We were misled and duped about this house....

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
As many of you remember, we sold our house in AZ within 27 hours of it being listed and we were unprepared to buy another house 2300 miles away because of such low (or no) inventory. That was on Dec. 17th and the buyers were kind enough to give us 60 days instead of the normal 30 days for closing. We thought for sure we'd find a house within that time limit that would suit our needs. Wrong!

We did find several homes and had the usual inspections done, etc., but each time, there were issues we did not want to be stuck doing and having more money coming out of our pocket. Simple things that needed fixed were not a concern but when inspections revealed roof or foundation or damp, wet basements, we backed away and looked for something else. This happened 6 times.

We were getting nervous because time was running out. Then this house was listed in an area that we liked and knew, so I contacted an agency to get a relocation specialist to help us. The agent we were shoved off on had no clue how to handle a relocation. He didn't even know how to do e-signing or how to wire transfer. We should have pulled the plug on him right then but we're too soft hearted (and too soft-headed, apparently), so we did his job for him. We requested he go to the house and do a video walk-through so we could see things more clearly. He didn't know how and wouldn't go. We asked him to have someone in the agency help him. He refused to learn. He said, "I'm 70 years old and I've been doing real estate sales for over 40 years. I used to write up contracts on the hood of a car." I told him...that was then, this is now.

It was a struggle to get him to do anything and I was so stressed with so many other problems that needed to be taken care of, I didn't fight him. We had no idea, other than the Disclosure (which was "incomplete" and misleading), what this house needed or looked like.

The executrix was the deceased's daughter, who was a realtor and lived in AZ. She hadn't been back until his funeral last September. She knew what the issues were with this house and was not going to make any repairs or come down on the price. We were so desperate at that point, we bought it for full price and no inspection. That was another HUGE mistake on our part. We were so diligent with other houses we always spent the money for an inspection. We learned an expensive lesson.

Now, we're stuck with a house that needs a lot of work. We also wanted a ranch because we're getting up there (81/75) and stairs are not our friend. This house is a tri-level....stairs every where. We can't re-list it because we'd lose too much money. Our only option at this point, is to make upgrades (nominally...nothing fancy) and see what happens in a year or so.

If we had to do it over again, we'd get a different agent to start with.
 

This housing market, along with auto sales, is ridiculous. Until Supply begins to catch up with Demand, many consumers will be getting a "raw deal".
Buying an existing house, or a car...especially used...is hardly worth the prices being asked. With existing homes being sold almost within days of being placed on the market, there is NO incentive for the sellers to fix any problems.
 
Sorry to hear it. Should this ever happen again, remember that you don't have to have a house to move into. Just pack up and take your stuff to whatever area you're interested in, rent an apartment, and do your house-seeking from there. Although it's two steps instead of, hopefully, one, it would possibly also save you from a heartbreak (and loss of money).
 
Colleen said:
We had no idea, other than the Disclosure (which was "incomplete" and misleading), what this house needed or looked like.
Click to expand...
Do you think the disclosure is bad enough you could sue for damages?

I'm so sorry you are in this situation.

It really takes me down memory lane to hear your problems. The first place I bought (co-bought with my parents) I could not get pictures of the barn because "there was a cold wind blowing", this was from my own parents who had gone to look at the house! Though, now that I'm older I kind of understand their reason, but it was so frustrating. Then the fencing company I had arranged for did not show up at the scheduled date and when I called (I was still in another state), they didn't want the job anymore but hadn't bothered to tell me, so I had to pay an extra 20% to another fencing company for them to interrupt their current job and get a paddock built before my horses arrived.

