Selling a house with a foundation crack

About this video. The person on screen is an AI-generated avatar in my likeness. The voice is mine, cloned from recordings of my own voice, and the editing adjusts the sound. The image and the voice may therefore differ from my real appearance and delivery. The text is written and approved by me, and I take full responsibility for it. This process lets me publish regularly; it changes nothing about what is said.

Hello. Can I sell my house with a foundation crack? I get asked that question almost every week.

The question, as people ask it: “can I sell my house with a foundation crack”

Yes, it sells — the real question is elsewhere

Yes, a house with a foundation crack sells. That isn’t the real question.

Does a house with a foundation crack sell? Yes. It happens every week, everywhere in Quebec.

What I can compare between two sales isn’t the wall. It’s the state of the information at the time of listing.

There’s the crack nobody has ever talked about. It’s there, on a concrete wall, and the first one to name it in writing will be the buyer’s inspector.

And there’s the crack a structural engineer has looked at, with a written, dated opinion, obtained before the house was listed.

Same wall. Same crack. Two very different conversations.

I’m not telling you what yours means. I’m telling you that the person who can assess it is a structural engineer. And that the moment you call them still belongs to you today.

The crack that was already repaired, with no invoice

There’s a strip of resin on your basement wall and you have no invoice. Here’s what to do.

A crack already repaired by someone else is very common, and it calls for different preparation.

You bought the house years ago. A basement wall has a strip of resin, a grey bead, a trace of a repair. Someone was there before you. You don’t know who, or when, or exactly what was done.

A buyer and their inspector will see that trace. It gets noticed.

So here’s the question that matters: do you have the papers? The company’s invoice. The date of the work. The warranty, if there was one. Whether it transfers to the next owner is a question for a notary — ask them, not the contractor. The engineer’s report, if there was one.

If you have all that in a folder, you have a file. If you have nothing, you have a trace whose date remains to be found.

Look now. Companies keep records. A call with your address sometimes turns up a ten-year-old contract.

Declaring what you know, without guessing

A seller must declare what they know. Not what they guess. That nuance changes everything.

The declarations form is public and I can read it to you. But here, it isn’t the text that matters. It’s the principle.

The principle, in my words: in Quebec, a seller must declare what they know about their property. What they know. Not what they guess.

A crack you’ve seen, you know about. A repair done while you were the owner, you know about. Water infiltration that happened just once in ten years, you know about too.

What you don’t know, you don’t have to make up. And you don’t have to characterize what you’re not in a position to characterize. Writing down a dated observation is always more solid than writing down an opinion.

When the question goes beyond observation, the answer is written with a structural engineer’s opinion on file. Your broker helps you with the wording. Legal questions, on the other hand, go to a notary or a lawyer.

What the buyer and their inspector will look at

Here is exactly what the buyer’s inspector will look at on your basement walls.

What a buyer and their inspector will look at in your basement. You might as well know in advance, because it’s no secret.

A building inspector goes around the accessible foundation walls with a flashlight, in raking light. They look at the bare concrete. They note what they see, photograph it, and write it in their report, with a recommendation to consult an expert when they consider it necessary.

They also look at what surrounds it. Rings on the concrete. The whitish, powdery deposit. The bottom of the walls. And outside, the slope of the ground and where the downspouts discharge water.

They don’t see what’s behind a finished wall, or under the slab, or underground. The French drain is buried. Nobody sees it without a camera or without excavating. We see symptoms of it, and it’s an engineer who links them to something.

You will have gone around the same walls, with the same flashlight, before they do.

What a buyer wants to know, and never asks

What a buyer is looking for isn’t a house with no crack. It’s knowing where they stand.

When a crack appears in the file, something happens in the buyer’s head. And that part is my job, not the engineer’s.

What a buyer is looking for isn’t a house with no crack. It’s knowing where they stand.

Faced with a crack and no document, they know nothing. They can’t evaluate, they can’t plan, and they can’t explain the situation to anyone else — to their partner, to their lender. So they do what everyone does when faced with an unknown: they take the most cautious position. They take something off their offer, or they walk away.

Faced with the same crack and an engineer’s written opinion, they know where they stand. They may agree or not — but they decide, instead of guessing.

What changes between the two situations isn’t the condition of the concrete. It’s the amount of unknown.

And that’s the only part of this file you have control over, months before a buyer sets foot in your home.

Before listing, or during the inspection period

The same crack, six months before the sale or three weeks before the notary. It’s not the same situation.

With a foundation crack, there are two possible moments to get an engineer’s opinion.

Two scenarios. In the first, you call a structural engineer in the spring, before you’ve even chosen your listing date. You book an appointment when it suits you. The report arrives. You read it calmly. Then you decide what to do with it. Get quotes. Have work done. Or list with the document on file.

In the second, the crack appears in the buyer’s inspector’s report, during the inspection period. At that point, the clock is no longer yours. It’s written into the promise to purchase.

The observation is identical in both cases. The wall hasn’t changed. It’s the same concrete.

It’s not a question of seriousness. It’s a question of timing. A seller who knows chooses. A seller who finds out reacts.

Who to call, and for what

I don’t do the inspection. My role is to know where to look and who to call.

• Structural engineer
• Notary or lawyer

Frequently asked questions

Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan

Get a value report for your property, and a marketing plan — comparables, features, opinion of value

Full video transcript

Full transcript of the video above, translated from French. Published October 23, 2026.

Hello. Can I sell my house with a foundation crack? I get asked that question almost every week.

