Instead of a fancy wedding or a fancy honeymoon... The new wife and I decided to do something tangible that we will enjoy for years.

Since we find ourselves at the Lake of the Ozarks many times since her family lives in the area, and we got tired of renting places... We decided to work our butts off and buy a second home... A condo at the lake.

Nothing overly fancy, a 2 bed 2 bath condo, but we got a good deal and enjoy it a lot. We closed about 7 weeks ago.

We had been kicking it around for about a year and watching the real estate market, which seems to be booming here. Anyway, prices were heading up and up, so we jumped, offerring on the place after we got engaged and closing just after we got married.

We love it... but then the other shoe drops.

So far I have learned:

Never trust the seller. Especially a seller who had a career as a real estate broker. He's looking to screw you.

NEVER, and I mean NEVER, go without asking the seller to pay for a home warranty.

Never, and I mean NEVER, trust a building inspector. They are called inspectors, but they really dont. This idiot missed so much obvious stuff (that came back to bite us in teh ass). Silly me to think that hiring a "professional" to check the place out was worth it.... Had he done 10 percent of his job we would have saved a couple thousand.

Don't trust your neighbors, even if they SEEM to go our of their way to accomodate you in the event of a problem. They will always flake out and do every deceitful thing possible to screw you over and make your life more difficult, even if it also makes their life more difficult, just for spite.

Tread carefully my friends... There is treachery afoot.

Whoa. This sounds bad. I’m sorry you’re going through this, even more sorry to hear you have untrustworthy neighbors. I hope this turns out right for you.

Sorry you went thru this house sale BS.

I bought a new house this past summer put together with cheap construction materials, shoddy workmanship and NO attention to detail. I had to post a bad review on the home building web page to get the builder supervisors attention. Some repairs are now being made.

Of course, during the Pandemic scare, all new home construction halted while our Governor was scratching his ass pondering his next move.

Then, we had a lazy Realtor who declined to attend the closing. I insisted he be there. Then he asked I post a good review of his work.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

I'm sorry you are going through this Kev. that sucks.

WOW.. Sounds like you got burned bad

Look on the bright side, it gets you out of STL!

I hate to invoke the "L" word, but did the inspector say he was licensed and bonded? If so, and he presented his services with a list of items he would check, there might be some avenue there.

I won't pretend I've ever sued anyone. Usually it falls into one of two categories: I just take the screwing and move on, or I talk to them directly and we come to an agreement on a remedy. But then again, they make tv series about the kind of chicanery that goes on in the Ozarks, so....

I had a really bad home inspector. I was able to obtain a refund as he missed some major items (rusted out bathtubs that were hidden by the rubber bathmats that go in the shower). Talk about lessons learned!

I know this is advice is too late to help, but maybe this will be helpful for someone else reading on?

A real estate agent is your first line of defense against this type of bullshit (I guess everything but the neighbors). Only about 20% of the work is helping you find the house. The rest of it is to keep you from getting screwed.

If your agent is just a pretty face that shows you houses and gushes over how great the house is, then you should get a new agent. Your agent should be your first line of diligence. The price you offer--can your agent support it with comparisons and a negotiation strategy? Can your agent verify all of the seller's claims, and build enforceable follow up provisions in a sales contract? Will your agent bring a trusted inspector to the transaction, nit-pick the shit out of the property, and get repairs made or price renegotiated? Will your agent provide a home warranty and insist that the seller pay for it?

My wife is a real estate agent and she and I run a brokerage together. We are constantly fighting off scams and catching other people's fuck ups.

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
Don't trust your neighbors, even if they SEEM to go our of their way to accommodate you in the event of a problem. They will always flake out and do every deceitful thing possible to screw you over and make your life more difficult, even if it also makes their life more difficult, just for spite.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Do building inspectors need licenses where you are? If so that may be an angle to get the inspector held accountable.

RE: neighbors. That's a new-to-me angle on real-estate pitfalls. What did they do to mess this up?

I'm pretty sure my realtor and home inspector were in cahoots on my first house. I didn't know any better at the time, but my house had the time bomb polybutalene pipes, which were mentioned nowhere in the inspector's report. Two pipe bursts, a complete repipe and about $5k out of my pocket later, I learned that that's the first thing to even look for at the hot water heater in homes around that age. It takes nothing more than a glance - copper or plastic - and you know. Inspector and realtor had to have known this, as all the townhouses in that complex had it. I wish I had gone after that inspector.

