Just wanted to share this story, for what it’s worth. Sometimes on the message board, comments are made regarding realtors, that are, let’s say, less than complimentary. I for one, however, have found most realtors I’ve dealt with to be fairly pleasant, decent people. After all, they’re just people trying to make it in this world, much like the rest of us. They do serve a purpose in society, say, just like lawyers have a purpose. If I’m not mistaken, some of you even have realtors for spouses/domestic partners and may actually sleep with them.
Anyway, last week I inspected a small, 100 year old townhouse, rental property in a nearby, mid-size city. My client/buyer was a young, single mom, first time home buyer, with very limited resources.
The house had some fairly serious issues. Had a stone foundation, with most of the sandy/dirt mortar missing, which isn’t unusual, but some of the stones had been removed for an opening and the structural integrity of the foundation had been undermined. It had a Federal Pacific electric panel.
There had been some recent roof leaks in a slightly sloping metal roof, but at least the owner/landlord had attempted a repair. In fact, the asphalt on the metal roof was still wet at the time of the inspection, which thankfully I realized before climbing onto it. There was still interior plaster damage from the roof leak The asphalt shingles on the main part of the house are beginning to crack and curl slightly, but may have a few years left.
There also had been a leak in the 2nd floor bath, which had destroyed half of the kitchen ceiling. **One **of the bathroom leaks had been repaired, but I found another, on-going one. The ceiling had been half a-- repaired. There had been another leak in one of the radiator water lines that had been going on for so long that it rotted the floor beneath the radiator and the legs fell through the floor. The fix was to disconnect the radiator, leave it sitting halfway through the floor, and cap off the line feeding it. Needless to say, the plaster beneath it was destroyed and half a _ _ repaired.
In addition, the tenants were there the whole time for the inspection, bitching and moaning about the landlord not ever making repairs, but these guys were hogs. There were many areas I couldn’t see, because of all of the clutter and the house reeked of cat pee. In fact, at one point I pulled the realtor aside, (the client had to leave before I completed the inspection) and said to her, that even if all of the carpeting is removed, some, if not all of the wood floors and baseboard may need to be stripped and re-finished, and even then it may be difficult to get the stench out.
Anyway, without belaboring this, I thing you get the idea of the condition of this house. My report didn’t have much good to say.
To get to the point of this story, about a week after this inspection, the Seller’s realtor called me. She introduces herself, starts to say that she had read my report, and I’m thinking, oh boy, heeere we go. But then she goes on to say how impressed she was with my inspection and my report. (OK this may sound like a pat on the back for me and Report Host, but that isn’t the point). She goes on to say that she was very pleased with the thoroughness of my inspection and that she was very concerned about the buyer getting herself into something she couldn’t really handle. After I composed myself, I said something to the effect, that yes the house had a number of rather substantial issues, which I thoroughly and objectively described. And yes, I too was concerned about the buyer but that she has to decide, hopefully in conjunction with her realtor, as to what she wants to do with the information. The realtor went on to share that the seller was already starting to repair many of the defects, and she was hoping and encouraging him to take care of everything.
She then went on to arrange for me to inspect a home for clients’ of hers, a young couple, first time home buyers. How about that! We then spent another half hour or so on the phone discussing such things as how tough it is in today’s real estate market for people to find decent housing at affordable rates, especially first time buyers, with perhaps limited resources, etc, etc, etc.
It just gave me kind of a warm fuzzy.