For Realtors and Title Companies
Sealed Transaction Letters Without the Wait
An option period is short and a closing date is a contract. This is engineering work organized around both, delivered as a document your buyer, seller, and underwriter can all read.
Opening soon
Sealed Engineering is not yet accepting orders. Firm registration is pending with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and no engineering services are being offered or performed under this brand until it is granted. Founding customers on the waitlist are contacted first when ordering opens.
What actually goes wrong today
The option period is the whole constraint
A general inspector flags a foundation and the clock is already running. An engineer who cannot tell you when they will be on site is not usable, whatever the report would have said.
Three repair bids that cannot be compared
Three proposals from three repair companies are three different scopes at three prices, and none of them are comparable. One quotes eighteen piers along the north side, one quotes twelve and a drainage correction, one quotes twenty six and a full perimeter. The buyer is not choosing between prices. They are choosing between three descriptions of a house nobody measured, written by three parties who are each paid more if the answer is yes. A sealed engineering opinion is the only document in that conversation without that problem.
Cracks that mean nothing and cracks that mean something
Every Texas house on clay cracks. A photograph cannot tell a buyer which kind they are looking at, and it cannot tell a seller either. An elevation survey replaces the argument with a number.
Late conditions on the lender side
Roof and foundation conditions land in underwriting after everything else is finished, when what is needed is a document that closes the condition on the first submission rather than one that generates a follow up question. The difference is usually whether the engineer was told what the condition actually said.
What changes
Independent, and it says so
No repair work is sold, no contractor recommended, no price quoted. That is what makes the report usable by both sides.
Measurement rather than opinion
A relative elevation survey produces a number and a contour, and a survey taken a year later can be compared against it. Texas clay moves seasonally, so a single reading is a snapshot and two readings a year apart are evidence. That is the difference between an engineering report and a strongly worded assessment, and it is the reason a report written this way survives a second opinion.
Written for the reader who has to act on it
Underwriters want the standard named. Buyers want to know whether to walk. Sellers want to know what is actually required. Three readers, one document, and each of them able to find their answer without interpreting anybody else's.
One relationship for the whole file
Foundation, roof, repair specification, and permit letters all come from one place. That matters on the transactions that need two of them.
What this account orders
- Site visit requiredFoundation Inspection ReportsAn independent engineering opinion on what a foundation is actually doing: a relative elevation survey, documented distress, and a conclusion that is not written by anyone selling piers.What it contains
- Site visit requiredRoof Certification LettersThe letter an underwriter asks for when the appraiser flags the roof: condition observed, deficiencies named, and an estimate of remaining useful life, sealed by an engineer.What it contains
- Documents or site visitRepair Specification LettersSomething structural is damaged and somebody has to say exactly how it gets fixed. This is that document: the repair specified in buildable detail, sealed, and written so plan review and the contractor read the same thing.What it contains
- Site visit requiredManufactured Home Foundation CertificationsThe engineer's certification an FHA, VA, or USDA file needs before a manufactured home closes: the foundation observed against the HUD Permanent Foundations Guide, requiring a licensed Texas PE seal.What it contains
At intake: Tell us the option period end date or the closing date at intake. It is the constraint that determines everything else, and it is better known at the start than discovered halfway through.
For Realtors and Title Companies: common questions
Can an engineering report be done inside an option period?
That is what the intake is organized around, and the honest constraint is site access rather than the writing. Give us the option period end date at the start, along with access arrangements, and scheduling is worked against that date rather than against a queue.
Will the report tell my client what repairs will cost?
No. Cost is a contractor's number and it varies by market and season. The report establishes what the foundation is doing and what class of remedy the conditions call for, which is what both sides need before anyone asks for a price.
My buyer wants to know if the house is safe. Will the report say that?
It will say what was measured, whether the observed movement and distress are consistent with normal seasonal behavior or with something progressive, and what is recommended. That is a more useful answer than a yes or no, and it is one that holds up when somebody disputes it later.
Does an engineer's roof letter carry more weight than a roofer's?
With some lenders, yes, and specifically because the engineer is not the party who would be paid for the repair. Read the underwriter's condition language before ordering, because it usually names which one it will accept.
Can you look at a property before it goes on the market?
Yes, and a seller who does that has more options than one who finds out during an option period. A pre listing report gives time to correct drainage, address a real issue, or simply price with the information in hand rather than negotiating against a surprise.
Other repeat buyers
- For Solar InstallersYou are not buying a letter. You are buying the day it takes off your permit calendar, in every jurisdiction you work, without managing a different engineer in each one.
- For Lenders and Loan OfficersThe condition shows up late, the borrower has movers booked, and the certification is now the only thing between the file and the table. That is the problem this is designed around.
Set up an account rather than an order
Tell us the option period end date or the closing date at intake. It is the constraint that determines everything else, and it is better known at the start than discovered halfway through.
Opening soon. Founding customers get first turnaround slots.