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You have come a long way in a short period of time. Having said this, how many times in your life have you made a $ half-million purchase?
Advocate your own best interests and have an attorney review the contract and do so, before the inspection deadline. It will be worth the fee to put your mind at ease. ( Attorney review is a standard condition in real estate transactions in my area.)
And lastly, I would not hesitate to give her feedback. A tactful reminder that agents should not make business decisions for their clients, seems to be in order.
Well, I'm all about advocating for our best interests, believe me... and we're definitely fine with paying a fee for such things. But I read this in the booklet our lender gave us on homebuying:
"Please note, in many areas of the country attorneys are not normally involved in the home sale. For example, escrow agents or escrow companies in western states handle the paperwork to transfer title without any attorney involvement."
... and from that, figured it wasn't done here if no one else had talked about it, either (neither our agent nor my friends who are already homeowners in our area, and have gone through this process before). Thoughts?
P.S. I do intend to communicate with the agent about the issues I saw with her professionalism, but not until after closing. I want to make sure the boat sails smoothly until then, at least.
Well, I'm all about advocating for our best interests, believe me... and we're definitely fine with paying a fee for such things. But I read this in the booklet our lender gave us on homebuying:
"Please note, in many areas of the country attorneys are not normally involved in the home sale. For example, escrow agents or escrow companies in western states handle the paperwork to transfer title without any attorney involvement."
... and from that, figured it wasn't done here if no one else had talked about it, either (neither our agent nor my friends who are already homeowners in our area, and have gone through this process before). Thoughts?
P.S. I do intend to communicate with the agent about the issues I saw with her professionalism, but not until after closing. I want to make sure the boat sails smoothly until then, at least.
You are correct, most western states do not involve attorneys in residential RE sales, including here in AZ and I believe the same for WA. However, if anyone has concerns about the contract that aren't easily explained, I always recommend consulting with an attorney. This has come up more often for reviewing a non-standard bank addendum for a bank owned property. I'd suggest first checking with the agent's broker or the escrow company for anything not easily explainable by your agent.
Related to the original topic, however... we had the sewer scope done today, and they came up with 2 big root balls in the system. One of them was so bog that the camera could not get past it to see into the mainline. Sewer has never had any repairs in 90 years and the pipe is corroded from time/rooter blades over the years. If we only replace the section to the root ball, it's $5500. If there are problems beyond the root ball (the line goes under a big tree!), hen we're talking ripping up the asphalt road (city property) and replacing it... $10-15K for that.
Does this seriously mean that we still have no leverage? What if the backup buyers see the same problem, or of the owner has to disclose our scope report after we show her? We feel like if she honestly refuses to pony up $5K at least, we will most likely walk (because it's adding on to the other $6K of multiple minor repairs that we are not requesting). Uggh, is every single side sewer in these old Seattle houses decrepit?
Hopefully someone will see this latest update and respond...
So the owner accepted our request to root out the whole line, so we could throw another scope down there to see the condition of the city-line area (which would be the spendy part, if we had to replace it in the future). We figure, this is good, then we can make a truly educated decision based on the quality of the whole system. She gets a rooter, blasts through the root balls that concerned us yesterday--and then the machine gets stuck on ANOTHER huge root ball, 10 feet past the last one. This is still under the sidewalk/Right Of Way of the city, mind you, and a massive birch tree. The rooter says he'll have to use another method to clear the line, but it would cost another $650.
The owner refuses, saying that she "doesn't want to pay any more cash right now," but that she'll credit us for $650 to root past it ourselves... AFTER we sign for the house. So basically, we'll be stuck with whatever lies beyond that root ball, not having any idea if it will cost $6K or $20K. Frankly, we're not so attached to the house that we can't walk away from it. Maybe there will never be problems--maybe we'll just end up paying $6K down the line, and the city main will be fine. But with that huge tree right on top of the sewer?... I don't think so. Chances are, the issues will only increase. And with the other $7000 in "small" repairs necessary around the house itself... and the fact that *plenty* more houses will be on the market come January, most likely at lower prices after the temporary inflation from the tax credit has expired, we can find ourselves a place that has had the sewer properly taken of.
So, yeah. Unless the owner does put in the $650 ASAP and lets us get a scope down there, we're walking. Any thoughts?
... I guess what I'm looking for from the forum here is:
Would the seller still be yanking our chain on this, if she didn't have a backup offer in the wings?
And don't the sellers usually offer to pay for sewer repairs if any come up during the inspection?... is it again because she has a backup that she isn't bothering to assuage our fears about the street repair?
... I guess what I'm looking for from the forum here is:
Would the seller still be yanking our chain on this, if she didn't have a backup offer in the wings?
And don't the sellers usually offer to pay for sewer repairs if any come up during the inspection?... is it again because she has a backup that she isn't bothering to assuage our fears about the street repair?
Well, as was mentioned, the backup definitely gives the seller more options. However, now she will have to disclose the sewer problem to the other buyer, so that backup may not be as solid now. As far as who normally pays, that's a negotiation between buyer/seller unless the contract states that the seller must have the sewer line in working condition, and then it depends on the definition of "working". I assume the line is working to some degree now, unless the seller is living with a non-working sewer system. Read your contract, and ask your agent for what is normally done in your area (or her broker if you want a 2nd opinion).
Thanks, rjrcm. Well, update: we canceled the contract. You are right--with my plumber-dad's help, we came to the same conclusion that it was a disclosure issue. She refused to have the extra rootering done (to get past the super-sized ball that even the regular rooters couldn't get through)--but she was willing to pay us the $650 in repair requests later. Yeah, right... clearly it wasn't about the money. All we wanted was to know what was beyond all those root balls, but I think she did not want to know--because then she would have to disclose any more bad news to anyone else after us. If the backup buyers want to take the place and waive inspections--they can have it, and all the headache that goes with it. This is where I think it's relevant that the seller is also an agent--she knows how these games are played. If she really wanted to work with us, and a disclosure issue was at stake (and she had integrity), she would have had that extra rootering done before we signed.
We still had two days left on our inspection period, so no skin off our backs; we've got a sweet apartment lease till May, and we're fully financed to put down up to 30% on a nice house if we want one. Any seller would be lucky to have us, if you ask me. So it was the seller's loss, as far as we're concerned. Sure did learn a lot about sewers in the last week though, I can tell you that.
Thank you, I appreciate that. And I've appreciated everyone's help here as we've gone through this first offer on our first house (and our first walk-away, heh). By the way--I have a newfound respect for my agent, once she told the seller off and stood by our decision (instead of continuing to try and sell us the house, which she had been doing up until we made our final decision). All good.
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