{"id":419558,"date":"2022-03-21T23:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/want-to-buy-a-house-dont-bother-checking-the-foundations\/"},"modified":"2022-03-21T23:00:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:00:27","slug":"want-to-buy-a-house-dont-bother-checking-the-foundations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/want-to-buy-a-house-dont-bother-checking-the-foundations\/","title":{"rendered":"#Want to buy a house? Don&#8217;t bother checking the foundations."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d8faaec9f6\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d8faaec9f6\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/want-to-buy-a-house-dont-bother-checking-the-foundations\/#%E2%80%9CWant_to_buy_a_house_Dont_bother_checking_the_foundations%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Want to buy a house? Don&#8217;t bother checking the foundations.&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWant_to_buy_a_house_Dont_bother_checking_the_foundations%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Want to buy a house? Don&#8217;t bother checking the foundations.&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                                                                        In May 2021, Molly Fleming and her brother Matthew leaped into southern Ontario\u2019s pandemic-fuelled real estate frenzy, buying a postwar bungalow in Hamilton they intended to use as an investment property. First-time homebuyers both, they paid above the $500,000 asking price for the modest property. A couple of months after they took possession, their new upstairs tenant called to complain about a musty smell wafting from the closet.<\/p>\n<p>Molly went to investigate, and soon spotted other worrying issues they hadn\u2019t noticed on their only walk-through before they bid: a water stain on the living room ceiling; a shower window with a rotting wooden frame. They called in a professional mould inspector, who confirmed the bad <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>. \u201cThere was a lot of mould,\u201d Matthew says. \u201cIt was significantly worse than we thought. I think there\u2019d been a leak in the attic for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The day after the inspector left, the tenants called again: when they turned on the dryer, sparks would fly around inside the drum. Molly im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely purchased a new one, which was barely installed when the tenants reported the washing machine was emitting a burning smell. The Flemings replaced the washer, too.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE:\u00a0Nowhere to buy<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It was hard to know what fresh horror would confront them the next time the phone rang\u2014not least, Matthew says, because the siblings had foregone a buyer\u2019s home inspection. Their realtor told them that, in a red-hot market, there was no way they\u2019d win a bidding war for the house if they made the purchase conditional on an inspection. Instead, the pair put money into a buffer account to pay for anything that came up, like roof replacement or landscaping. \u201cBut once one thing starts rolling, it seems like a snowball effect,\u201d Molly says.<\/p>\n<p>The Flemings\u2019 story is a familiar one at a time when Canadians are so desperate to get into the real estate market that they\u2019re throwing aside the once-routine precaution of a house inspection. They see the decision as a necessary gamble, but many are left in the dark after they\u2019ve made the biggest investments of their lives\u2014or shelling out after they\u2019ve already drained their savings.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure to waive inspections is a great enough concern that the federal Liberals promised during last summer\u2019s election campaign to introduce a legal right to them, a pledge that has made little impression on property-hungry Canadians. If they wait for Parliament to flesh out the details, prices will only soar further. Meanwhile, prospective buyers who insist on inspection clauses are having their bids rebuffed time and again.<\/p>\n<p>There is no data on how many homes are sold in Canada without inspections, but John Pasalis, president of Toronto-based brokerage Realosophy, offers a simple estimate: \u201cIf 70 per cent of homes are selling for over the asking price, I\u2019m confident that 70 per cent of the sales had no condition of a home inspection. It goes up and down based on how competitive the market is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And the market in some cities has been competitive for a decade or more. In the early days of Toronto\u2019s boom, when bidding wars first became commonplace, routine inspections turned into an unforeseen logistical hassle because every prospective buyer would demand one the day before offers were due. \u201cYou\u2019d have 10 home inspectors falling all over each other doing inspections on the same home,\u201d Pasalis says. \u201cIf there\u2019s 10 people who bid on the home, one benefited from that inspection. The other nine just wasted 500 bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To streamline the process, some selling agents had pre-listing inspections done that they could share with prospective buyers, a practice that remains common. These buildings might then be sold without the home inspection clause, Pasalis says, but at least someone has assessed them.