Don’t Let This Happen to You!

How not to be swindled by the professionals when buying a house.

Make a list of questions you may have about the house prior to viewing and take a notepad to write down the answers and jot down additional questions you may have during the showing.  If something doesn’t sound right, ask your agent to follow up with you in writing so you have a paper trail.

This story took place prior to me becoming a real estate agent –

I took a walk down the road from my house in northern CA one summer day and noticed that I had new neighbors who were friendly.  During our conversation, I found out they had moved up from southern California to be close to her parents who were getting up in years.  They enjoyed landscaping the yard and fixing up their little 2-bedroom place and I asked, “so how do you like it here and how do you like your house?”  He replied, “We like it a lot, but we were only able to walk through the house once prior to purchasing it because of the long drive.  As we walked by one of the bedrooms, there was a sign on the door that said, ‘Cat Sleeping’ our agent put her index finger up to her lips as she looked at us and said, ‘shh, the cat’s asleep.’  We didn’t think anything of it, but after we moved in, we noticed a hump in that carpeted bedroom.  My wife turned it into her sewing room and after a few loads of laundry, we noticed that the carpet was getting wet from one corner of the room out to the center.  When I checked it out, there was broken plumbing under the foundation which explained the hump in the floor during our walk-through.”  I was dismayed as I could sense his discouragement.  I continued to chat with them every so often on my walks and one day that winter, I asked how they were doing and he said, “the roof is leaking like a sieve!  We have buckets everywhere catching the leaks.  We wondered why there was a bucket of roof patching material in the garage when we moved in and when I went up on the roof, there were patches all over.”  I was very sad to hear the distress in his voice.  I asked “didn’t you guys hire an inspector?” And he said, “yes, but we didn’t know who to hire, so we asked our agent if she knew of one and she had one that she used and was happy to have him inspect for us.” 

My distressed neighbors called the brokerage to ask them to make this right and they told them that they were not responsible for it and that the buyer would have to go after the seller for it.  My neighbors contacted the seller who refused to pay for anything and the brokerage recommended they take the seller to Small Claims Court where they obtained one third of the cost of the $16,000 roof. 

Look at your AVID (Agent Visual Inspection Disclosure) closely and make sure it matches what you saw in your walk-through. If you notice a problem that wasn’t on the AVID, the brokerage is responsible for rectifying the situation.  If not, they can be reported to the Department of Real Estate.  If the home inspection doesn’t address detected problems, you should speak to an attorney.   

Be careful, be wise and don’t get swindled!