I was so excited. I was buying my first home. I thought I found the perfect home just minutes away from work where my daughters and I can enjoy life.
I was looking everywhere and found a home on the internet. The agent contacted me after I made an online inquiry. She showed me the house and I knew I wanted it.
She told me since this was the first time I ever brought a home she would walk me through the entire process and make sure I was taken care of. To trust her.
A few days later, she called and told me the seller was also a Williams Keller rep in her office that she just found that out and wanted to let me know that I had to sign a letter saying that I knew. I did.
She said the owner wanted to settle quickly because he needed to move to Texas and did not want to have to pony up another month of mortgage and that was fine with me as well. As I was very eager to move my family into our new home.
She then called me a day or so later and told me in order to speed things up they (the seller and herself) were going to cut cots and time by using some of the other information from a previous settlement. The seller had gone to settlement but the financing fell through (or so I was told). They said I should use their house appraisal, which was at 345,000. My lender insisted that we have another appraisal, which by the way came back as 305,000, a long way away from 345,000.
They instructed me to use their title company, and that I did not need a house inspection because we could use the one that was done at the prior settlement and that the seller will sign a disclosure stating there is nothing wrong with the house. They added that even if it turned out to be something wrong there were clauses in the contract that will protect me.
So at first they tool the home inspection in the contract for informational purposes and then again at the last minute they changed it to no home inspection needed.
The ad that Keller ran told of the beautiful well kept home that featured two beautiful pools both in ground and above and that the house was a great buy. It offered closing cost help and a one year warranty. Which the seller changed at the last minute and took that away too. Nevertheless, I was too far into moving into this house and they told me that everything would be okay. I could always purchase one later.
I asked the seller at the time of walk through to please have the seller there to walk me though and show me the processes of the home. She said no problem, the day of settlement and we did our walk through the seller was still in the home but no seller.
My agent made very excuse in the book as to why he was not there and my friend that was with me told me something was not right. I should have listened.
Not having gone through a walkthrough before I assumed everything was fine. I asked if he was going to have the house ready and cleaned up in time and she assured me it would be. We went to the kitchen and turned on the water, it was slow and did not heat up right away but she said the seller fixed the water so the pipes would not freeze.
She walked to the stove and turned on one front burner and back. Then she walked into the living room and said okay that's it.
Now I did not mention this until now. But I asked over and over again if the house was in good shape and did I need to worry. BOTH Keller reps assured me no. The house and the pools were loving taken care of and the previous home inspection did not show any problems and that I would get a copy of that at settlement. I never did and have asked for it several times.
At the settlemtn table I asked the seller to please tell the electric company not to turn the electric off. The electric company said they would need 24-48 hours to transition the account once I faxed over the settlement papers and the weather was going to below freezing and I did not want the pipes to freeze, he said he would take care of that. He instead called and this can be verified by SMECO and told them the exact opposite. So when we moved in we had no electric and guess what? No water! Turns out that the seller had fixed several major problems and covered up others just enough to pass walkthroughs only for the buyer to dins out the problems once in the house. Not my words, these are the words by professional contractors from several different companies. Even the neighbors told us about him neglecting the home and cosmetically fixing it. Being a realtor he knew what to fix and how.
While the plumber was there he also said you need to get your pools looked at looks as if they were not winterized or taken care of before any further damage is done.
So we got two different pool services out there and they confirmed, the pools were not taken care of as the seller has indicated and were in dire need of repair.
Therefore, I called my agent and she called the seller and told me she called the broker and that I was to get the things fixed and send them the bills to take for action. Which they did not. The Pool service went there directly and was told that Keller Williams would not help out. So I called and spoke to their accounts agent and she said if Keller Williams said they would no fear they would. Only to have me call back to confirm once more and she changed her story. The team lead said he would take care of it and did not and will not return my calls or my emails.
I have voice mails and emails that prove what I am saying not to mention the phone conversations that were recorded. I asked permission to record them to make sure I got the information correct.
I am now going to contact the FTC, the BBB and the States Attorneys office.
For those that say they were in the rights, you are sadly mistaken or another realtor.
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