms but it's essentially

excessive settling right there is an

element of settling that's okay but

there's an element of settling that's

not okay and and the element that's not

okay is when it's still settling years

upon years upon years later and if it's

still settling substantially and so

you have to be a bit of an investigator

right put your Sherlock Holmes hat on

and and you know put a pipe in your

mouth and and try to figure out okay

what is going on here and by the way

I'm willing to look at your home and

tell you if I think it needs to

be looked at right or if there's a

home that you're concerned about

structural issues you know if if I'm

your agent I'm going to point those

things out but if there's a home that

you're looking at selling I am more than

happy to look into that and to give you

suggestions to bring professionals

who are more focused on and and more

knowledgeable about those types of

things into the picture to help you out

let me know because I enjoy doing all

of that it's something I I enjoy putting

the pieces of the together now it's

not always fun when the end result is

yikes you've got a big deal going on

here but the process of

figuring out what's going on with the

home is something that I generally

speaking enjoy so those are 10 signs of

structural problems and again no one

of them is the end all be all but you

start putting a bunch of these together

they could be an indicator that

structural problems exist in a home and

at that point at the very least by

that point you need to get some sort of

professional inspector contractor

Foundation Specialist involved to try to

figure out what exactly is going on

that's it for today's episode I am in

Washington DC most likely when you're

listening to this I have a conference

there hopefully I'll have some stuff

to share from that but if you have

been working with me as your realtor you

already know that because I've already

connected you with some other people

that can help you in the event that I'm

unavailable or unable able to help you

but if you need a realtor you can

still reach out to me and I will reach

out when I'm available my contact

information is in the show notes, please

let me know shoot me a text and I

will get back with you quickly and

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