After your request for a good engineer, did you have a list that you can share? My client’s inspector just called for an additional study on the soil that is rotting near the pillars of the house (house is built on wood pillars) and the house is on a sloped hill. Any good engineers within reasonable expense would be appreciated. Inspector said that a water diversion expert shld help prior to hiring engineer. If you know one, please pass along. Thank you!

But I think you should go to work on Monday and say “hey Hillbilly” when you walk past her office!

We gotta put her in her rightful place you know!

PS: The lighthouse was Cape Hatteras. They moved it back a few steps off the coast a few years ago. Seems like it took them forever to move the poor thing but I guess they needed to spend the tax dollars somehow because the state darn sure hasn’t done much of anything else.

Yes, that is very true. Last November when we had all that rain that caused so much trouble and damage, I asked some buyer clients to drive by a house they were thinking about (and they had expressed concerns about water drainage) to see if there was standing water in the yard. There was very little standing water in the yard, so their concerns were diminished.

You are right, the storm water issue is an important one. Excess water, it’s control and diversion can help to either improve saturation or cause a big problem somewhere down slope. Homeowners must make sure that when they divert excess water from their property it is not onto a neighbors property causing a problem.

You’d have to ask ARDELL! LOL.

You are right, it is for immediate (and possibly longer-term) peace of mind. There are no guarantees concerning anything because given enought time all things deteriorate and are destroyed, but having a trained, knowledgeable person can help a person evaluate the risk (if there are) and make the best decision for them.

Homes in areas that are tornado, hurricane, wildfire, flood, tsunami, landslide, earthquake, lahar (a destructive mudflow from an erupting volcano [ Mt St Helen's and Mt Rainier ] and a concern for some Washington areas and cities) prone areas all have some risk to them. Everyone has a different tolerance to each of those risks, you have a low tolerance to landslides because of your friend’s experience.

I have high tolerances to earthquakes (grew up in Southern California) and wildfires, low ones for tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding, and somewhere in the middle for landslides and lahars. It’s a matter of past experiences and how knowledgeable a person is in understanding the risks, and how to either minimize the risks, or deal with the risks if they ever occur.

The house my clients are considering is not “…perched ready to go….”. As I commented earlier, if I was buying the house, I would have a geologist check it out, I could not do less than suggest the same for my clients. From my examination, looking for cracks (none) in the patio that are parallel to the slope, I am satisfied with that aspect. However, regarding the slope itself, I don’t have the knowledge and training to evaluate that either for my clients or myself which is why if it was a house I would consider buying, then I would have it looked at. Of course that is a reflection on my tolerance and not clients.

Homeowners/purchasers often neglect to consider the impact of storm water. You don’t need to live on a steep slope to find yourself with soil issues. As communities develop the % of permeable service decreases, pockets of soil can become super saturated and move. It can be the slope behind you that causes trouble.

Were I a realtor I would include a couple consultants in my contact list for clients to call if they voiced a concern. This is an area for experts.

I think it’s a good idea to get one for immediate peace of mind but I have a neighbor who lived in CA and lost his house sliding down the slope so I am a little bias. You have to be a little bit in denial it will happen. Something I would not put my family in harms way. I be the first one out of town during a natural disaster.

If it’s perched ready to go it’s probably gonna cost more to insure also and that is to be considered.

Does that mean I can now call your boss (ARDELL) a hillbilly in our daily emails? LMAO