The House Whisperer

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For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been involved in yet another transaction involving foundation funkiness. The earth moved under the house, and from all the evidence, it was still moving a bit. Unlike the house being hugged to death by Mr. Tree (see “The Kick Out”) this one looked to the home inspector like it might be fixable for a reasonable amount of money. So the next step was to get a second opinion from a structural engineer.

Finding one of these guys on short notice is not easy. The house is in Brookland, a neighborhood famous for quirky soil conditions, and my client got on the neighborhood list serve and asked for recommendations. She got three responses, all raving about the same fellow.

His name is Justice Tallard. And he is a wise elder with a delightful accent that sounds like he comes from somewhere in the Caribbean. When I met him at the house, he just didn’t look at all like I had expected a structural engineer to look. And it was clear within minutes that this guy is a true “House Whisperer”.

He really got this house. He walked around the outside, went down to the basement, went back outside, and figured out that the earth had indeed moved. He showed my client the source of the problem (it was mostly gutter and downspout neglect over several decades), and drew a picture on the back of a fact sheet showing how the foundation could be stabilized.

It’s a terrific house, and the listing agent and sellers are working with us to get the issues resolved. So I expect this one to have a happy ending.

And I learned something from Mr. Tallard. Foundation problems are not always a reason to walk away from an otherwise great house.

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