We had an experience recently that we felt worthy of sharing with all of you Rhode Island real estate owners and buyers… this has to do with a sale of a home that was made to a buyer last year, who now is trying to sell the house. At the time he purchased the house, he had no buyers agent representing his interest, and relied instead on the sellers agent.
The sellers agent had told him that the house had been inspected just a week before the purchase, and so the buyer could save money by simply getting a copy of that inspection. The sellers agent then provided the copy to the buyer. The agent did not disclose that a serious structural flaw had been noticed, and that they had not included the pages of the inspection report that dealt with this flaw. In fact, the inspector was the husband of the sellers agent, and had simply handed a blank form to his wife to be filled out by her. BAD BAD BAD.
Today, we had the house inspected by another Home Inspector, who revealed the flaw. Our seller now must disclose the flaw, or repair it, at a cost of $42,000!!!
This money could have come off the purchase price, or the flaw could have been repaired prior to the sale if only the buyer had known, and had negotiated the price based on that knowledge.
At this point, the owner has a climbing interest rate with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, and has seen no appreciation of the value of the house since the purchase. He does not have the money to repair the fault, and will not have the room in the sale to pay for the buyer to deal with it. He is going to lose a bunch of money on the sale, unless things in the regional market change rapidly.
Why? One fundamental reason is that the buyer had no experience with purchasing real estate, and declined to use an agent to represent his needs. Remember, sellers agents Represent the Seller, not the buyer. See our sections on agency and buyers agency for details about this. Another is the lack of an independent home inspection to ensure the condition of the property. See our section on Home Inspections, as well as our section on why a seller might want to get an inspection done as well.
Don’t go wrong with confidence! Get professional representation for your real estate transaction.
