All Forum Posts by: Jim Lou

I'm having a difficult time finding a contractor I trust in my area. I'm looking to build a 600 sqft studio in an unfinished basement in my home. Does anyone have any reliable contractors they can recommend?

if you can sue for legal fees then does it matter?

So new construction is being built next to my 120yr old Victorian home in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. They dug out under my foundation and did not underpin or brace anything and my basement has some cracks and the exterior wall is starting to bow. 

What legal advice would you suggest? I spoke to a lawyer who said it's possible to sue for replacement value and he wants 40%. Does that mean I sue and get 500k he gets 200k and I'm left with a damaged house, 300k and a 220k bank note? Doesn't seem worth it...

 Yes. Once we arrived at an acceptable price all paperwork and communication was done through realtors that were paid 1% to do so. I was not mentioned on said paperwork, and since ultimately he rejected my requested commission, I'm not gaining anything financially in the property besides my partnership with the buyer

 I'd take a misdemeanor charge before I gave this guy a nickel. Me acting as an agent wasn't the reason the deal fell apart. It was him concealing things on the sellers disclosure. He's just reaching for something to keep the $. Yea I may have broken the law, but that has nothing to do with my buddies deal falling through...

 The money is being held by Keller Williams. His "agent" told him to sign the release. We will def cloud the title and I told him that. 

he also called my friends bank pretending to be him trying to see if the initial deposit cleared. The bank has caller id records and the manager is willing to testify if need be. Basically the only thing I did wrong was ask for a commission. He's messed up a lot

we had a per diem clause if we didn't settle in 30 days. It's my contention that he was wasting time so we would breech that time period

 After he accepted the offer we had the house inspected 2 days later. After the inspection I told him my friend doesn't have the $ to rewire the house. If he didn't want to pay for the rewire we would walk right then. He proceeded to wait a week to answer us, then offered $1000 credit. We refused and asked for a release, 5 days later he finally replied saying he would get his relative to do the work. We refused again and asked for the release, 4 days later is today and now he's pulling this crap. If anything they wasted our time and tied up our $. Luckily we did most of this through texts so I have proof of us acting appropriately. 

I was buying it with my buddy, I never was in this position before but I figured if I brought the seller a buyer he could give us the commission on the HUD. I don't see how my negligence could affect the buyers earnest money. He had an inspection contingency in the contract so he should be able to walk regardless of my actions