What's the greatest problem you see in homes?

Welcome Paul and congrats on your Featured Star!

We tell people all the time that it's so easy to keep an eye on the possible effects and damage of water before it occurs and it is amazing how people just don't want to do what it takes to be a good homeowner.  We posted a list on it here on AR and we just apply common sense and take the responsibility of a Good Homeowner.  It's that easy.  Great post and thanks for sharing it with us.

I recently had a home where we brought in a basement company. They indicated that they could make the basement bone dry for the life of the home with a transferable warranty. The price of this would have been $5500. This was for about 100 linear feet of basement.

I have a great appraiser that points out such things to my clients. For example, the other day he told one of them to not have wood lying up against the side of the house because moisture and termites are evil with wooden built homes.

Great post and welcome to AR!

Scott

I think it dependes on the region.  I am getting to the point of moving up and selling my current home and I was very worried about watter issues in our basement. (not disclosed to me when I purchased the home, and learned too late that I could have done something about it).  I talk about this all the time to the real estate agents I know.  Many of them say that the area we live in minimal water puddling in heavy rain is almost expected.  Delaware is a flat state, soil is mostly harder clays that don't absorb much, and there are tons of creeks, rivers, ponds, resiviors, etc. in the area.  some times there is just no where for the water to go and if it is a 40+ year old house, you may get some water.

I am still nervous.  I would not have bought this house had I known there was any water at all.  It was the reason we didn't buy other homes we looked at.

Depending on where you live ofcourse, what with the natural elements, etc.    Water would be up on the lise along with leaking roofs. 

Patricia Aulson/SEACOAST NH & ME

patricia4realestate.com 

You want water problems, come live in the Everglades, as soon as rainy season starts, the floodgates open, I had to add gravel for drainage near my front door entrance.

Not to mention the black mold from the water.

Nice post, and congrats on the yellow star!

Here in Southeast Alaska we get 100 inches precipitation per year.  We had record rainfalls last year and are now going for 2nd place with the snow.  I cannot imagine what a mess it will be when it melts.

I thought maybe you were close to me when I saw the post, but it looks like water is the issue everywhere!

Great Post-

Water is our issue to in southern Wisconsin.  What amazes me is quite often it's a simple solution to a potentially HUGE problem, yet gets neglected until the damage is great!

As for the DIY craze...where I see it most impacting is when the weekend warrior tears into a project and doesn't pull the required permits from the local municipality in an effort to "Save on Taxes" then comes time to sell and a buyer wants reassurance that the proper permits were pulled....That's when the fun begins.  What a headache.

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.

Most of the problems that I find are due to lack of maintenance.

People take better care of their cars than their homes.

I see to many builders that don't take to heart two simple words. Foundation PAD means foundation elevated above its surrounding landscape.

  I have an infomous saying pertaining to water drainage and builders.  They dig a hole build a home and expect the water to drain away from the foundation. In my area  we have both wet and dry climates to deal with see more foundation damage created from poor or no drainage than problems created by dry and cracking soil. Most home owners will at least water their yards during the dry season and that will normaly suffice the amount of water necessary to prevent the soil from contraction away from the foundation.