Gene & Kim Quinney

I wanted to write this post in response to some of the comments in Lenns blog about the danger of certain real estate related activity. Specifically in the State of Washington since one comment mentioned how silly our new law is...

Without going into the details of the law and all the chaos it created, here's the skinny in a nut shell.

Washington State's "Distressed Property Law" RCW 61.34 was enacted to grant the State enforcement powers to stop "Equity Skimming" scams during the legislative session of 2008. It was signed into law on March 30th and took affect on June 12, 2008.

After it's enactment many brokerage's stopped listing properties that fell into the laws definition of a "Distressed Home" for fear of agents becoming "Distressed Home Consultants" which by the language of the new law created a completely new set of "Fiduciary" duties that did not exist under our current "Agency Law". In Washington State we owe NO "Fiduciary" duties. That level of duty is strictly for Attorneys. Our duties as licensees fall under Washington States "Agency Law". The State legislature in all it's glory failed to recognize the contradictory language that created ambiguity between the old and new laws. It also created a situation where a buyer became a "Distressed Home Consultant" if they purchased a distressed home within 20 days of a scheduled foreclosure sale.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service changed all our listing forms, many purchase and sale documents and the sellers disclosure statement to accommodate the new 2008 law. They hired translators and printed all new listing forms in every possible language because the 2008 law required that contracts be in the homeowners "first Language" and in the absence of clear communication the brokerage/agent had to hire a translator to assure the sellers understood the implications of the new law. It created chaos.

In March of 2009 the Washington State legislature amended the Distressed Property law to exempt Real Estate Agents. Currently, only under a very narrow set of circumstances could a licensee be considered a "Distressed Home Consultant". One of which is providing services during or participating in a "Distressed Home Conveyance". A sale that allows the seller to rent or leases back a home after the sale of a "Distressed Home" for the purposes of skimming equity.

After the 2009 amendment to the "Distressed Property Law" all the forms were again changed, old ones replaced with new ones and sanity was once again restored to the real estate world.

Gene

Maybe you've seen them,maybe you haven't, and maybe we should watch out for them. What are they?...Orbs.

Just what are orbs and why should be aware of them? Orbs have been defined by some as the existence of paranormal activity and debunked by others as simply water stains or rain drops on camera lens when digital pictures are taken. I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I have had the following experiences.

After listing any home my normal practice is to immediately take at least one exterior photo. If the house is staged or clean and organized enough I will take all pictures. Saves time. On this particular day immediately after the sellers signed the agreement I started taking pictures of all the rooms. I drove back to the office and downloaded them into my photo editing program. After download, I noticed several orbs in a few of the pics. Several in the front room, the dining room and the master suite. Since this was a dry sunny day I attributed the orbs to stains on the camera lens.

After a few jokes between me and Kim about ghosts, and goblins I cleaned the camera lens, inspected it for spots and such and went back out again to re-take pics. Again the orbs were there in the same rooms except in different locations. This was not funny anymore. I've already wasted a couple hours on these orbs and was quickly approaching the point of irritation, not to mention the freaky factor...

The next time I went out I took a completely different camera and took pictures again of the same rooms...Same results. Orbs. Now I'm not one to believe ghost stories or the boggy man but this was getting strange. I did not want to keep taking pictures so I removed the orbs in the pictures with modern day technology and posted them all over the Internet. Home looked great, pictures looked good. Done. So I thought.

A couple days after this whole fiasco Kim decides she's got to see this house. I guess curiosity was getting the best of her besides, she wasn't there at the listing appointment so I can't blame her for wanting to see it. She took two friends with her. As they drove down the long dark driveway bordered by a thicket of small Birch trees and stagnant pond water, they emerged into the light and up the hill toward the home. The home was an older farm type home with two windows above a front doorway. The brown trim accented the door and windows from the bright white color. An eerie feeling began to overwhelm them as they approached the home.

