Just saw a foreclosure notice tacked on the house we're trying to buy! (Maricopa: sale, rentals)

[KarmaPhx]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I was told by someone in Scottsdale that if the power is off, that means that the house can get extremely hot inside. They said over 140 degrees. Plumbing seals can get damaged with hot dry air over time and grout can "pop". That's just want I heard. I'm not from Phoenix but I heard it from a Scottsdale agent.

Green pool?? No problem. My MN pool is green right now because we were on vacation for a week and the pump got turned off. $150 of chemicals and 1 week and it will be clear again.

If I was you, I'd be shopping for a back-up plan and NOT waiting. You are in a different price point. 85% of all sales are below $250K in the Valley. Generally speaking that means the lower prices stuff is going up (1st time buyers) and the more spendy stuff has more to go. Since you are looking at property above $300K, it's still a buyers market. Potentially I would be choosing another agent but i don't know your specific relationship.

I really doubt houses can get to 140 degrees, many people live in Arizona without any A/C and do just fine.

Out A/C was off for 24 hours this summer, our apartment never got hotter than 95.

[Rick Lee]

The house wasn't that hot yesterday. I was on my bike, wearing full gear, and it was 106 deg. outside. House felt about the same inside. But that pool is beyong just chemicals. It needs to be drained and acid washed. No question about it.

[Captain Bill]

Rick, the main problem with a green pool is mosquitos breeding in still waters.

Contact Maricopa County Vector Control Home :: Vector Control

and report the pool. Tell them there are mosquitoes breeding there. They will send out a person to put Gambusia (mosquito eating fish) in the pool to prevent the mosquito infestation. Or you can take a bucket and go pick them up for free and put them in yourself.

The listing agent has nothing to do with maintaining the property. It is not his property and he has no authority to maintain it.

The bank does not own the property so they have no authority to maintain it.

The owner has abandoned it and things will deteriorate.

If you get the house, then you have the contractual opportunity to have inspections. You cannot inspect a pool that is green because you can't see if there is damage. Therefore, you request that the bank get the pool cleaned and operating so that you can have it inspected by a pool company.

The bank may put the utilities in their name for inspections, and they may not. They don't have to. You may have to turn them on in your name. It depends on the bank.

However, they have to turn on water and electricity to clean the pool.

I would not use a normal home inspector to inspect the pool. I would get a pool company to inspect it.

As for the weeds growing, and other deteriorating things around the house, well that's part of the territory when working with short sales and bank owned properties.

[Rick Lee]

Thanks Bill. Wouldn't the seller and listing agent be extra motivated to make things right here so it closes as a short sale and not as a foreclosure? I mean, they both have plenty to lose if the latter happens. I'm very reluctuant to start dumping money into inspections on a place I know has issues before the inspectors even get there. That pool is gone! It has to be drained. I'd rather swim in the ocean than that biohazzard of a pool. I would think the seller would much rather have a short sale on his credit report than a foreclosure. He seemed like a normal, reasonable guy, not an apathetic deadbeat. And he did leave the inside super clean, which makes me wonder if he's truly abandoned it. He left a very nice LG washer and dryer in there. Surely, he's coming back for them.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Thanks Bill. Wouldn't the seller and listing agent be extra motivated to make things right here so it closes as a short sale and not as a foreclosure? I mean, they both have plenty to lose if the latter happens. I'm very reluctuant to start dumping money into inspections on a place I know has issues before the inspectors even get there. That pool is gone! It has to be drained. I'd rather swim in the ocean than that biohazzard of a pool. I would think the seller would much rather have a short sale on his credit report than a foreclosure. He seemed like a normal, reasonable guy, not an apathetic deadbeat. And he did leave the inside super clean, which makes me wonder if he's truly abandoned it. He left a very nice LG washer and dryer in there. Surely, he's coming back for them.

It's late payments that kill the credit report. If seller has missed several his credit is toast either way. And the bank doesn't care. All they are doing in most cases is servicing the loan. They collect fees for foreclosures and make money off of them. It's the investors that take the hit.

[andrzejn]

Since its less than 30 days from auction date I would say seller doesn't care if he/she sell the house. Their credit is already marked for next seven years so it doesn't matter to them. Most likely they will not put a single penny into this house. Listing agent should be motivated to get this deal done because he/she put in money/time into selling this property.
If you are getting a loan to finance this property the green pool will most likely not pass appraisal/loan funding requirement and will need to be addressed before closing.
Bank will not turn on utilities on this property because they do not have rights to that home yet.

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

Green pool?? No problem. My MN pool is green right now because we were on vacation for a week and the pump got turned off. $150 of chemicals and 1 week and it will be clear again.

Not necessarily. If that power stays off it could be IMPOSSIBLE to get that pool blue again. I should know, as I just drained my entire pool this past January. The guy who does my pools used to maintain the pools for Shasta and even HE couldn't get it blue again. And other times it's turned green it has cost way more than $150 and more than a week.

[Boompa]

has anyone noticed that the short sale market has really dried up?

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by Boompa

has anyone noticed that the short sale market has really dried up?

I know of one coming on the market Oct. 1, but then again I don't follow these things.

No, I stay in my humble abode where I'll be stuck for many, many more years. Sigh.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by movin'on

Not necessarily. If that power stays off it could be IMPOSSIBLE to get that pool blue again. I should know, as I just drained my entire pool this past January. The guy who does my pools used to maintain the pools for Shasta and even HE couldn't get it blue again. And other times it's turned green it has cost way more than $150 and more than a week.

I did a little reading because I am in the market for a home in AZ with a pool. AZ pools are different because your pools have plaster sides. Plaster is a sponge in comparison to vinyl. So that might require an acid wash / scrubbing . You can only acid wash a maximum of 3 times which means to me that acid wash is hard on a pool.

In MN, we have vinyl liners because of the freeze / thaw cycle. In fact, when we winterize, we only drain 25% of the water (below the skimmers) and we cannot drain the entire pool as it would ruin it from the ground freeze movements. The rain and melted snow fills it back up in the spring.

If our liner stains, we simply put in a bottle of stain remover (after brushing the edges) and it's gone. If it's green for only a week, we shock filter and backwash often. That's about $30 in shock packets at Costco and a pain in the butt to clean the filters if you have DE technology. If you go to the pool store, they will send you away with all kinds of bottles that you won't need. Like 'Alkalinity Increase (a.k.a. Baking soda); Algistat (a.k.a. Borax); Liquid Shock (a.k.a. unsented bleach) and the list goes on. It's how that chemical bill gets out of hand when it should cost 1/3 of what the pool stores charge.

Nearly 100% of MN pools are brown / green in the spring when we open our pools and it takes about a week to clear it to perfection. Many times the pool can stink and might have a lot of organic material from leaves getting into the pool. They "winterized" with algaecide but that only slows down the inevitable.

The reality is chlorine and filtration will take out about anything. If you have a lot of organic materials (phosphates dissipate from leaves etc) your pool can still show a color. So movin'on, I predict you had a lot of organic material in your pool which tints the pool slightly brown. He was right, it is easist to rotate the water.