All Forum Posts by: John Barrows

two different views 

Washington State Law:

Mold is only addressed in state law as a requirement for landlords to provide written information to tenants about mold and its health impacts (RCW 59.18. 060). ... Other factors such as smoking, chemical fumes and pesticides can impact renters' health and aggravate asthma and allergies.

Federal Law:

To date, there are no federal laws on mold, either for acceptable levels of exposure or building/rental standards. ... Because toxic mold goes against the implied warranty of habitability laws set up by each state, landlords can be responsible for not keeping the rental property free of hazardous conditions like mold.

Look up your state laws and go from there.

After reading your deal, my question would be how informed is the seller and does the seller have mental or other medical issues that would render them incompetent to do any business dealings at all? 

Victor Wasson, always, always, always have your own inspection with an inspector you feel confident that can give you the information you seek. The listing agent giving you the copy of the past inspection report, great! BUT, you want to know and walk around with your inspector to get a lay of the property and what true conditions exist.

As for the back up offers. so what, you're in control of your own purchase and ALWAYS be prepared to walk away from any transaction. The other item you need to deal with and most generally the inspectors I know and have used, do not do SEWER LINE ASSESSMENTS. Pay the extra few hundred more to make sure your sewer lines are clear and not rusted and ready to crumble.

Good luck with your purchase.

Russell Brazil, exactly what I was going to write! I'm glad I read the posts prior to submitting an answer. The tort you speak of Russell, is a suable offense towards the seller for no disclosure. As I would tell all of my sellers, "if a stranger shows up promoting themselves as a buyer" I have a need to know. I have seen a few of these things and most generally, if a seller is so greedy, he'll be taken to the wood shed most of the time.

I was selling a locally owned produce stand (building) and land that was a prior gas station. The seller was a friend of my past wife's family. Long story short, this seller out of know where wants me to release him of our agreement. Because he was a friend of the immediate family, I obliged, I released the listing. Wasn't a month later he was bragging that he got over a million dollars for the property. Problem was, he went to closing on the fact that the buyer put down $120K on the property and told the seller he needed to sign over the title in order to close the deal. The seller went to closing, signed off the title, had knowledge, was willing and without duress, he signed off the title. HE SOLD THE PROPERTY FOR $120K and cried all the way to a law suit that HE LOST! I laughed my *** off! Lesson learned.... Expensive one at that.

The buyer that screwed the seller sold the property to Shell oil Co for $900K and it's still a shell station.

HOW<<<<SOLID<<<<IS<<<<THE<<<<<BUYER? If you have a buyer in mind or an investor, then just have them do a VERIFICATION OF DEPOSITS and show that the assignment will take place like tomorrow or the next day or even a week from today. ALL investors buying an assignment MUST SHOW ME A VOD with bank or FUND letterhead. Bull crap on copies that don't look legit!

Sandy, 

Over the thirty years in real estate, I quickly found out that a American Home Warranty was a terrific gift at closing! Why? because I can't count the number of times that my buyers that I represented had called me after closing to let me know that the water heater went out or the furnace died. At every instance, the warranty company came out and replaced the items for $75.00! Now I had a client that sent their entire family to me for business.

People will say what they want but, for me, a home warranty is an excellent way to say thank you for your business. It gives the buyers some guarantee they aren't buying a property that the appliances and systems are ready to die. Within the past year three of my buyers had their systems replace, fixed or renewed their warranty. So, stay with the warranty, in my opinion. 

One last thought on this Redfin advertising $2000 back at closing statement! 

I believe they (Redfin) tried the same scheme here in Washington and got sued and LOST because in our license laws, one can not offer paying a FEE or CASH to any unlicensed or broker to entice buyers in any type of advertising. I think if you saw some ad like that, you stated ("Even in Redfin they advertise they will give me back ~$2000 if I choose a Redfin agent"). Please understand, In Washington state, Agents can't pay a commission to any unlicensed person. But, they can rebate a portion of their commission to a buyer (if written in the contract and disclosed to both buyer and seller), sometimes as a closing cost credit, or to pay part of the down payment if the buyer's lender will allow it but, can not pay cash to any buyer or seller.

Please note: Brokers can offer a percentage fee like 1%-2% or can offer a FLAT FEE for services with an UP FRONT agreement. If agents or brokers are caught giving money outside of closing, then that would become (dealings outside of closing) and can be illegal in most states.

Most every state has LAWS GOVERNING this sort of contribution. Most state are like $100 or less. I think you're being unreasonable to ask for a piece of anyone's commission! 

What kind of job do you have? Maybe I should ask for 1/2 a year of your salary because you were such a poor buyer? That would be fair.. right? Plus what do you care what the agent get's, the seller pays the commission. GREED.......

@Steven Lowe The 3rd phase of the inspection is the clean up of the site. Once the site has been determined to have contamination the site must be cleaned. That's the most expensive stage because of the fee's for taking it to a site that allows these contaminated soils. Remember, this could take weeks or months do to the place that takes the soils may be located. I know in Washington, there used to be a site in Vancouver, WA but, I think that was closed and now it goes to Oregon so that can be very expensive. You'd have to do some checking on where the soils would be taken.

Many times the Phase 3 can be into the thousands of dollars like for gas stations and the like. Check with your local laws and the Federal clean up act that was adopted in 1972.

Tom Gimer isn't it amazing how so different state to state closing transact. WOW.... Thanks for enlightening me.