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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Spring Hill (Nashville), TN
    Posts
    5,851

    Default Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    Shouldn't all real estate agents know what FHA or VA is going to require when it comes to the basic condition of a home? IMVHO, Yes they should!

    I'm just frustrated with the way so many agents are showing prospective buyers homes that are on the market when they know that their client will be going with an FHA, USDA or VA endorsed loan. For the most they all have basic and similar requirements that home must meet. One big requirement and it is the most visible part of a home is the ROOF, it must be in good condition! When you drive up to the house the roof is one, if not the first thing you can see. Yet it appears that it is the last thing that so many agents and their clients look at when they look at the house.

    Okay, what has perpetuated this little rant has to do with one home last week and two homes this week that I inspected. Two were going to be FHA loans and one was going to be a VA loan and all were with three different RE firms and agents. When I drove up to all three I could see missing shingles and on one the roof was patched with rolled roofing on a 8/12 slope in addition to missing shingles! All three also had multiple layers of shingles. So that covers the roof…. Lets move on to the electrical and everything else…..

    One home had K&T and that was even listed on the sellers disclosure form! One home had all of the ceiling fixtures removed with wires hanging from the ceilings (Yes, the power was off, this was an REO), all of the carpet had been torn out, the water heater had been removed and this was the VA loan home! The last home had split cast iron plumbing that was visible and dripping in the basement as soon as you got to the bottom of the stairs and looked up!

    Why, as a RE agent would you even tell your clients to get a home inspection when you know or should know that the home is not going to be able to pass the requirements for the loan that your client is going to be getting! It is just so frustrating on my part when I get homes like this and I know that money is tight with the buyer. I know that they will back out of the sale and will need to look for another home and that their agent really could care less that they just spent $350 or whatever on a home inspection that should have never happened.

    Anyway out of the above three prospective buyers I just booked a new inspection for one of them for next week. After looking at the MLS photos, this one might be in better condition but it is still 60+ years of age and I'm betting the electrical and plumbing is original based on other homes I have looked at in the area.

    Just had to vent a little this morning!

    Last edited by Scott Patterson; 01-31-2015 at 11:01 AM.
    OREP Insurance
    Scott Patterson, ACI
    Spring Hill, TN
    www.traceinspections.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Spring City/Surrounding Philadelphia area
    Posts
    3,509

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    I hear you Scott. Some agents either don't listen or they don't care that they are wasting people's time.

    When setting up inspections on the phone with my buyers, I always ask if the house is vacant or occupied and utilities on or off. I advise the buyer to their agent that all utilities need to be on so we can test and operate everything. So at an inspection earlier this week, the listing agent is present and states the house is winterized. This is the house where they poured blue windshield washer fluid in the toilets (their version of anti-freeze) and never drained any of the lines. They just shut the main off next to the water meter in the basement. So yesterday, I'm scheduled to go back to the house, look at the roof I couldn't see earlier in the week due to snow, and inspect the plumbing. The buyer was told the water was turned on and ready to be inspected. We get to the house and the water was never turned on so after the buyer contacts the listing office, she tells me, "they gave you permission to turn the water on". WTF!!!!! I never asked for permission nor did I want it. At that point, I didn't care and didn't feel like wasting any more of mine or the buyer's time in either a return trip or waiting for the listing agent to get somebody to show and do their job.

    Sometimes I'm too nice but the only person who ends up getting jerked around in these situations is the buyer.

    "It takes a big man to cry. It takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man". - Jack Handey

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    St Paul, MN
    Posts
    1,630

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    I've wondered that for years Scott.

    MinnesotaHomeInspectors.com
    Minnesota Home Inspectors LLC
    ASHI #242887 mnradontesting.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Bennett (Denver metro), Colorado
    Posts
    1,461

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    And for too many of these dumba$$ agents, you're a "deal killer" for pointing these defects out...........the irony of hearing agents complain about HIs would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.

    A few years ago, I stepped in a little REO house and immediately saw a one inch crack in the living room wall. As I strolled through the house, I found half a dozen more. The client was a young woman trying to buy her first home with FHA. I excused myself, stepped out in the yard and since the agent was a good friend, I called him and asked "What the hell?" His excuse was that it was dark when they looked at the house. I went back in and handed my phone to her and he explained that this wasn't the house for her. I told her "No charge" and told him that he owed me. Later, I grilled him over just how dark was it in that house that he didn't notice a half-dozen 1" cracks.

    My guess is that we could fill this thread with similar tales.

    If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Lake Barrington, IL
    Posts
    1,367

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    I chalk it up to wearing blinders and not paying attention. Agents who aren't latching on to apparent/obvious problems during the initial visit to the home will end up wasting their time and that of their clients when they bring in mismatched buyers.

    Eric Barker, ACI
    Lake Barrington, IL

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    so so, California
    Posts
    1,867

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    Quote Originally Posted by Lon Henderson View Post
    And for too many of these dumba$$ agents, you're a "deal killer" for pointing these defects out...........the irony of hearing agents complain about HIs would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.
    This is what I'm talking about...amen brother
    I was going to chime-in but now I don't have to...


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    66

    Default Re: Frustrated with Real Estate Agents not paying attention to what they are showing!

    Many years ago while looking for a home to purchase and live in, my wife and I were taken to a few listings that were called "handyman specials".
    We arrived with the agent at one house and the lock box key did not work to open the front door. So we all walked around to the rear of the home and got a chuckle to find no door at all leading into the kitchen. Just a wide open hole in the wall where a door had once been installed.
    We all stepped across the threshold into the room that had once been a kitchen and found no cabinets or plumbing fixtures, and no drywall or plaster on the read wall of the home leading to a storage shed with a dirt floor.
    We found our way to the living room where there was no ceiling, and obvious to all who looked, there was no insulation in the attic. I hope you understand why we stopped the search for a home with this agent because we just could not stand any more of the side-splitting laughter any longer.


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