Buying a House is Very Frustrating.

[Ricechex]

Hello All,
You may remember my last post, in which I was in escrow. I am now OUT of escrow, minus my $500 house inspection fee and a $350 loan application fee which is non-refundable.

Let me tell you what happened.

I hired a house inspector who was VERY VERY good. The property was lipstick on a pig.

HUGE THINGS were wrong:
Foundation–exposed rebar, water leaks, concrete falling off the stem wall
Plumbing—didnt work, bathtub filled in a minute, weird plumbing things done, water coming from the toilet into the foundation
Asbestos
Furnace didnt work
Water heater bad
Electric panel was so bad that house lights were dimming in and out, incorrect and different switches, one panel with 7 switches for whole house and unpermitted bonus room
Roof–no flashing, needed new roof
Termite damage on hardwood floors, they tried to sand it out and hide it

And the smaller stuff:
Dishwasher couldnt be tested, brand new but installed without insulation so it rattled about
New kitchen faucet broken
Windows wouldn’t open

And those are just a few. It was a 26 page report with multiple safety hazards.

I asked my agent to ask the seller’s if they wanted to buy the report for a discount, and I heard nothing back. I emailed the seller’s realtor to let her know that the house was so dilapidated it might need to be demolished.

If anyone would buy this, it would be an investor who would pay much less.

Scary thing is, it went back on the market for the same price, same description…..”charming, renovated home.”

I think that is deceptive. What do you think?

[spdrun]

You could have seen 50% of those things for yourself and not bothered paying the inspector before deciding to walk. BTW – none of these should be a deal-breaker, with the possible exception of the toilet leak (foundation will need to be jackhammered). Just squeeze the seller’s teat till it’s purple regarding price.

[Coronita]

Sorry to hear that…. It happens….

[moneymaker]

If you had given them the report and then they put it back on with same MO then I would say yes, deceptive. Did the previous owners live there or was it a foreclosure. If a foreclosure then the sellers are not held to as high a standard for truthfulness I believe. This would also be true of relatives selling the house if they did not recently live there. Perfect houses are far and few between, sounds like that was a good one to pass on. I;m pretty sure it is illegal to sell a house without a working furnace.

[CA renter]

Sorry to hear about that, Ricechex. Sounds like you did the right thing by having the home inspected (people who waive this right are nuts).

Wondering why you didn’t use the inspection report to negotiate, though. Also, if they see the inspection report and/or were notified of the problems — which they would likely do if you were using it to negotiate with them on repairs/cash-in-lieu/price reduction (my preference because you don’t have to pay property taxes on it as you likely would with cash-in-lieu or seller’s repairs) — they would legally have to disclose this information to any other potential buyers. You can use this to your advantage.

Sorry this one didn’t work out, and hope you find another house soon.

[scaredyclassic]

being out $850 sucks, but really it was nothing compared to the financial abyss that house represented. soemtimes we have to feel good about bad events.

i got a ticket 9 months ago. i tell myself that it was a warning to be safer, i am grateful for the ticket, i am driving slower, saving gas. perhaps that ticket saved my life.

this 850.00 had a purpose.

our lives, who we are, where we a re going, it is all a story we tell ourselves.

[spdrun]

But why not use it as a point of negotiation? The land has got to be worth something in itself.

[poorgradstudent]

We walked from a house for less (bad roof that the owners didn’t have the cash to pay to fix). It’s why you do the inspection. As others noted, some of these things are things you now know to check when you see a house and are considering making an offer. When you view a house, by all means, flush the toilet, check to make sure there is hot water. Foundation issues are tough for us lay-folk to detect, but if there are a lot of little things that suggest poor upkeep, that’s the smoke that suggests a fire.

Assuming your loan was approved, you should be able to apply that same loan application fee to future purchases. Obviously some lenders or brokers vary in their policies, but most want your business enough to cut you some slack in cases like these.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=CA renter]Wondering why you didn’t use the inspection report to negotiate, though. Also, if they see the inspection report and/or were notified of the problems — which they would likely do if you were using it to negotiate with them on repairs/cash-in-lieu/price reduction (my preference because you don’t have to pay property taxes on it as you likely would with cash-in-lieu or seller’s repairs) — they would legally have to disclose this information to any other potential buyers. You can use this to your advantage.[/quote]

This is tricky with “bubble” homes that have very little or no equity in the house, and there are quite a few of those on the market these days. Leveraging $2,000 is a lot easier than leveraging 10,000 or 20,000.

Obviously the seller is going to still have the same problems with future potential buyers, but sometimes they just don’t have any wiggle room and have to hope they can find someone willing to pay enough to make it work.

[sdsurfer]

[quote=CA renter]Sorry to hear about that, Ricechex. Sounds like you did the right thing by having the home inspected (people who waive this right are nuts).

Wondering why you didn’t use the inspection report to negotiate, though. Also, if they see the inspection report and/or were notified of the problems — which they would likely do if you were using it to negotiate with them on repairs/cash-in-lieu/price reduction (my preference because you don’t have to pay property taxes on it as you likely would with cash-in-lieu or seller’s repairs) — they would legally have to disclose this information to any other potential buyers. You can use this to your advantage.

Sorry this one didn’t work out, and hope you find another house soon.[/quote]

I agree with this. Definitely a good thing you got the inspection done and worth every penny in my opinion! I hear of people buying a home without an inspection and I think they are crazy. I would have used it as a negotiation point and itemized every item that needs work and sent the list to the seller letting them know that you would like each item fixed (or at least the more important ones) or that you would like a credit or that you are going to adjust your offer to reflect the difference.

Actually….your Realtor should have guided your through it because that is their job. However…I think you might be the same person still working with the Realtor you never trusted in the first place so this makes perfect sense that the person the never represented your best interest still doesn’t. There are so many Realtors out there that are honest and professional. You really need to go find one before you submit any more offers. I mean…did I read correct that you e-mailed the sellers agent? They did not respond because they do not work for you…they work for the seller and all they care about is helping the seller to sell the home because that is their job.

[spdrun]

This is tricky with “bubble” homes that have very little or no equity in the house, and there are quite a few of those on the market these days. Leveraging $2,000 is a lot easier than leveraging 10,000 or 20,000.

Offer to negotiate a shitshow … I mean a short sale … then.

[La Jolla Renter]

Why sell the report to them? Email it to them and get some discussion going back and forth on some of the main points.

You want them aware of the problems in writing.

Then tell them you want the price discounted to cover all the big stuff.

If you can’t come to a fair price, then send them a release letter that gives them permission to make as many copies of the inspection as they like. So they can hand it out to new prospective buyers to disclose the issues that they are now aware of. Send it via registered mail.

I’ve seen this work many times.

[CA renter]

Agree with sdsurfer, ricechex. You need another realtor. Maybe contact sdsurfer for help? 🙂

[UCGal]

The inspection served the purpose you paid for – to let you know if there were big problems. You got your money’s worth.

I’m not sure why you would try to sell the inspection to the buyer. If you formally give the inspection (via the agents, as part of the negotiation) then the seller MUST disclose the problems – since they’ve been informed of them, officially. Why in the world would *they* pay for information they would have to disclose?

You’re out some money – but a lot less money than if you purchased this place.

[Jazzman]

Inspection reports can be scary things in their own right. They go into quite a lot of detail and can even make nice homes look like a daunting prospect. That said, if the problems are visibly overwhelming it’s best to walk away. I don’t think there is much you can do if a seller wishes to re-market their home in spite of everything. Can you link to the property?

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