I love active rain because it is a happy medium to rant, rave, and complain. So, I have a buyer who is looking for a home that it needs to be 3500 square feet or more, a pool, and a 1 story. My buyer also is in a wheelchair so he has specific needs and probably will have to do work on anything he buys.
We have been looking for over a year off and on, and we come across this bank owned property that is listed for $574,900 in a gated community and is 5572 square feet and the bank just put in about $75,000 to upgrade it. It has granite kitchen with cherry cabinets, and they redid the flooring as well as painted the home inside. My buyer becomes increasingly excited about this home so we go to see it at 9:00 PM that night. We go in and it was absolutely amazing. It had ramps and the doors were wider than normal and the master bath shower was perfect as my buyer could just roll right into the shower. No steps at all. The pool was green and the landscaping needs work, and the a/c probably needed to be replaced, but at 103$ a sq. ft when everything else in there was selling $175 a square foot it was a no brainer. So we hurry up and offer $575,000. We get it accepted. Then I start looking at the square footage as it really did not feel like a 5500 square foot home so I decided to research it. It shows a sketch of living area of 4208. Wow almost a 30% misrepresentation. Ouch. I ask the listing agent about this, and he said well even if it was 4200 square feet it is still a good deal.
Are you kidding me. A 30% misrepresentation and it is still a good deal. Is he right? yes, but my buyer is furious with myself and the listing agent. Now I know what many of you will say and that is I should have looked at the square footage prior to the offer. I did and the adjusted gross living area was 5572, but when you looked further that included the pool patio and porches.
I started looking at other listings that were bank owned not by the same listing agent, and to my surprise there was 2 more 30% misrepresentations. Is this a trend? Just because banks say they have not owned the property and that there are no warranties or representations, can they continue to do this? I guess they can, but it really stinks. It goes back to the accuracy of the MLS. Garbage in and Garbage out. The MLS is only as accurate as the information being put into it. We all need to do a better job in representing the correct information on the MLS.
David Serle
Vice President/Managing Broker
RE/MAX Services
561-912-3500 Office
561-912-3502 Direct
561-756-3104 Mobile
