Days after we put in a contract on a house, had the worst inspection ever, and canceled the contract, it's still really raw.
I broke down crying on the phone talking to my friend about the house, and that's just not me.
I've gotten more and more angry about the LYING. They trimmed the doors down so they would close in a 5 inch incline! TRIMMED THE DOORS!! They patched every single wall in the upper floors to try to hide the giant, repeated cracks in the drywall. PAINTED OVER MOLD. If I had known this house was even close to as bad as it was, I never would have spent the $600 I am out.
My mistake was hiring a friend-of-a-friend realtor, let's call her Phoebe. Not only is Phoebe dumb as a rock, she is laziest "business" person I have ever dealt with. I felt like she's stuck in that 90s dating strategy where you make a guy call you three times before you call back.
So, now I have to figure out what to do. If I wait for Phoebe to get my $600 back, I might as well call it gone. Maybe a decent realtor could get it back, but I didn't have one of those.
I could go over Phoebe's head and make some threats to the other realtor. That might actually get me my money back. But that would make Phoebe look bad, I think. Phoebe is really bad, but this wasn't her fault. Maybe if she weren't so dumb, she would have caught it, but this isn't on Phoebe. It was that lying seller.
The more I think about this, the more I just want it over. This whole experience (except my excellent fourth mortgage guy and inspector) has been all drama and negativity. It's terrible. I wonder if it would be different with someone who actually knows what she's doing.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
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11 comments:
That doesn't sound like a fun experience at all. Perhaps some of emotions are triggered by so many different things happening in your world right now. If I recall correctly you have quite some time before you would have to leave where you currently are. Perhaps a bit of time settling in to your new job and putting some distance between this house buying experience, and a new house buying experience would help?
My father is in the real estate business and the best piece of advice that he gave me when buying our first home is that you need to take all emotion out of it. Tough, when you are an emotional person naturally, but the sooner that you see it as a business investment and nothing else the easier it becomes. Think of building inspections as feasability studies, and in this case it was a worthwhile $600 that you paid out. Imagine if you hadn't done it!
Having said that it is a full on process, you have to expect some degree of stress, but like most things in life you just have to anticipate that something might be stressful and deal with it. Everything is a learning experience!
I agree with the first comment, get used to your job first, then go
Maybe if you didn't have such a bad attitude you might find a realtor who actually cared about what you want. It's a two way street - a good realtor is your best asset when house hunting, they will do most of the hard work for you. But if you treat them like dirt, why do you expect they should do anything other than the bare minimum for you?
The one that was dumb as a rock was you. But that's to be expected because you have no experience choosing a realtor. It does seem that you picked an outstanding inspector though. Interview several realtors just like you were hiring an employee--you are hiring an employee. References, experience, sales volume in the past 5 years. You have learned an important life lesson.
I agree with Fiona, why are you taking it so personally? Relax.
I've worked with 2 great realtors and one bad one.
At the end of the day, having attitude is the best way to ruin finding a home. You'll never be happy.
Relax.
I feel bad that things haven't worked out but I guess I'd like to see some more information about why the realtor is to blame for all of this. Did the realtor trim the doors? Paint over the molding? I'm just not sure what you expect in terms of the responsibilities of the realtor in this type of situation. The listing realtor has an obligation to advise their client and represent their client on the sale of their home. The buyers reatlor has the obligation to represent and advise their buyer. That means getting them showings at the listings they want in the neigborhoods and price ranges that they select, and to advise and lead them through the process of making and working through an offer. In very few cases would a realtor be expected to know about things uncovered in the inspection that you had.
In reading your posts, it seems that whoever is selling the house is the person that is attempting to cover things up and should be blamed for the house being in the condition it's in. Or if you want to go back further, it's tied to the builder of the home in the first place.
In the end, there are a lot of people that probably would have gone further into the process and been burned for a lot more than $600, so I wish you'd put a positive spin on this and realize that you've got some reasons to count your blessings.
Look, not all realtors know what they are doing - and even recommendations from friends don't always work out. Perhaps you should get another one. The reality is you are out that inspection money and it is was worth it - you found out that the place was a painted-up sh*thole.
