10/30/2026
It's the day before Halloween, so let's talk about the scariest house I ever walked a buyer through.
It showed beautifully. Fresh paint, staged furniture, cookies on the counter. About four minutes in, I asked everyone to follow me down to the basement.
Here's what I look at that buyers almost never do.
The smell. Not "old house" — that mineral, wet-cardboard smell that means water has been in here more than once. Your nose knows before your eyes do.
Horizontal lines on the foundation wall. Vertical cracks happen in every basement in this valley. A horizontal crack running the length of a wall is a different conversation entirely.
Fresh paint in exactly one spot on a ceiling. Nobody repaints four square feet of ceiling for fun. Something came through there.
The electrical panel. Open it. A mix of breaker brands, hand-written labels, or wire that doesn't match anything else in the box means somebody did their own work.
The furnace tag. There should be a service sticker with dates on it. A furnace with no service history, going into a Fargo winter, is a number you want before you write the offer, not after.
None of this means walk away. I've written offers on houses with every one of these. It means you write the offer knowing, instead of finding out in February.
Thirty years of basements in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo. Bring me to the showing. I'll tell you what I'm seeing.