Who buys the house you left behind?
June 30th, 2007A few times, and for some reason most, most recently, we have had to walk away after a home inspection. Every time this happens, the buyer wants to do something to warn the buyer behind them. Every time this happens, the buyer wants to stand outside with a big red flag saying, “Don’t buy this one unless you know about X”! And every time the buyer is amazed that the house sells, often within a few days, at full price or close to it.
One: house with rotted rafters
After all new energy efficient windows and brand new siding with lots of insulation the house could no longer “breathe”. All of the moisture in the air, being trapped up in the attic, caused all of the wood to be thick black mold and rot. Worst thing was, there was a brand new roof, a second shingle placed on top of the first and on top of the rotted rafters.
From the seller’s perspective it was “NEW ROOF”; from our perspective it was “ROTTED RAFTER HOUSE”.
Since the agent and seller just kept answering the rotted rafter question with “It’s a new roof”, we just walked away.
Two: rain water IN the house
We had been questioning the method of water drainage since before the offer was written. Driveway slopes down. Standing water in the drain at the bottom near the garage door. Seller working to unclog it was the answer.
Home Inspection comes and we go inside and there is water in the house. Now water in the house is HUGE here, as the big two car garage has to fill to 2-3 inches, before the water can make it into the living areas.
Many inappropriate responses. When the seller answers inappropriately, there is almost no way to resolve an issue as the seller doesn’t agree that it IS an issue. When the agent simply acts as a courier pigeon, and keeps repeating the unsatisfactory response as if saying it ten times will make it sink in, we just have to walk away.
Saying “It doesn’t usually rain this much” ten times is NOT the answer to there is water in the house.
Three: House falling down cliff
I love this one. Foundation shows ten patches to keep the house from falling down into Lake Sammamish. Seller knows nothing about foundation problems so we look at the Form 17. Nothing about the foundation patches. Seller says someone must have patched it ten times while he lived there, without his knowledge. Not a problem. Never was a problem. Has no idea who might have applied the band-aid fixes to the “not problem” LOL
Four: LaBrea Tar Pit house
Another foundation issue. This one over in Queen Anne, but much like the roof problem in number one, new stacked on top of problem. The entire main and second floor were spectacular. Massive remodel. Well over $100,000 in improvements. This is definitely the best house until we go to the basement. My God, I felt like I as visiting the LaBrea Tar Pits. I had never seen a basement floor with so many cracks and rises and falls. It looked like an earthquake aftermath down there. Scared me, and I don’t scare easily.
Agent response: New foundation poured all the way around existing foundation and remodeled main and second floors laid on top of NEW foundation. OK. Call inspector. ONLY ONE CORNER of foundation is new and the rest was a bunch of band aids about to pop off. Call agent and tell him only one corner is new. Oddly enough, he is not at all surprised. I ask if he has the paperwork from when the new foundation was poured. Once in a while an inspector is incorrect. Answer: “the seller’s attorney advised them not to release the engineers report regarding the foundation.” Yikes! Run!
Important to note, agent’s demeanor throughout and up to that point was “Seller wants NO contingencies. Seller wants loan contingency to expire in 10 days. Seller wants this and that. Yes the sale fell apart once already, BUT it fell apart on financing (right…best lie in the business. Pulling out on the finance contingency might have been the METHOD of cancel, but not the reason. Watch that one.) Big agent, very busy, very hoighty toighty. Pushing everything through in command mode LOL. Command mode is fun to encounter. Makes you look even harder for why he’s pushing everything in the wrong direction in such an aggressive manner.
So Who Buys The Houses We Leave Behind? The buyers always want to know how the house sells at full price or almost full price behind them when they leave. They want to go find the new buyer and tell them what they found out about the house.
I don’t have an answer for that one. Maybe someone else does. Oh, Craig will say “Give me the addresses so I can help the new owner sue”. Or maybe we should go write it on Zillow pointing out that someone got taken. Morally it may seem appropriate to warn the next buyer, but that is up to the seller and the seller’s agent. That brings up the subject of another topic: WHY is the inspection report not required, and almost always not given, to the seller if the sale falls apart on inspection. Seems like it is so that the seller can click off “Don’t Know” on the Seller Disclosure Form.
If we are really focusing on getting real estate transactions lifted above the status quo, the contract should REQUIRE that the buyer give the seller the FULL inspection when it is available. In fact why don’t inspectors automatically give a copy of the report to ALL parties? Shouldn’t the seller be fully advised of what is wrong with the house when the buyer cancels on inspection? Seems the form favors sellers vs. the next buyer coming down the pike.
Looks like our friend has been busy….
Galen, correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume by taking a 12% cut of the agent’s commission, Estately only gets revenue if a closed transaction occurs (and the agent gets revenue from your referral)? Also, Estately doesn’t ask you for personal information unless you are actually looking for agent, so you are giving your customers a high quality lead (unlike some other companies that sell leads that resemble a ). What’s really interesting is that they using and not just some tricked out SQL statement, in order to help guarantee that consumers and agents will have a pleasant and successful transaction.