Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last time I saw offer documents in TX they had a disclosure statement that said where (website with a map view) the information could be looked up, but it was the purchaser's responsibility to do their due diligence.
Anywhere you live, you will probably have one registered sex offender in your neighborhood and many more unregistered ones. Always be careful and know who your kids are with.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. Even if a sex offender search miraculously yields no offenders in your neighborhood or your area - that really means nothing. There are millions of sex crimes that occur each year in every kind of neighborhood that go unreported. Get to know your neighbors - well. Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. Be careful who you trust with your children.
To address the OP, I feel it is the buyer's responsibility to do sex offender research. As for anything that matters when you are spending this much money - rely on your agent as your guide - but you should always be doing your homework as well. Even if you think your agent is the most amazing thing ever - nothing replaces doing your own research.
You may be out your earnest money, but if you have kids - it's probably worth it. Knowingly living next door to a sex offender who has had indecent contact with children 0-13 would be a no go for me. Figure out how to confirm that - and then you'll have to decide what to do. That really is too bad - consider it an expensive lesson learned.
As a side note - I feel bad for those of you who have had bad experiences with agents who you felt were not working in your best interest. I mean surely yes they are trying to earn a living but there are most definitely honest and trustworthy agents out there who WILL pull their clients out of a terrible situation if they can foresee it. Until you find an agent like that - keep looking - get references. They are out there! It's all about referrals and references in this business. Those agents who are not trustworthy and just out to make a buck will not come out on top.
In my State's seller disclosure there is a paragraph regarding Sex Offenders. It says for the buyer to contact the local Police Department. There aren't any yes, no or unknown boxes for the seller to mark.
We just bought a home last year, and we did that research ourselves. When we were first looking at the house we found that there was a sex offender living about 1/4-1/2 mile away. Fortunately, he moved.
In our deliberations about whether this mattered to us we came to a realization: There is no guarantee that a sex offender isn't going to move in next door after you already own the property. Doing the search ahead of time gives you some comfort, but isn't a guarantee in the long run.
In our case we probably would have gone ahead and bought the house even if he hadn't moved, but there were a number of details that were different than the OP's situation. He wasn't a repeat offender, we don't have kids, he wasn't right next door, and, well, let's just say we are well equipped to take care of ourselves.
I read somewhere (online) that if there's a sex offender living X-distance from the house you wish to purchase, you can reasonably deduct 10% from the asking price, as this is the amount a sex offender in the neighborhood lowers the home's value.
I read somewhere (online) that if there's a sex offender living X-distance from the house you wish to purchase, you can reasonably deduct 10% from the asking price, as this is the amount a sex offender in the neighborhood lowers the home's value.
Sex offenders always have a negative connotation. However, often, teenage couples engage in sexual conduct as part of an intimate relationship. This may start to occur before either participant has reached the age of consent or after one has but the other has not. In most jurisdictions, the person who has reached the age of consent would be guilty of the statutory rape and, if charges are pressed, (almost always) it's the male who is charged with statutory rape and may be required to register as a sex offender. Or the young male who is arrested for having sex with a prostitute. Same label that stays with them for life but totally different circumstances and not always a threat to others.
Last edited by InPlaneSight; 07-12-2014 at 06:33 AM..
It isn't just statutory rape that shows up on the lists. In some states, public urination is an offense that shows up on their sex offender lists -- and as data gets aggregated up and shared with other states as people move around, the distinction between different levels or even what the offense was doesn't always get transmitted. So "sex offender" can absolutely mean, "peed behind a dumpster after the ball game".
People would be worried living within 1/2 mile of a sex offender? We have nearly 5,000 people living within half a mile of us, I'm pretty sure at least one of them is on a list!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
10%
....
