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I think that I got taken! I had a lot of challenges: 1)first time home buyer 2)heavily worked and 3) serious time crunch due to my apartment lease ending (their month-to-month rate was DOUBLE!!) and houses that I liked seemed to be instantly sold.
The realtor said that the previous prospective buyer had backed out during the closing period. He told me that I could use the SAME inspector's report (under 30 days) of that prospect OR i could hire one of my own (about $400). I decided to use the prospective buyer's, but I never found time to read all of it because it was long and cumbersome.
Now, 1 year later, I'm more or less content with the buy, but I am wondering if the realtor should have informed me more of an obvious leaning of the house in a certain part of the house. ALL paperwork reads that it's the Buyer's responsibility to do that (of course). The repair of the leaning foundation will be about $5,500 or so. Buying this house was stressful AND I don't wish it on anyone!
Aside from that, the realtor (a referral from a Facebook friend who was my high school's valedictorian) kept promising to buy me a house warming gifts, take me out to dinner of my choice, but never followed through on those. I still talk with him, but I don;t feel like I should have even to remind him of his promises. He even asked me for a recommendation- I couldn't bring myself to do that. Never trust a young, cute guy and a smile.
You didn't have the desire to read the report on one of the largest purchases you'll ever make in your entire life and want to blame the realtor after they told you the previous buyer walked because of the inspection?
Should the agent have read the report? Sure. But so should you have.
Actually, you should have hired your own inspection.... but you wanted to go in on the cheap. I understand the motive, but it's not what we recommend. Especially for a naive, first-time home buyer.
Should you have talked about the deficiencies noted in the report with your agent and asked for major deficiencies to be repaired or compensated for from your seller? Sure! Did you have any conversation at all with either the inspector or your agent about the house or the content in the report?
$5500 is not terribly unreasonable consequence in the life of a house, at least. That's just regular expected maintenance. It could have been worse. Much worse!
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 05-19-2019 at 08:04 PM..
Should the agent have read the report? Sure. But so should you have.
Actually, you should have hired your own inspection.... but you wanted to go in on the cheap. I understand the motive, but it's not what we recommend.
Should you have talked about the deficiencies noted in the report with your agent and asked for major deficiencies to be repaired or compensated for from your seller? Sure! Did you have any conversation at all with either the inspector or your agent about the house or the content in the report?
$5500 is not terribly unreasonable consequence in the life of a house, at least. That's just regular expected maintenance. It could have been worse. Much worse!
Mea culpa. I agree that it could have been much worse. In hindsight, I was stressed all the way around and would have gladly taken some time off from work to review the report and hired my own inspector. I actually did comment to my realtor that the report seemed to have a lot of things in it, things that seemed minor and inconsequential. He told me that they read like that and that I should have seen his inspection report on his home which was built back in 1972 (mine was built in 1920). I should have picked a more mature agent and asked around more among other things. I really do appreciate your comments about the inspection. I just think that a thoughtful agent would have insisted emphatically that he would recommend a new inspection report in his professional opinion. This one did not. In this situation, I needed some professional guidance.
I just think that a thoughtful agent would have insisted emphatically that he would recommend a new inspection report in his professional opinion. This one did not.. ugh.
Yes, I actually edited my response to state that more emphatically after you copied it... I added Especially for a naive, first-time home buyer. You didn't know what you didn't know.
Sorry this happened, but I guess if it took you a year to look up defects you were finding in the house, there must not have been anything else too bad in it?
Yes, I actually edited my response to state that more emphatically after you copied it... I added Especially for a naive, first-time home buyer. You didn't know what you didn't know.
Sorry this happened, but I guess if it took you a year to look up defects you were finding in the house, there must not have been anything else too bad in it?
I hope.
Thankfully, the rest of the home is in good shape. I wish that you could have been my RE agent here in Houston!
Well, if it's a 1920 house in Houston, that means "pier and beam" (I believe the actual correct technical desciption is "block and beam"). It is normal for these to develop a certain amount of unevenness in the floors after almost 100 years. Without seeing it, my guess would be that you have no more than 50 years left, in which to get under there and do something about the uneven foundation. Much of the time it just involves putting a bunch of bottle jacks under the beams, hiking them up a bit, and using opposing pairs of tapered shims to go between the underside of the beam and the top of the block.
If you are planning to go ahead with foundation work, do it BEFORE you patch cracks in the walls and repaint, as shimming the foundation is likely to open a few more cracks.
How severe is the unevenness, and how much does it move with the seasons? Are there doors that stick at the top so you can't get them open in the summer, and then stick at the bottom so you can't get them open in winter, or windows that can't be opened due to out of square? Big cracks in bathroom tile that open up and close every time it rains? Or is it more or less stable but just not level? How's the drainage around the house? Soil levels will rise a lot around your house in the course of 100 years just due to buildup of vegetable debris. Is the ground high enough that water can run in the vents under the house? Are there cracks in the perimeter beam?
Anyway, at this point anyone involved in the sale (sellers, real estate agents, etc.) is long gone and you are not going to recover anything from them, especially not if the seller's disclosure indicated anything about foundations or unlevel conditions or drainage. Fortunately pier and beam foundations are the very easiest to deal with when there is an issue.
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Or at least if you'd been a regular member here. Were you? Did you post about it?