My name is Ernso Cléus. I’m a residential and commercial real estate broker with RE/MAX Crystal. Before becoming a broker, I earned a diploma in building inspection technology.

The short answer: yes. Houses with foundation cracks change hands in Quebec every week. What yours changes isn’t for me to say.

What changes is what you know about that crack on the day you put the house on the market.

What can be observed on a crack, and what it answers to, is or will be the subject of a separate video on my channel.

I’m not going to tell you whether your crack is serious. No one can say before a structural engineer has looked at it.

Yes, it sells — the real question is elsewhere

Does a house with a foundation crack sell? Yes. It happens every week, everywhere in Quebec.

What I can compare between two sales isn’t the wall. It’s the state of the information at the time of listing.

There’s the crack nobody has ever talked about. It’s there, on a concrete wall, and the first one to name it in writing will be the buyer’s inspector.

And there’s the crack a structural engineer has looked at, with a written, dated opinion, obtained before the house was listed.

Same wall. Same crack. Two very different conversations.

I’m not telling you what yours means. I’m telling you that the person who can assess it is a structural engineer. And that the moment you call them still belongs to you today.

The crack that was already repaired, with no invoice

A crack already repaired by someone else is very common, and it calls for different preparation.

You bought the house years ago. A basement wall has a strip of resin, a grey bead, a trace of a repair. Someone was there before you. You don’t know who, or when, or exactly what was done.

A buyer and their inspector will see that trace. It gets noticed.

So here’s the question that matters: do you have the papers? The company’s invoice. The date of the work. The warranty, if there was one. Whether it transfers to the next owner is a question for a notary — ask them, not the contractor. The engineer’s report, if there was one.

If you have all that in a folder, you have a file. If you have nothing, you have a trace whose date remains to be found.

Look now. Companies keep records. A call with your address sometimes turns up a ten-year-old contract.

Declaring what you know

The declarations form is public and I can read it to you. But here, it isn’t the text that matters. It’s the principle.

The principle, in my words: in Quebec, a seller must declare what they know about their property. What they know. Not what they guess.

A crack you’ve seen, you know about. A repair done while you were the owner, you know about. Water infiltration that happened just once in ten years, you know about too.

What you don’t know, you don’t have to make up. And you don’t have to characterize what you’re not in a position to characterize. Writing down a dated observation is always more solid than writing down an opinion.

When the question goes beyond observation, the answer is written with a structural engineer’s opinion on file. Your broker helps you with the wording. Legal questions, on the other hand, go to a notary or a lawyer.

What the buyer and their inspector will look at

What a buyer and their inspector will look at in your basement. You might as well know in advance, because it’s no secret.

A building inspector goes around the accessible foundation walls with a flashlight, in raking light. They look at the bare concrete. They note what they see, photograph it, and write it in their report, with a recommendation to consult an expert when they consider it necessary.

They also look at what surrounds it. Rings on the concrete. The whitish, powdery deposit. The bottom of the walls. And outside, the slope of the ground and where the downspouts discharge water.

They don’t see what’s behind a finished wall, or under the slab, or underground. The French drain is buried. Nobody sees it without a camera or without excavating. We see symptoms of it, and it’s an engineer who links them to something.

You will have gone around the same walls, with the same flashlight, before they do.

What a buyer wants to know, and never asks

When a crack appears in the file, something happens in the buyer’s head. And that part is my job, not the engineer’s.

What a buyer is looking for isn’t a house with no crack. It’s knowing where they stand.

Faced with a crack and no document, they know nothing. They can’t evaluate, they can’t plan, and they can’t explain the situation to anyone else — to their partner, to their lender. So they do what everyone does when faced with an unknown: they take the most cautious position. They take something off their offer, or they walk away.

Faced with the same crack and an engineer’s written opinion, they know where they stand. They may agree or not — but they decide, instead of guessing.

What changes between the two situations isn’t the condition of the concrete. It’s the amount of unknown.

And that’s the only part of this file you have control over, months before a buyer sets foot in your home.

Before listing, or during the inspection period

With a foundation crack, there are two possible moments to get an engineer’s opinion.

Two scenarios. In the first, you call a structural engineer in the spring, before you’ve even chosen your listing date. You book an appointment when it suits you. The report arrives. You read it calmly. Then you decide what to do with it. Get quotes. Have work done. Or list with the document on file.

In the second, the crack appears in the buyer’s inspector’s report, during the inspection period. At that point, the clock is no longer yours. It’s written into the promise to purchase.

The observation is identical in both cases. The wall hasn’t changed. It’s the same concrete.

It’s not a question of seriousness. It’s a question of timing. A seller who knows chooses. A seller who finds out reacts.

Yes, it sells. What changes the conversation isn’t the condition of the concrete, it’s the amount of unknown, and the date of the written opinion.

You declare what you know, not what you guess. A seller who knows chooses. One who finds out reacts.

A seller’s first question is still the value of their property. I produce a value report and a marketing plan, which you can request through the links below the video.

If you’re already bound by a brokerage contract with another broker, this invitation isn’t meant for you.

I don’t pass verdicts, I don’t put a price on work, and I don’t act as an inspector in any transaction. I observe, and I tell you which expert to call.

Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker, RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.

Read also: do I have to declare a repaired crack · what not to repair before getting a written opinion · the seller’s declarations, read and explained · get in touch

Ernso Cléus, residential and commercial real estate broker — RE/MAX Crystal. Your broker who knows buildings.