The Dishwasher and the Missing Pier

I mentioned the other day that I had finally closed a deal where I had had to literally argue and fight over a Dishwasher and pier that had been removed from under a house in order to run AC duct work.

I think I'm in enough recovery from this nightmare (just paid the counselor my final payment!) in order to tell you the story now.

Let's begin with the dishwasher since that's the most ridiculous item. Well, I think it is anyway. We'll see...

When the listing was entered into the MLS by our office, a mistake was made and the listing showed that the house had a dishwasher. Honest mistake. I should have caught it. I didn't.

The house had incredible traffic and showings. No one ever mentioned the missing dishwasher. Then we got our offer. We negotiated, got into contract and moved forward through inspections.

Just prior to closing the other agent contacted me to say that the buyers wanted the dishwasher that was supposed to be in the house. Huh? What dishwasher?

The backstory here is that these folks had been in the house several times. They SAW that there was no dishwasher. So did the agent. Further, I was there at the inspection. We all stood in the kitchen and listened to the inspector talk about the kitchen and what was there and what wasn't there...including no dishwasher. They knew there was no dishwasher.

So the agent sent his request (demand) over saying we owed them a dishwasher. And what did he send us to prove it? The MLS listing page. Yep, it said there was a dishwasher. But it also say's clearly at the bottom of the page, "All information deemed to be accurate but not guaranteed."

HELLLOOO!

He also send a copy of the contract page that had the dishwasher listed on the appliances that the buyers had listed in the kitchen. Yep, they had listed a dishwasher.

But what's that? The paragraph addressing appliances in the home say's, "The following items, IF EXISTING ON THE PROPERTY, shall remain with property..."

If existing. If existing. If existing. Hmmm. I think I know what that means.

This request brought us to an impasse. In real estate, when you hit an impasse, you go to your broker. You do this to figure out the correct and proper way to handle disagreements. So I went to my broker. He went to his and we all had a nicely heated argument over the speakerphone.

We won. And we should have.

Now the pier.

This was an older house. It was built on a crawl space with spaced piers underneath. When central heat and air was installed 15 years ago, one of the piers had been removed to make room for the duct work. That was 15 years ago and the house hadn't settled or fallen down as a result.

The inspector noted correctly that the pier had been removed and should be watched so that the house didn't move and settle. The pier could be replaced, but it would cost at least $650.00. That was over the repair cap, so everyone agreed to not worry about the pier. The buyers sent us the list of repairs, we came to agreement, but had not signed the form and sent it back yet.

Good thing!

Right around the dishwasher fiasco, we got a request (demand) to replace the pier on top of all the other repairs because it was a part of the AC system and the seller had agreed to repair the AC ducts.

WHAT? Are you kidding me? A pier is a part of the AC system? Seriously?

I'm sorry, but that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. And it only took a phone call to the inspector to put a stop to that nonsense!

Good Lord! Talk about wanting to pull your hair out!!!

Like I said earlier, we finally got this thing closed. In all fairness, the other agent was working hard for his clients as was I for mine. However, my seller had put a new roof on this house (tore off 2 layers and wood shake shingles AND put down new decking and a whole new roof). She also put in new AC ductwork when she discovered that the ducts had rusted out. Not to mention brand new carpet throughout and beautiful new paint. I really felt like we were being bullied through this process.

And that's no fun.

This deal got me to thinking about the world of real estate.

- Is it any wonder why we end up with so many lawsuits these days???
- Imagine what that seller would have been put through without having Realtor representation! Yikes!

For the record, not all Realtors are as pushy as the one I dealt with in this situation. Most often the person on the other side of the deal is great to work with. That's because we want things to work out good for both the buyer and the seller. We understand that working together and cooperating gets everyone much further down the line. And cooperation also solves problems lots better than what I call the "legal counsel" approach used on us in this case. I swear it felt like Johnny Cochran was up against us in the whole deal!

The moral of this story is, of course, pay attention to the details.

The other moral is...well I'm sure there are more. I'm just too worn out again from telling the story to think of them!

Have a Great Day in the world of real estate!