<\/p>\n<p>The practice has downsides, though\u2014most obviously that the inspectors are accountable not to the people who might live in the house but to sellers looking for the highest possible price. If the inspector missed something, the new homeowners have little legal recourse.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, says Andy Christie, owner of Safe Homes Canada, an inspection service based in Barrie, Ont., some listing agents are not fans of rigorous home inspectors. \u201cThey think we create problems for them because we find all the deficiencies,\u201d he says. Last summer, Christie was doing an inspection for a client looking to buy a century home in Newmarket, Ont. The seller\u2019s inspection report suggested the house was fine, but Christie discovered that most of the crawl spaces were inaccessible, making it almost impossible to assess the foundation or floor structure. Any repair work down there would be costly and difficult.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Christie got far enough under the home to glimpse a beam with a bow in it. \u201cProbably rotted,\u201d he thought. His final verdict: the house was what he charitably calls an \u201cinformal structure.\u201d He says, \u201cEverything we could see was bad\u2014and we couldn\u2019t see most of it.\u201d So he persuaded his clients not to buy it. Days later, Christie drove by to see a \u201csold\u201d sign in front of the home and now wonders if whoever bought it was aware of the sagging, shifting or cracking that was sure to come. \u201cBuyers are getting screwed every day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>The current home inspection industry took shape in the 1970s, a creation of liability-conscious realtors. \u201cIt was a way for them to say, \u2018We don\u2019t want to take the responsibility if you move in and the furnace is kaput or the structural beam up the middle of the house is not properly supported,\u2019 \u201d says Peter Weeks, president of the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors. Some would hire a contractor to look for such things, and that practice evolved into a dedicated service. But with no licensing, formal education requirements or professional guidelines, home inspectors were viewed with skepticism in those early days.<\/p>\n<p>The industry is now held in higher regard, though licensing and training requirements aren\u2019t standardized across the country. \u201cYou could start a home inspection company in Ontario tomorrow,\u201d says Weeks. As a result, the reliable ones must compete with a wide pool of cheaper, less experienced inspectors when demand for their services shrinks.<\/p>\n<p>Still, as some inspectors bemoan the drop in demand for their services, others are catering to selling agents, tailoring pre-listing home inspections to serve as marketing tools. In a presentation posted to his YouTube account, David Asselin, a Vancouver-based inspector who specializes in sellers\u2019 inspections, likens his work to real estate photography, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re there to facilitate the sale of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asselin says his company distinguishes itself from others by reporting the positive aspects of a house\u2014a brand-new roof, say, or a hot water tank that\u2019s only a few years old. But it also includes all the problems that a buyer\u2019s inspection would, he says, allowing bidders to weigh the flaws of a property against its virtues. \u201cMost inspectors are so negative out there, and they\u2019ll try to show the client how much knowledge they have,\u201d Asselin says. \u201cWe give the client the full picture of what\u2019s h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bad news for Molly and Matthew Fleming:<\/strong> extensive work to remove mould from the bathroom, attic and closet of their Hamilton property was going to cost more than $10,000. Moreover, because their tenant would have to move out during the work, they wouldn\u2019t have rent money to help offset the cost.<\/p>\n<p>It could have been worse. In nearby Halton Hills, Lisa Song had the chance to buy her country dream home in early 2020; but only if she passed on a home inspection, the listing agent told her. After they moved in, Song and her family discovered defects, like a lack of well water being pumped into the house and major problems with the septic system. Cost of repairs: more than $120,000. \u201cI almost fell to pieces knowing I would have to get a mortgage to fix the septic,\u201d Song told CTV News.