<p>OMG. Hoarder Hell. At least a lot of things seem to be in bags! Looks like a good three dumpsters’ worth. And that’s before you start demo’ing.</p>
<p>Good luck, coralbrook. Your strategy of representing yourself may work with one of these. This is fascinating. Thanks again for sharing your experiences.</p>
<p>The stuff in the bags is very interesting. For some reason whoever lived there (and we are convinced he died in there) put scraps of paper, used paper towels and stuff neatly into paper bags. The bags are all stacked up neatly on top of each other. I don’t know if someone has been in there trying to ‘clean up’, highly doubt it. If someone was in there trying to clean up why would they put all the trash into paper bags - instead of Hefty bags???</p>
<p>The bathtub spout is leaking a lot of water, lots of wasted water in our serious drought going down the drain (and probably flowing under the house, drain pipes are very corroded). We couldn’t get under the house because the entry to crawlspace is padlocked with no access.</p>
<p>The mess in the kitchen is not neatly stacked. It’s disgusting stuff everywhere.</p>
<p>That house could be gorgeous. I really hope you get it. Even with all that junk, it looks airy and bright. I like the way it sits.</p>
<p>I must be naive, because I am shocked by the unethical behavior of many of the realtors you encounter.</p>
<p>I agree with Consolation about the realtors’ behavior. </p>
<p>I have learned (by reading through fine print inside the MLS system) that they are presenting the offers to the Seller for the hoarder house on Monday Aug 11th. So I’m not panicking so much, have a couple of days.</p>
<p>But, it has now been 24 hours since I left voice mails for listing agent, 20 hrs since I left a text requesting access to the property, and 16 hours since I sent an email telling Listing Agent I would like to make an offer.</p>
<p>If I was a Seller and I found out that my agent was not responding to someone trying to make an offer on the house, I’d be pretty pissed!!!</p>
<p>cb, can you bat your big baby blues and contact the seller (if you have or can get that info) and ask if his agent has been out of town? 8-| </p>
<p>House #9 - Listing Agent has contacted me and told me that he presented offer this morning. Sellers are considering it and will get back to him. Meanwhile, my offer has expired just in case I need to get out of it over the weekend. I’m having second thoughts about this one because the back patio of the townhouse is not very private, other townhomes surrounding this one.</p>
<p>House #10 - Listing Agent finally called me this morning after I made two phone calls into his office and asked his assistant to please have agent return my call. He says he left a voice mail for me last night - NOT! Boy this guy really takes the cake. First thing is telling me what purchase price he thinks will take the house, am I still in?? Yes.</p>
<p>Then he proceeds to tell me that he has several offers now and only offers where he is double-ending the commission representing buyer will probably be finalists. And, I cannot believe he said this, he is pretty much ignoring offers that are coming through other agents, he only wants to deal directly with investors (read… where he is getting both sides of the commission). Then, the final straw is he asked me directly if I will give him the listing when I resell after remodel. So, basically this guy wants three commissions guaranteed in order to ‘consider’ my offer as a finalist. I am discussing this with my agent… is it worth dealing with the devil to get a dream property?</p>
<p>The Seller is senile and has been moved to Assisted Living (he didn’t die inside the house, thank goodness). I guess he doesn’t have any family watching out for him. The agent has moved the property into trust and there is an assigned independent fiduciary agent who will be making the final decision for selling the property. Evidently one of the nurses at the Assisted Living called the agent and claimed that the elderly Seller ‘gave her the house’. Then an investor made an offer to Seller to appraise at current value, investor would remodel it with their funds and split increased value 70/30 with seller. Based on what they are seeing for offers, they are abandoning that alternative. There’s been a lot of commotion before it ever got listed, but the fiduciary agent insisted that the property be listed for 7 days. </p>
<p>That kitchen!!!</p>
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<p>That sounds like a good thing, I think. Isn’t it?</p>
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<p>And that also sounds like a good thing, right? It sounds like having an independent fiduciary agent will at least level the playing field to some degree. Or am I being stupid?</p>
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<p>If you were to record and report some of the stuff these people say to you, you could probably get them kicked out of the business. OTOH, you’d probably never be able to buy or sell in your neck of the woods again. </p>
<p>House #9 - Sellers did not accept my offer for the Townhouse. They’ve only been on the market for 14 days and they feel they will get their asking price sometime soon. I told the agent to check back with me again in 2 weeks if it has not sold yet. He actually counseled them to take my offer.</p>
<p>House #11
A new listing in the Point Loma area that is in poor/original condition just went up for sale. The house is on the hill above the San Diego Harbor entrance. The asking price is out of my league, but there is huge potential with this house because it has unobstructed views over the entire San Diego Harbor and harbor entrance. The views are going to sell it. It is probate and there are 7 heirs. Listing agent was very nice and I am going to try to make an offer with her representing me on Monday. She believes that there will be 3 or 4 other investors interested in the property and it will probably sell above asking price.</p>
<p>Now I get to spend the rest of the weekend trying to figure out where I am going to find the money to buy this one because it is way beyond my cash available. </p>
<p>I have noticed a big swing in ‘hard money’ loans and availability in the last 6 months. A lot of big money investors have switched from buying up properties to doing hard money loans (immediate cash at higher interest rates). These types of loans used to charge 1% points and then 12-15% interest. The interest rate has really fallen down and I can get money now for about 7.5% interest and I’m trying to negotiate the points. They loan the money as cash and then record a 1st TD securing the property the day after purchase.</p>
<p>What’s a “first TD”?</p>
<p>Good luck, coralbrook! </p>
<p>Regarding the fiduciary agent. I am going to guess that the fiduciary agent will not see most of the offers that come in on this property. The real estate agent is going to ‘pre-qualify’ offers and only bring the ‘highest and best’ to the fiduciary agent. This means that the real estate agent can take forward only those offers that he likes, whether they are the best net gain for the Seller or not.</p>
<p>If it comes down to the end and my offer was not even considered (for example, I am honest with agent regarding the listing for future sale and somehow my offer is no longer acceptable) I am going to insist that this real estate agent Sign and Date when he presented my offer to the Seller. There is a section on the Purchase Agreement where the Listing Agent is supposed to sign, date and time stamp when the offer was presented to Seller. I’ve never insisted on it before, but I might do it this time. I don’t really care about this agent because his office and his territory is in the northern part of San Diego, outside my market area.</p>
<p>1st TD = Trust Deed (mortgage) recorded at Recorder’s Office and secured as a lien against the property in first position (no other loans recorded with an earlier date). Hard Money lenders will usually loan only about 50% of fair market value and they expect a recorded Trust Deed (mortgage) in first position. </p>
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<p>What happens if he never presented your offer? Does he lie on the form? If he does and you can somehow prove it – maybe by talking directly to the seller? – then what happens? Or, if he doesn’t lie on the form, does he just say, “Oh, whoops, I guess I never presented your offer; sorry about that. Oh well.”</p>
<p>Have no idea what I can do. This agent works under the umbrella of Keller Williams but does a lot of business in North County. I’m guessing he will be very nervous about signing the purchase contract if he did not really present my offer. But, I don’t really have the knowledge of whether he did present it. I would be put in the same situation as that other deal. Do I research and find the fiduciary? If I figure out who it is, do I have the guts to contact him/her? </p>
<p>Just insisting on the sign/date may be enough to get your offer presented. One step at a time…</p>
<p>^^That’s a very good point.</p>