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Dang House Is Infested I Tell You !!!


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So anyway,

This morning I arrive at the morning job in Ballard, an area of Seattle fairly close to downtown in the north end, to do a pre-offer inspection for a fellow on a little 1929 1040 sf bungalow.

As I pull up, I notice another guy with a truck there with ladders and stuff and see he's got one of those HomeCheck type pre-printed checklist reports in his hand and he's waiting for someone.

"Uh oh, another home inspector. Guess I'm gonna have to be careful what I say around this guy," I think, and I go over to one side, complete the PIA with the client and as we're finishing up on that up pulls his realtor to open the door. When she's informed of the other inspector, she remarks that it's the cheapest house on the market in that area and the owner will be accepting offers tonight.

So, I'm doing the inspection and all morning long realtors and their clients are traipsing in and out of the house every couple of minutes and trying to eavesdrop on my conversation with my client or on the other guy's conversation with his clients. Talk about yer clusters!

Then, about halfway through, up pulls another pickup truck with a lady inspector that I know and she comes in with her clients and commences inspecting. Not a half hour later, another truck pulls up and another inspector walks in with his clients.

Now we have the house full of clients and inspectors trying not to trip all over each other and there are all kinds of other realtors showing up with clients to look the place over.

Anyway, I finish up, bid my client goodbye and am packing my gear in the truck when two more vehicles pull up and out piles another inspector and clients.

I had just finished winching the last strap down on my ladder and was climbing out of the bed of the truck. I called out to the people approaching the house with the inspector, "Hey, you don't want to buy this house, believe me. It's completely infested!" They stop and the lady has a look of shock on her face. The inspector looks annoyed. "Oh my god! With What?" asks the lady, "Termites, carpenter ants, rats?"

"Nope," I responded, "Home Inspectors. The place is crawlin' with those pesky critters."

It was good for a chuckle. The look on her face when she realized I was joking was worth a million bucks.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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Charlie,

Mike can likely elaborate, but my experience is that there is a shortage of relatively cheap (around $300,000) in-city "starter" homes here in Seattle, especially in the more desirable little neighborhoods like Ballard. When one comes on the market that shows well (may have problems but is at least clean) there is often a feeding frenzy. Everyone is trying to make their bid as attractive as possible and many do that partly by removing the inspection contingency. The smart ones only do that after a pre-offer inspection.

It's great for the seller, good for the inspectors, but often sucks for the buyer. I did 4 for one client alone last year before they finally won the bidding war. One client came in 15th out of 18 bids. I've rubbed shoulders with other inspectors, but the most I've shared a house with was two others...Mike's really sounds like a zoo.

BTW...I "try" to help my clients by doing my best Geico commercial imitation whenever others wander by. You know..."the foundations crumbling, the structure is full of termites, and we really need to do something about this wiring...etc". I think I normally give it away by winking though.

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Originally posted by carle3

Just wondering how the winning bid is evauluated. Might it be the offer that comes back with an inspection that list the least amount of defects and paints the property in a rosey light?

Naah.... Usually there is no "list"; the property is sold as is sits. The purpose of the inspection is to inform the buyer about what's what; then they can adjust their bid accordingly, or not at all if the problems aren't severe.

I like these sorts of inspections; no dinking around w/the spinmeisters.

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Wow Rich,

That's the house! Good detective work. That almost looks like my red Baja in front but it can't be since there isn't any black bed on the back. It's way too quiet too. Where'd all the people go?

Kurt and Richard are right on the money. This guy will have made his offer without an inspection contingency or not at all and he won't be asking for any repairs. It's not unusual for the winning bid in these things to be well above the asking price for the home - sometimes higher than what one will appraise for, in which case the buyers have to cough up a whole lot more money for a down-payment. I once did 5 different inspections for the same customer. The first 4 were pre-offer. She finally got disgusted and made a solid offer on a home, got it accepted and then plunked down some earnest money before callling me for the 5th one.

They were asking $292,000 for the house. That's cheap. I've seen bungalows in Ballard that I inspected in 1996, which sold then for about $140,000 - $160,000, going for between $500,000 and $550,000. The house immediately to the north was a patchwork of half-finished repairs and was an eyesore. Immediately across the street another fellow was decorating his front yard with an antique gas pump circa 1940's. That's probably what kept the price of this one down.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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Hi,

Just heard from the client. His offer was beat by someone else's. They had 19 offers on the house last night. He offered more than asking and received a note from the seller thanking him for making such a strong offer but he lost out anyway. That's sort of typical of what's been going on here for months and months.

He said he'll be calling me on the next one. Wonder if that will be a pre-offer or after an offer's been accepted?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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Originally posted by hausdok

Hi,

Just heard from the client. His offer was beat by someone else's. They had 19 offers on the house last night. He offered more than asking and received a note from the seller thanking him for making such a strong offer but he lost out anyway. That's sort of typical of what's been going on here for months and months.

He said he'll be calling me on the next one. Wonder if that will be a pre-offer or after an offer's been accepted?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Down here too. I had one this past summer where my customer's offer was accepted but there were 27 offers behind him.

It was a remarkably unremarkable house too. Go figure.

- Jim Katen

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