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1234144\" style=\"width: 830px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1234144 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/HOME-INSPECTION-REAL-ESTATE-HUTCHINS-FEB23-2.jpg\" alt=\"(Illustration by Kagan McLeod)\" width=\"820\" height=\"1145\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Illustration by Kagan McLeod)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>While the bidding wars of the pandemic period have put a spotlight on the problem, such stories were circulating long before COVID struck. Back in 2016, Matthew Noel inherited some money after his father died, so he and his mom, Wendy Ettinger, set their eyes on a newly built five-bedroom in Nanaimo, B.C., listed for $440,000. Knowing a bidding war was likely, they made an offer over asking and waived the home inspection clause.<\/p>\n<p>Six months after moving in\u2014 Ettinger to the basement suite; her son upstairs\u2014 the two of them started to feel sick, and noticed a musty smell that kept getting worse. The duo bought a ladder and poked their heads into the attic, where they spotted mould. They hired a private investigator, who learned that construction on their so-called newly built home had actually started eight years before they bought it; the house had sat unfinished for years, its construction delayed by the 2009 recession.<\/p>\n<p>Ettinger and her son moved out for the sake of their health, and when they finally sold the home years later, she says, they failed to reap the huge profit their neighbours were gaining in the resurgent B.C. housing market. They got roughly what they paid for it, Ettinger says, adding: \u201cWe had to disclose everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What a seller is required to disclose varies depending on the province, and the rules are an imperfect backstop. In Ontario, vendors are required to disclose any concealed defects they know of that render a property unsafe to live in, says Bob Aaron, a Toronto real estate lawyer, but if there\u2019s no evidence the seller was aware of a problem, they can\u2019t be held liable. \u201cBuyers can be stuck with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair costs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>RELATED:\u00a0Trying to lie to your insurance company? Your car will betray you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What, if anything, should be done to help buyers protect themselves is a matter of debate. The Trudeau government has yet to fulfill its campaign pledge of a homebuyer\u2019s bill of rights that would include a legal right to home inspections. A spokesperson for Ahmed Hussen, the federal housing minister, says details will be announced at an unspecified later date.<\/p>\n<p>Industry insiders, meanwhile, are confused by the proposal. Buyers already have the right to include inspection clauses in their offers; they\u2019re just waiving it to improve their odds of getting houses. \u201cGovernment is never going to make a home inspection mandatory,\u201d says Helene Barton, executive director of the Home Inspectors Association BC. \u201cThat\u2019s like mandating that you have to get your teeth cleaned twice a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in Hamilton, Molly and Matthew Fleming don\u2019t have any buyer\u2019s remorse. Yes, urgently needed fixes have dried up their dedicated savings for repairs. But their on-paper gains have made them grateful they bought when they did. Weeks after their purchase, a house similar to theirs sold one block away for $70,000 more than what they paid, which would have been well outside their budget. It was a perfect encapsulation of the warped effect of Canada\u2019s real estate craze.<\/p>\n<p>How long the dizzying ride will continue is anyone\u2019s guess, but for now the Flemings look back on the risk they took as the price of entry: if they\u2019d missed out on the house because they asked for an inspection, their window to own might have slammed shut. \u201cAnd that,\u201d says Molly, \u201cwould have been a way bigger regret for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the April 2022 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s <em>magazine with the headline, \u201cGambling with house money.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.macleans.ca\/loc\/MME\/head_subscribe\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean&#8217;s<\/em> sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for daily stories and analysis.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/economy\/realestateeconomy\/want-to-buy-a-house-dont-bother-checking-the-foundations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Want to buy a house? Don&#8217;t bother checking the foundations.&#8221; In May 2021, Molly Fleming and her brother Matthew leaped into southern Ontario\u2019s pandemic-fuelled real estate frenzy, buying a postwar bungalow in Hamilton they intended to use as an investment property. First-time homebuyers both, they paid above the $500,000 asking price for the modest property&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":419559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/HOME-INSPECTION-REAL-ESTATE-HUTCHINS-FEB23-1-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5069,67806,12156,71226],"class_list":["post-419558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-economy","tag-editors-picks","tag-housing","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}