Hi Alexandra,

The mere presence of a sump pump alone is really neither good nor bad. MANY homes have one in the basement - whether it gets regular use or not.

What WILL be an issue however - is if there are apparent moisture issues in your basement. This is very serious and must be dealt with before listing. Otherwise, any offers will be much lower - and you'll be lucky to get any offers at all.

Moisture issues in the basement are pretty easy to spot for nearly anyone, especially your buyers inspector. I'd HIGHLY recommend dealing with these properly before your house is shown to anyone. Similarly, spend proper time to super-stage your home (de-clutter and super clean).

For example - in my last home, there had been settling of the soil around the foundation walls, so the grading wasn't what it should have been anymore - and so we had some efflorescence on the walls in certain areas. Efflorescence are mineral deposits left behind by incoming moisture - they are like white powder or salt stains on the walls. So there were these and also dark moisture stains in certain areas. And those would put doubts in a buyers mind.

So, we had an inspector (actually an engineer) come out and advice us. Whatever you do - don't listen to those companies looking to scam you with digging a trench inside your basement along the walls - and channeling water to your pump - huge waste of money and not a fix.

In the end, all we needed to do was really lengthen the spouts, to get the water much further from the house, then acid wash the basement walls - and then dry-lock it. I'm simplifying it a bit - but the whole thing only took 2 days for us (our basement was REALLY big). Afterward, the walls were really sealed well, the ground water was properly away - and the basement walls were a nice consistent white. So, now the basement was properly re-mediated, and looked very sharp. It was also helpful that we had the report from our engineer to also provide confidence to our buyer.

It would be much better than trying to sell it without a sump pump when it should have one. Look, some basements get damp and during specific circumstances, they can get water in them. Having a working sump pump is a plus. A friend of mine bought a place with a sump pump. She's been living in it for almost a couple of years now and the sump was only used once.

Hope that helps,

Terrence Charest, e-Pro

It's better than selling one with a leaky basement. That was never an objection in selling our house. However, maybe the spiral staircase objection over shadowed it.