View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
Doug Miller
 
Posts: n/a
Default Mayhem! Horror stories of house building and buying

In article , Ablang wrote:
[Ed. Would anyone here like to share their horror story?]

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20031027c1.asp

Mayhem! Horror stories of house building and buying
Compiled by Amy C. Fleitas Bankrate.com

From phony contractors to lying real estate agents, home building and
buying is about a lot more than just location.


Yeah, some of it is about foolish, whiny homebuyers too.

Fake architect charges for worthless blueprints
We wanted to build a log home. We searched on the Web and commissioned an
architect who specialized in building log homes. He had a legitimate-
looking license, degrees, credentials and everything.


Translation: it looked good, so we didn't check it out.

We met with him and
drove around and looked at log homes he had designed. He drew up some
blueprints for us. They were $600 down and $600 upon delivery. We thought
he was so nice to personally visit us and meet us at our home instead of
his office.

When we got the blueprints we went to a general contractor to start
building the home. There we found out that the architect was just "some guy
with CAD software" who had no idea of how to do blueprints. The ones we had
were completely useless. We tried to get our money back, but this person
had since canceled his phone number and his "office" did not exist. We
knocked on the doors of a couple homes he had claimed were "his" on the
tour, and discovered that the owners had never heard of this person.


Translation: we didn't bother to check out references *first*.

Haunted by house's past

[snip]
She said, "Oh you shouldn't tell your wife this, but the old owner who
lived here hanged himself from the front yard tree."

We were furious that we had been lied to and, at the very least, upset that
this information, which we believe impacted the value of the property, was
withheld from us.


Oh, bulls--t. That doesn't affect the value of the property at all.

To top it off, the seller was a real estate lawyer. You would expect him,
of all people, to know that information like this should be disclosed.


No, "you would expect him, of all people" to know that it doesn't actually
affect the value of the property.

We lost our house

[snip]
It seems our agent in Florida had sold our house by letting the buyer
assume our mortgage. She didn't even have to qualify. Our name was still on
the title, so we were responsible! It took us 10 years to become homeowners
again. Don't ever agree to something you don't understand 100 percent.


DUH!


Construction loan horror
We were attempting to obtain a construction loan. We supplied our initial
paperwork to our loan officer. We wanted to place a used, single-wide
modular home that we owned on 23 acres.


Construciton loans are for _construction_. How did you expect to get one for
buying land to park a used trailer on?

Mortgage strong-arming
When I was rehabbing turn-of-the-century houses two years ago, the mortgage
broker I depended on took advantage of me, knowing I had a payroll to meet.
Because he assured me that a loan would close "next week," I went ahead
with work on properties.


Dope. Wait til the money is in hand, and you won't have to worry about stuff
like this.

When "next week" didn't bring proceeds from the mortgage loan, I was hard
pressed to pay the workers. By the time the broker did deliver the loan, I
was not in a position to walk away from it. At the closing, the settlement
officer handed me an agreement to sign that doubled the broker's fee for
arranging the loan.

Tricked instead of treated by a real estate agent
I wanted to take advantage of the rock-bottom interest rates of this past
summer and went scouting for homes. I met a real estate agent who offered
to help me find my dream home. I had to really pinch and scrape to get my
down-payment money. I was a first time-home buyer. I was preapproved for a
conventional mortgage but preferred an FHA loan. My agent knew all of this.

When I finally had found a home, my agent took my offer to the sellers and
their agent. Without my consent, my real estate agent offered to go with a
conventional mortgage and waived my right to have a home inspection.


Without your consent? Yeah, right. Who signed the papers?

When I
found out, I demanded she get things straightened out. She said it was too
late -- she and the sellers had already signed the acceptance agreement and
taken my earnest deposit check of $1,500.

After the final closing,


You went ahead and closed anyway?? Why didn't you contact an attorney?

I discovered multiple breaches in the disclosure,
including water leakage in the basement, garage structure damage, roof
damage. Also, the fireplace was deemed unfit for any fires by a contractor
and had to be removed and replaced.


Yeah, that's what happens when you buy a house without looking at it first.

Worthless float-down option
I just closed on a mortgage refinance loan last week. I locked about six
weeks ago, choosing to take the float-down option. During that five-week
period I followed the going rate on a daily basis. The trend was a steady
decline. Sure, there were a few bumps, but the net effect was a much lower
rate than five weeks prior. So I was very surprised when my closing
paperwork still stated the original interest rate for my loan. I called my
loan officer and was informed that despite four or five weeks of declining
interest rates, this particular lender's rates remained unchanged and so my
float-down option was fruitless.


Let's see, now.... you agreed, six weeks ago, to a particular rate. And now
you're upset that you are being charged... the rate you agreed to!

Asked to lie about income
I went through a building company to buy a new home. I put $3,000 down as a
deposit. I had been pre-qualified for a mortgage through its company.

When the mortgage company was putting me through final approval, I was told
I did not make enough money according to my profit-and-loss statements for
that year. They suggested ("wink-wink") I redo them to make it appear my
business was more profitable.

Time to see an attorney... did you?

I refused to doctor my financial records and was denied the mortgage. The
builder then called to say I would not be refunded my $3,000 due to the
fact the construction had begun and the mortgage was denied. I tried to get
help to reclaim my money, but was unsuccessful. The home was resold to a
new buyer and the company made a killing.


Either you had a written agreement with the builder before you made that
$3,000 deposit, or you did not. If you did not, you're an idiot. If you did,
either it specifies that the deposit is refundable if, e.g., the mortgage does
not go through, or it does not. If it does not, and you signed it anyway,
you're an idiot. If it does, then see an attorney and get your money back.
Regardless, quit whining.

--
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?