The real estate agent we used when buying my current home was practically useless. And the seller was simply obnoxious, we weren't allowed to even look inside the barn that was locked up, we weren't allowed to have the carpets cleaned before we arrived (even though the house had been empty for a year with mice in it sometimes), and the seller declined to sell us the refrigerator but then didn't take it out but left it chained and padlocked (plus since we didn't expect it to be there we were having a new one delivered our first day). Not to mention there were two fresh pet graves with gads of artificial flowers blowing all over the place (tho we later found out from a neighbor that the graves were not new but the owner had tried to dig up her pets bodies to take with her but hadn't been able to dig thru the ground -- there was two weeks of heavy rain and a couple inches of standing water everywhere). Anyway it felt like a really bad purchase when we arrived. But eventually, after spending almost half as much as we paid for the place, it became pretty good.
 
My heart goes out to you Colleen. Hope all ends well for you as it did for me. One thing i learned from my own experience, is to get affordable upgrades done periodically, and do your own research.
 
Colleen said:
As many of you remember, we sold our house in AZ within 27 hours of it being listed and we were unprepared to buy another house 2300 miles away because of such low (or no) inventory. That was on Dec. 17th and the buyers were kind enough to give us 60 days instead of the normal 30 days for closing. We thought for sure we'd find a house within that time limit that would suit our needs. Wrong!

We did find several homes and had the usual inspections done, etc., but each time, there were issues we did not want to be stuck doing and having more money coming out of our pocket. Simple things that needed fixed were not a concern but when inspections revealed roof or foundation or damp, wet basements, we backed away and looked for something else. This happened 6 times.

We were getting nervous because time was running out. Then this house was listed in an area that we liked and knew, so I contacted an agency to get a relocation specialist to help us. The agent we were shoved off on had no clue how to handle a relocation. He didn't even know how to do e-signing or how to wire transfer. We should have pulled the plug on him right then but we're too soft hearted (and too soft-headed, apparently), so we did his job for him. We requested he go to the house and do a video walk-through so we could see things more clearly. He didn't know how and wouldn't go. We asked him to have someone in the agency help him. He refused to learn. He said, "I'm 70 years old and I've been doing real estate sales for over 40 years. I used to write up contracts on the hood of a car." I told him...that was then, this is now.

It was a struggle to get him to do anything and I was so stressed with so many other problems that needed to be taken care of, I didn't fight him. We had no idea, other than the Disclosure (which was "incomplete" and misleading), what this house needed or looked like.

The executrix was the deceased's daughter, who was a realtor and lived in AZ. She hadn't been back until his funeral last September. She knew what the issues were with this house and was not going to make any repairs or come down on the price. We were so desperate at that point, we bought it for full price and no inspection. That was another HUGE mistake on our part. We were so diligent with other houses we always spent the money for an inspection. We learned an expensive lesson.

Now, we're stuck with a house that needs a lot of work. We also wanted a ranch because we're getting up there (81/75) and stairs are not our friend. This house is a tri-level....stairs every where. We can't re-list it because we'd lose too much money. Our only option at this point, is to make upgrades (nominally...nothing fancy) and see what happens in a year or so.

If we had to do it over again, we'd get a different agent to start with.
Click to expand...
We can't re-list it because we'd lose too much money.
So sorry you are stuck with the only option to upgrade, sincerely hope it works out for you, fingers crossed.
 
When we moved back to Florida from Arizona, we sold our house, hitched up our small travel trailer and headed east on I-10. In Las Cruces NM my wife got a call on her cell phone that her credit card had been hacked. We explained that we were moving and technically were temporally homeless. They said when you get to your destination let us know and a new card will be issued. Fortunately I had a different card, so we could buy gas and food on our trip.
We got to our destination and parked our trailer in an RV park. Then we went and got a PO box so that we would have a local mailing address. Next we opened a bank account and moved the money from the sale of our Arizona house to a local Florida bank. In a short time we bought our condo in a complex that we knew about from living here previously. The condo was an estate sale and we were able to move in almost immediately. We paid cash, so we didn't have to monkey around with mortgages. A replacement credit card was issued promptly.
 