My advice is you need to "inspect" the property yourself during viewings, to some degree - obviously you're not going to crawl into the attic, but some stuff you can tell without being a trained "inspector". Pay close attention to details - you might have figured out that place was bad and never put in the offer. I look at walls - are they even, are there little bulges or warping anywhere. Feel the floor - is it level? Squeaking? If there are recent upgrades, is the workmanship good or are certain details not finished up well. You can tell certain things from the get-go.
Likely this will be the worst scenario for you. Usually, people don't try to cover stuff up for the reason that it'll probably be found out and for fear of litigation.
Look for a realtor who has been in the business more than 2 years. It's really easy to get your real estate license (read a book, take a test...course optional), and it becomes a popular temporary profession in a bad economy. The chances of finding someone who doesn't particularly care about their reputation because it's not their "real" career are unfortunately high.
When it comes to realtors, you need to find one that does it as a job. And what I mean by that, is that they don't do it as a hobby. We had one that did it as a hobby and not one offer in 3 years. We got a new one and she got an offer for us in 3 months.
Too many people choose to be realtors because of the flexibility, etc., but don't work it because they don't *need* to.
When interviewing, find out how many they have sold in the area you're looking in in the last year, 6 months and 3 months. Our original realtor hadn't moved anything in 4 years but we took her because she was a friend of my sister's. I knew it was a bad move but my parent's disagreed. The one who sold the house was the ONLY ONE in her office (of over 50 realtors) that had sold anything in the prior year. Granted, we are in a crappy market, but at this point, who isn't?
Just do some research and you'll be fine. Good luck!
Take a break from house hunting. Then come back and treat it like a job interview and do some homework before going back out there. sounds like you have a keeper in the inspection dept, so make sure he is a part of your team next time you go out there. And you will spend money during a house buying process that you don't want to, but need to. Think of it as a cheap life lesson. I mean REALLY cheap. Imagine your costs if you bought that house!
Dog-
It's called failure to to disclose. Look through those papers you got from the realtor when you made the offer. Here in Texas the seller has to disclose all known defects with the property.
Play around on Google a bit. Key words real estate texas failure to disclose seller...you get the idea. See how law firms come up? The question is do you want to hire a real estate attorney? Personally, I think I'd send a copy of the inspection report and the sellers disclosure list to the listing agent and their broker demanding my deposit and my inspection money back by certified check within 10 days or you will be pursuing further legal action and notifying the realtor board. Use a highliter to emphasize the parts of the report that show the seller knew about the defects (and hid them).
Be sure to send the letter separately and certified with a returned receipt requested. By sending the inspection report they can no longer claim they didn't know the property had any defects when they attempt to sell it to the next person.
Maybe the letter should be addressed to the owner of the property and cc'd to the listing agent and their broker...Hmmm
It would be worth looking into Dog. It's not just about your $600. You should get your deposit back. That's fraud. And they will do it again to someone else.
How about asking your inspector for a realtor recommendation? Maybe your mortgage person has heard about a good one?
My agent is an old f*rt, I have to remind him of things (but I'm not new at this so it doesn't bother me as much), but he notices cracked ceilings, sloped foundations, mold, his wife always comes along and helps look for problems. He also encourages me to negotiate, and walk away from bad houses. We need to find you someone like my Ralph but with a better memory.
This is all part of a learning process. I always look at a house at least 2 different times before I write an offer. I'm trying to say I look at the house on 2 separate days and without the sellers and their agent talking to me. If people are talking to me, that tour of the house doesn't count in my book, I'm tough, Dog. I take a big flashlight for both my husband and myself(and at least one tape measure) and something to write on and turn on plenty of light and open blinds as we go through each room and closet if we like the house. I want to see what I'm thinking of buying.
Another thing...try to stay with the inspector when he's there. A good inspector won't mind. Wear old clothes and sneakers so you can keep up with him. A good inspector will explain what he's doing and why and you'll learn a lot about not getting ripped off when buying a house. You'll notice he comes prepared with a check list and works the list. But if you are there, he can show you any problems, what they look like how he detected them, etc. A face to face conversation always beats a report.
Good luck Dog.
LindaB
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