Upon entering the house they noticed all the lights were on so she called me. I was in the office at the time and checked to see if anyone had been in the home since we listed it and there was no activity so we figured the sellers must have been back. After walking through the home and exiting each room on down to the basement, she turned the lights off. As she climbed back up the stairs she noticed the lights upstairs were back on. Freaked out and thinking someone had entered the home, they started calling out...hello! hello! No answer. They quickly left.

The next few days were un-eventful until I received a call from an agent who just showed the property. The first question out of her mouth was, "has anyone been murdered in that home?". I immediately asked why, and the agent said that her client thought the house was haunted. Things are starting to get a little weird now and I told her I had no knowledge of anything like that happening. Well needless to say that client didn't want anything to do with that home.

Another agent shows the home a fews day later and poses the very same question and I respond again the same way. After three months on the market and a couple price adjustments we sold the home, but we'll never forget that home, those orbs or the feeling that home elicited.

A little while later we listed another home where both sellers had passed away. That home had orbs in the kitchen and in the formal dining room. The very same eerie chain of events occurred with the pictures of that property although the sale was quick and uneventful.

States have different disclosure requirements. Here in Washington we have no duty to disclose such events since they are not perceived to be material defects. Unless of course we're asked directly and we have actual knowledge.

If you see any orbs out there be prepared for the unusual and the unexplained...

Have you experienced orbs or any other strange unexplainable event while selling homes?

Why are your sellers terminating just because we didn't provide the letter of loan commitment on time?

Seriously. This was asked of me. A purchase and sale was subject to the timely delivery of a letter from the buyer/buyers lender. The "letter of loan commitment" was due after 20 days from mutual acceptance and was not delivered. After providing a written request to the buyers agent, the time frame elapsed which enabled the seller to provide notice of termination if the buyer failed to waive their financing contingency within 3 days of receipt of sellers notice.

The buyers agent contacts me very angry and suggests I was trying to sell the property to another buyer, perhaps one our firm represented. Not the case at all. After explaining the purpose of the letter, the origin and basis of the language change in the Statewide Forms the agent called the lender to have a letter delivered but by then it was too late. The time frame had elapsed for the delivery of the letter and the sellers elected to terminate the transaction.

The buyer spent money on a home inspection, an appraisal and had the private well inspected. I imagine they were not happy at all. The lender, by refusing and or neglecting to provide the letter of loan commitment allowed the seller to exercise their option to terminate and they did, much to the chagrin of everyone. I did end up selling the home to a buyer who called on the yard sign about 3 weeks later.

Gene

I am introducing a new blog series called "The Stupidly Question of The Week" where I will draw from actual instances where over the years agents, lenders, buyers and sellers have given me pause with silly statements and questions that might qualify as stupidly.

The first in this new series will be as follows.

Why do "I" have to pay closing costs, isn't that the sellers responsibility?

I heard this question several years ago when while representing a buyer he said he was told that the seller would pay for his closing costs. He was also told that it's done all the time. The worse part about it--was the person who told him, his loan officer. Excuse me Mr. loan officer but that type of advice is better left to the agents.

Although I have successfully negotiated hundreds of sales where the buyers closing costs are paid either in part or in full by the seller, it's not a guarantee and to suggest or imply otherwise is completely dishonest. Closing cost as we all know can be negotiated. It may in some cases drive up the cost of the home if the seller adds to the price or it will reduce the net seller proceeds which can affect negotiations.

Bottom line---both buyer and seller have costs. Negotiating who pays them is fine but fostering a false sense of reality in either party serves nobody well.

Experience?

Classroom Education?

Online Webinars?

As I perused through the MLS this morning searching for newly listed properties for a client of ours I noticed many agents commenting on their "expertise" of Short Sales". After further investigation I noticed that many of the so called experts didn't have any short sale listings so I immediately assumed (mistake) they must have gained this expertise assisting buyers with short sale purchases.

I started checking the sales history of some of these "experts" and discovered none of them had any sales representing buyers or sellers in short sale transactions whatsoever. I assume once again they are assigning themselves the status of "expert" based on classes or designations received in a classroom setting.

My question;

Does a designation or classroom certificate make you an expert? And is this form of advertising false and or mis-leading? What say you?