My gripe is more with real estate agents than the property. When I bought and sold houses recently, the the agent I hired did nothing but stand there when I looked at the house I bought. She didn't even come to show my old house when there was an interested party coming. She would call me to let me know someone was coming and I'd show the house myself (I should have received the commission!). She did show up at the closings to grab her check, though.
 
debodun said:
My gripe is more with real estate agents than the property. When I bought and sold houses recently, the the agent I hired did nothing but stand there when I looked at the house I bought. She didn't even come to show my old house when there was an interested party coming. She would call me to let me know someone was coming and I'd show the house myself (I should have received the commission!). She did show up at the closings to grab her check, though.
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I agree! We've only had one realtor in all the years we've bought and sold houses that was worth a darn.

We lived in TX at the time and we were moving from Brownsville to Victoria and a friend of my husband's suggested we contact a certain realtor in Victoria, so we did. We would drive up to Victoria (about a 3 hour drive) every weekend and she had homes lined up for us to look at. In all, we looked at over 50 homes before she gave her stamp of approval on the one we bought. She would look at the house with us and say things like.."you don't want this one. It has a cracked foundation." Or she'd say..."Nope on this one. It's in a bad neighborhood". Whatever it was, good or bad, she'd tell us honestly. We never experienced that with any other agent after her.

This guy we had here in PA was the absolute WORSE! We made the mistake of being too nice and it has cost us big time in our wallet. So far, we're going to spend at least $60,000 for remodeling and repairs. It makes us sick because the house will not be worth the added money we're putting into it. He would not negotiate a price nor would he tell us if we should offer less. He was useless and, yes, he was there with his hand out when we closed. I've been so angry and upset over this that I've been tempted to write a scathing review for their agency but I don't think that would make me feel any better. Just another life lesson learned.
 
Colleen, been there, done that in a hot real estate market. I do not know if it is the same for you but here it is "Buyer Beware"

Since I had expressed my concern in front of both the realtor and the owner about a soft spot in the hall that they lied about I threatened the realtor with reporting to the local real estate board.

Magically an envelope with money appeared in my mail box. Something you might try.
 
Sliverfox said:
Rereading ,where you mention the Realtor was terrible.
Was he from Meadville ?Conneaut Lake?

When we wanted to buy the house across from us.
Some one told us by pass that realtor go see local realtor & use them.

Sorry know this information is too late for you .
Click to expand...
It was here in Hermitage. We later learned that they are the worse realtor's in the area. No kidding!!
 
Lee said:
Colleen, been there, done that in a hot real estate market. I do not know if it is the same for you but here it is "Buyer Beware"

Since I had expressed my concern in front of both the realtor and the owner about a soft spot in the hall that they lied about I threatened the realtor with reporting to the local real estate board.

Magically an envelope with money appeared in my mail box. Something you might try.
Click to expand...
Our problem was being so far away that we never "saw" the house except the listing online. Our agent called us one day and said he was at the house and he would tell us anything we wanted to know. He didn't know how to do a video walkthrough and didn't want to learn. His "description" of the house was that it needed "a little updating". He never mentioned the kitchen was a mess and now we're putting in a new kitchen. The garbage disposal is a hazard electrically and I've never used it. The faucets and sprayer don't work. We had to call in an electrician for several outlets that never worked. Most were crossed wiring! He never mentioned anything about drafty old windows. We're replacing most of them. He never mentioned the falling down shed in the back yard (and the listing never showed pictures of the back yard). It needs to be torn down and replaced. He never mentioned the main bathroom upstairs dripped constantly in the shower/tub and the valve finally broke this week. We're having the bathroom remodeled. The disclosure said there was a "slow drip in the vanity sink". We asked that it be fixed but it was never done.

The list goes on (and on!) but we don't have any recourse. The saying here is...let the buyer beware :(
 
Friends in the home building business, members of the national association say that the housing market is expected to drop big time in a couple years. Values will go down due to fed tightening - rapidly rising mortgage rates will price many would be buyers out of the market - right now, many mortgage rates are 4.95% - we all know how the 4-7 more projected rate increases this year will dramatically raise borrowing costs.
 

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