Bad Realtors

Not to drift the thread too much, but I also have an "Ace in the Hole" and that is an inspection, by a certified inspector of my choosing.

Without going into the full story, I made an offer on a house that was subject to inspection. My inspector found that the house had 3 roofs on the main house (the first of which was cedar shakes over 1x4's, 4 inches apart) that needed replacing as well as the roof on the addition. Active "knob & tube" wiring in the attic and vermiculite insulation there also.

This house was a stretch for us financially, but the above stuff would have made it a money pit . Needless to say, we asked for a price adjustment based on the above problems. When the seller said, "No", we ran away like scalded dogs and never looked back.

We shortly found a better house that we currently live in.

Good Luck on your search for a new place.

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Diamondtim

You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

My wife became a real estate agent last July. She has owned and operated her own business for 25 years. She sold it this fall and is in real estate full time. She is working with a broker who has a very good reputation. She is the most honest, caring, sincere person I have ever known. I was a little bit concerned this business might eat her up. The exact opposite has happened. Her business is flourishing already because of her personality. In the past I have had dealings with real estate agents and frankly I wasn't impressed with any of them. I know two of them now that I would highly recommend to anyone. People should not lump a whole profession together and say that they are all bad. Name any profession, including the ones that your in, and there will be good and bad.

You were very lucky. In my opinion, your inspector did not find anything that would void an offer. If the roof was not leaking then having three layers is not a defect. Having "working" active knob & tube wiring is not a defect either. And vermiculite is an accepted form of insulation. I have seen it in lots of buildings. It might not have the insulating value you desire but unless your offer required a certain level of R value to be in place that is not grounds for breaking an offer.

If it is an old house, the buyer should expect "old" technology.

Gee, I have not met an honest realtor. They are whores for the bucks.
It's too bad we can't have a list of their names posted to be aware of.
I had one steal property after we bought the property, another would not disclose to the folks that made a full price offer that there were water supply problem that I insisted they make known. That realtor said she was going to sue me. I contacted the state board of realtors and she changed her tune. Another did two sets of contracts and stacked them togerther which we signed, only to learn too late that the one we signed was for 7 % and the bottem one was for 15 %. That deal cost us over twenty thousand bucks. The only thing I can do about that out fit is say watch out for Century 21 in Thayer Mo.
The old saying goes "C-Y-A"
And, one more bit of my feeling towards them. I have some cabins for sale in Hardy, Arkansas. The outfit that listed them promised a whole lot of goodies. They never put up a sign. Now the contract is up they want me to sign on the dotted line again. I want too sell, but am getting tired of the screwing.

There was a revamp of the tax assessment formula several years ago and it caused a massive uprising from homeowners. As far as I know, it is still not perfected, but then again, I don't suppose it is ever going to please everyone.

Much of the issue was that the reassessment was done from an office without a personal visit. Homeowners were told their houses' tax cost had risen astronomically with no specific reason given. Just that "houses in their area" were worth that and so "yours is, too". They had no idea if you built more buildings or tore them down; they didn't ask. Just all of a sudden, people were getting the reassessment in the mail. Of the two houses we've bought/sold, both were reassessed and we've never seen a live person show up.

Yes, but often they are very close, and buyers DO compare that. If a house is for sale for $150,000 and the assessment says $50,000, you can bet that the seller is going to think something is fishy. We shopped for four years to find a house and the assessment value and selling price was usually within $15,000 of each other. Lots of people do base their selling price on what the assessment is. At least here in Ontario.

Another issue is that if a homeowner's assessment is very high all of a sudden, they might find it hard to sell their home. Some homes' tax worth doubled or more. Yes, some homes had not been reassessed for 30 years or more, though. In any event, homeowners were not happy campers.

I would also review your own assessment if it was made before you bought it. Find out what exactly the office assumes you have. Such as our house below:
We had been considering selling our home and so asked to have a newer assessment done. Imagine our surprise when we found that there had been an "overcharge" because according to the info given by the previous owner, a third bath was being installed (which in reality never was). So our home should have only been assessed at $75,000, not the $80,000 as what we were paying taxes on. I suppose the owner had been going to install that and didn't? No one ever came to confirm.

However, our reassessment ended up being more anyhow because the value of homes in the area had changed.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

Most states have statutes (building codes) concerning the number of layers you are allowed on a house. Georgia is 2! It is a deal breaker.

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Simple Things are Better!

Most companies won't insure knob and tube wired houses.

I've had to deal with realtors, and it does depend on how much YOU know, as to what you get for the money (services). When I bought my first home, I was pretty much the greenie. What saved me was my footwork on the financing up front, and some general knowledge of the area. I still think I offered too much on the property (it came in appraisal value to what I offered) but that's water over the dam. I sold that house 10 years later myself, and was very upfront and courteous to the young couple who toured it and eventually bought it. It was difficult to juggle everything - as I was trying to close on my farm - but the resulting good karma I have from it (and the cost savings of not paying a 7% fee) far outstripped the work.
My current property, that's another story. I had to use a listing realtor as it was not FSBO, and boy did I have problems. Not only did MY realtor (who signed that nice piece of paper stating that he works for me) not follow through with the listing agent on almost everything - but it took a phone call from me 6 weeks (and 2 weeks from the closing date) threatening to pull the plug on the entire deal to get the inspections completed and information to ME the buyer, about what the findings were! It was a total nightmare as my realtor dragged his feet really bad on just about all inspections. The problem was that each time I had an inspection it showed some problem - like the wells were dry, septic plugged up, etc. My realtor had to go back and demand a lower price or for the sellers to fix it by closing or escrow the money. I think he thought that since I had a firm closing on my house, and I had to move -somewhere- that I'd just roll over and go with no adjustment on the inspections. Needless to say, that didn't happen, I held his feet to the fire until the last signature was signed, and then I was glad to be free of him.
I actually felt sorry for the sellers - they paid 7% for jackass work. I am not a difficult buyer. I was prequalified and ready to roll on the purchase.
I ended up closing on time, a day after I closed on my house, and the problems were resolved after closing. Its a safe bet that when I sell my farm, I will be doing it myself!

Free Ranger,

Don't know what part of the state you're in, but in SE Wisc, no more than 2 roofs are allowed w/o a tear-off. Three is a definite no-no. When the first roof was removed, the whole building would have needed to be resheeted. Knob and Tube wiring is not up to code at all here. All homes now need to be 100 amp service and I believe circuit-breakers are also now required.

My inspector is a former roofer and knows what he is talking about. Those roofs were really bad. The offer was subject to passing "my inspector" not "any inspector".

Two months later, the agent representing the seller called us to see if we were interested at the reduced price we asked for earlier. If we were out of line, they would have threatened legal action.

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Diamondtim

You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

As they should be.