My father who is 68 years old was recently involved in the purchase of a 24 unit multifamily Boarding House/Apartment building. Since he is of age and is hard of hearing on both his ears, I was asked to represent his interest in the negotiation process and the follow-through throughout the closing procedure. I am his son.
To begin, the property was listed with a broker from a small real estate firm in Deerfield, Florida. Unaware of the business practice and procedures used in Florida, we folled her advice to have this, "Renae Meltzer" represent us in the processing of all our needed paperword to close.
Since we live in California, we were unaware and never told, that it is in the best interest of both parties to have seperate lawyers do the work. Since it was our first purchase in Florida, I immediately requested a fee schedule from the attorney. Her reply was that it would be hard to determine her cost until she knew what was involved and how much work would actually go into "the title side" of the transaction. That was the first red flag.
I waited a week before making my second request for a fee shedule. Then I learned that she was out town and would'nt be back for the next 14 days. As we made progress in securing our financing, we discovered that certain items were needed prior to our bank issuing a formal loan commitment. Since this attorney was off somewhere on vacation, she neglected to order the Survey, and evidence of title insurance or Pre-Lim as we call it here in California.
When she finally came back from vacation, she sounded confused by the fact that she had failed to order the survey and evidence of title. I then took the opportunity to make my second request for Fees, which she brushed off by saying, "I have to get the fees from the surveyor before I can produce what you want." This was the second red flag. People who do this everyday for a living have a very good sense of fees and cost.
By this time, the listing agent was pressing for us to get a formal commitment from our bank to pacify the seller. When I made my third request to Renae, she bursted out yelling and exclaiming, "your getting a good deal with the purchase of this property!", "Don't call me requesting things that I've already ordered!" "You got very lucky to buy this property. I was going to buy it first, but did'nt have the money then, but now I do!" "So, if you don't want to be PATIENT, maybe we should cancel right now!" "I could always find ways to cancel if you're not happy!" It became very clear at that point that I was dealing with someone who had their interest ahead of ours.
It was also apparent that this lawyer had teamed up with someone else (ie. The listing agent), to bump us out of the sale and buy this property themselves. Since time was of the essence, the attorney made several attempts at sqeezing us out of this deal by delaying time sensitive information from reaching the hands of our bank within the time frame alloted for us to process our mortgage.
Since this was a commercial loan, the appraisal fee is right in the neighborhood of $2,600. Why then, would a bank request of a borrower to pay $2,600 if we don't even have evidence to title to assure the bank that we had insurable title? That would have been a waste of our money, especially when those types of buildings usually have title defects which are at times difficult to cure. Since this attorney willfully delayed the transaction, that also caused our proceesing time to be cut. With only 15 days from the scheduled close date, we still did not have our survey or evidence of title. Our bank was willing to order the appraisal (at our own risk), but could not guarantee that we would close within the 15 day time frame since commercial appraisal take around 14 days to complete.
When the attorney found this out, she immediately faxed us a schedule of her fees. I may not do this every day for a living out in Florida, but I am licensed to sell Real Estate here in California, and after having done a good number of these myself here and across the United States, I knew that there was something totally wrong with the estimate that I had recieved. I immediately contact several credible companies who do this every day out in Florida. I requested fee schedules from each one in writing.
Within minutes, I had everything I needed to go back to Renae and request a reduction of her fees. For those familiar, she tried to charge us: $750 for closing fee, $600 for title examination, $250 for endorsements, $250 for unrecorded lien search, and $95 for Fed-Ex. When confronted about the matter, she flat out refused to reduce any fees. Her hopes were set that if we failed to perform and close, she would end up buying the property herself. The ridiculous estimate provided to us only showed her true intentions.in fact, I had my friend who works at a local realty company call her and request fees over the phone for the exact same time of purchase and same sales price. I was shocked when I discovered how much she quoted my friend.By this time, things were getting real ugly. This lawyer was telling us that if we did'nt pay these fees, we would loose our $5,000 deposit and the sale.
So, since time was of the essence, and we did'nt want to loose our money on account of some crocked nickel and dime type of lawyer, we call Renae and told her that we were ready to close the sale within the 15 day period. She laughed, and said, How? You don't even have an appraisal, and the seller is'nt going to grant you and extension! I then said, "we are buying it CASH!"
"We also have written proof that the fees being charged are unethically billed and inappropriate." Only then did she agree to remove most of the fees. She still ripped us off by overcharging us for the Title Examination $600 and the $95 Fed-Ex fee.
Long story short, we decided to have our own attorney revise the paper prior to closing which only infuriated Renae. Our attorney discovered several open permits and violations pending against the property that Renae had overlooked, or not looked. Good thing our new attorney caught those items, otherwise Renae would have been in serious hot water with us. Up to this date, we have NOT received the famous, "Survey" and "Title Policy" which we paid for through Renaes office. After making several requests by phone, Renae picks up the line and says, "you'll get it, when you get!" "I don't have time for this right now, good bye!"
At this point, its "Rip-Off" report time. I am not only going to report this to consumer complaints, but I will forward a copy to the Miami Herald for publication. This person is a total Rip-Off and a crook.
Chris
downey, California
U.S.A.
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