You don't say what your problems were with the condo but that inspector would have given his report to your agent. Did you review his report? I do believe they need to be licensed so you might have recourse with the state.

Never trust a realtor for anything. They will do the absolute minimum to get to closing, grab their check and head for the door. There are some good ones out there but they can be hard to find. If I am new to an area and need a realtor the first place I call is a local title company. They should be able to send you in the right direction.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
I know this is advice is too late to help, but maybe this will be helpful for someone else reading on?

A real estate agent is your first line of defense against this type of bullshit (I guess everything but the neighbors). Only about 20% of the work is helping you find the house. The rest of it is to keep you from getting screwed.

If your agent is just a pretty face that shows you houses and gushes over how great the house is, then you should get a new agent. Your agent should be your first line of diligence. The price you offer--can your agent support it with comparisons and a negotiation strategy? Can your agent verify all of the seller's claims, and build enforceable follow up provisions in a sales contract? Will your agent bring a trusted inspector to the transaction, nit-pick the shit out of the property, and get repairs made or price renegotiated? Will your agent provide a home warranty and insist that the seller pay for it?

My wife is a real estate agent and she and I run a brokerage together. We are constantly fighting off scams and catching other people's fuck ups.

This may be true in Cali but in other states, Virginia for example, real estate agents work for the seller UNLESS you hire a buyers agent. This is not what most people assume but it is a fact. Even saying that I would never trust an agent where a significant sum of my money is involved. They just have no formal education and experience on structural aspects of the property.

That inspector may have Error and Omission insurance. I would make a list of the items he failed to mention and the cost of repairs and send to him telling him you want him to pay for the work done. I did that on a townhouse in Colorado where the inspector missed a failing parquet wood floor. The wood was coming off the floor by the sliding glass door. There was a throw rug hiding it. All he would have had to do to find the damage would have been to pick up a little doormat. He paid for repairing and refinishing the floor-several hundred bucks.

In my experience home repairs can be made and problems can be fixed. Bad neighbors, however, can't be fixed and can make your life a nightmare even when you're living in your dream home.

I have dealt with dozens of realtors in North Florida and finally found one that knows her stuff and works her butt off, and I'll use nobody else. Most are completely clueless.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
I'm pretty sure my realtor and home inspector were in cahoots on my first house.

Unless you trust your realtor 100%, never accept their recommended inspector, lawyer, contractor, etc. The realtor wants the deal to close so they can get their commission. So, that realtor is going to recommend folks who don’t make waves. If they do, it’s the last time the realtor will recommend them.

I had a buddy get screwed like this on his first house. Instead of hiring his own attorney for the closing, he used the lawyer the realtor recommended.

The closing went off without a hitch. It wasn’t till the next year that it turned out that there was a tax issue that the attorney “overlooked”. It cost my buddy a couple of thousand dollars to clear it up.

quote:

O

Never, and I mean NEVER, trust a building inspector. They are called inspectors, but they really dont. This idiot missed so much obvious stuff (that came back to bite us in teh ass). Silly me to think that hiring a "professional" to check the place out was worth it.... Had he done 10 percent of his job we would have saved a couple thousand.

Don't trust your neighbors, even if they SEEM to go our of their way to accomodate you in the event of a problem. They will always flake out and do every deceitful thing possible to screw you over and make your life more difficult, even if it also makes their life more difficult, just for spite.
.

if the inspector missed so much obvious stuff then why didnt you see it?

I really enjoy and am grateful for these types of threads.

Many years ago I decided that I would have to learn to do my own investing. Now, it looks like I'll have to do real estate as well.

Anyone know where to start? What to read or who to talk to?

V.

Owning your own home, any home, was once referred to as the American Dream.
Increasingly, it is the American Nightmare.

I was extremely fortunate when we bought our first house,

Dad's best buddy was the contractor, and the realtor was in with him,
so we got a great home at a good price, and no drama, etc etc,


when we sold and built the second, I made a point to get on the building supers good side, and it paid off,

no drama etc on this house (been there 17+yrs)

when we sold, the realtor we used was damn good, and we did the home inspection, house warranty, etc etc,

ended up having to go after a mold/mildew/rot/pest guy that claimed we were good to go and charged us a bit to do the pest inspection etc etc, all guaranteed,

seems he was not correct, and we had some rot (not termite, just mold/mildew rod) under the house on a few beams and had to have them replaced,

needless to say, his guarantee paid for that work,

our realtor (her mother was the realtor for the development we moved to) insisted on the home warranty, and it paid off on the AC the first couple months for the new buyers)