I have lived in California my entire life.  There are certain things that are indigenous to the area.  Cracks in the walls is one of them.  I have recently watched several buyers scrutinize a home over a crack or two in the dry wall.  I’ve been told that cracks at the doorway signifies instability in the structure by potential purchasers.  I smile and nod at my junior engineer.  With all of my years at looking at property, I can tell you without a doubt, a crack in the wall may be something or nothing.  Sometimes it’s even something in the middle.  What I do know is that no one can tell by just looking at the crack whether or not a home has structural issues.  My house is littered with cracks in the walls.  I foolishly and tediously repaired every one of them when I moved in, only to have them open up the following winter, because I did the repairs in the summer months.  My property, like a lot of property in Northern California sits on adobe soil.  I’ve sent a number of contractors and structural engineers under my home.  It’s nothing to worry about.  It’s just a by product of California living.

Adobe soil is a clay soil, full of fine-grained minerals.  When it rains it becomes water laden, heavy and “full”.  In the heat of the summer it becomes hard, dry and compact.  Many of the older homes built in this area on a pier and post foundation will shift slightly during the year with the soil.  Doors that work in the summer (when the house was built) stick in the winter or vice versa.  It doesn’t indicate any instability in the structure itself, or a propensity for a home to slip off of it’s foundation, it’s simply a minor shift.  Writing off a house because it has a crack in a wall is as unrealistic as ignoring the cracks all together.  Only a licensed professional can truly assess whether the shifting in the home is inconsequential or the beginning of a structural nightmare.  If the floors are even and level, I’m a lot more incline to recommend that my buyer move forward on a property.  Even then, that is why I always recommend that my clients order complete inspections from a competent professional.  The money spent on the inspection could save my buyer thousands in unexpected repairs.  It could also clear the way for my buyer to get a deal on a property that was overlooked by the junior engineers.  This is a market that requires scrutiny and expertise.  I see a lot of potential buyers out on a ledge over some “expert” advice they read on the internet or heard at the water cooler.  I certainly wouldn’t ask my Doctor to operate on me based on something I read on the internet or something a friend of a friend told me about.   I always wonder why this sort of “advice” always carries more weight in real estate than the real advice from true professionals.