Ronda Myers-Waters

I have a lovely home for sale in Hessville. It was built in 1964. It has harwood floors and a finished basement. I have received 3 offers on the property and two that have been accepted. One had the financing fall through. The other one should not have fell through.

The buyer had a home inspection done. Which is a good idea, all buyers should do it. I also like that the home inspector tells the buyer about maintenance items that come with home ownership. Which is also a good thing for first time home buyers to know about.

After the inspection I received a response from the buyer stating that they wanted the following items fixed or replaced or $10,425 off the purchase price. The items were the hot water heater because it had a recall, electrical issues there were 4 outlets with open grounds, the gutters replaced, the roof replaced, the trim on the house and garage replaced, the driveway and walkways replaced and the crack in the garage foundation replaced.

According to the pages of the home inspection that I received. The "necessary pages" most of these were maintenance items. I called the agent asking him since when are trim, gutters, and a non leaking 12 year old roof, driveway and walkway MAJOR DEFECTS. He told me that the contract says anything that would bring the value of the house down is a major defect. I next called an inspector that some of my clients have used on their transactions and asked him what he thought of the home inspection response. He stated just as I suspected the only items that were MAJOR DEFECTS were the recall on the hot water heater and the electrical. The home inspector asked what the summary page stated. I told him I did not know since that wasn't one of the "necessary pages" that was attached.

Next consulting with my seller, she agreed to fix the electrical and the hot water heater. We responded to the home inspection. Stating that the seller would fix the electrical and the recall on the hot water heater. The rest were maintenance items and would not be fixed by the seller.

Of course the buyer rejected the response and wanted their earnest money back. I wanted to fight this since the buyer agent refused to show us the summary page. He said that we didn't pay for the inspection so we did not need that page. My seller signed the mutual release to let it go back on the market. She was upset that the seller wanted her to fix all those items and get house for less than $100,000

For my own curiosity I called IAR. I explained to them what had happened and asked what was considered major defects. Not to my surprise the person I talked to said that the driveway, walkway, gutters, trim and non leaking roof are not major defects. I did let that agent know what I had found out.

If I ever have an issue like this again now I can back it up. It just goes to show that agents need to not only educate themselves they need to educate their buyers along the way.

Whenever someone asks what I do for a living and I say I'm a REALTOR they always ask isn't the market slow. I tell them that I have actually been busier than I ever have been. If you know the price range that most buyers are looking in then you can stay busy and have money coming in.

In my area Northwest Indiana the homes under $200,000 are moving. Especially under $150,000. I know that isn't a whole lot of commission but when you can close a few a month then it's not so bad. I figure I sell thise first time home buyers a home they will eventually want to buy a larger home. Plus some of their friends might me looking for homes soon. Great way to get referrals.

My last three deals were first time home buyers. Knowing that this is their first big purchase. I try to go over with them the advantages of owning a home. The deductions on income tax. That the equity that they build while owning a home. I also make sure that I call them about 5 weeks after the closing to remind them to file their property tax exemptions. Most people forget to do that.

I actually had a client lose their house because the taxes went up and they couldn't pay the payment increase. I felt bad. I even tried to sell their home using a short sale but the lender wouldn't go for it. Now it has expired on the market three times and is listed for less than the short sale offer was.

I know a lot of the top producers in my area are hurting. I know that some of them only like to sell higher end home $300,000+ . That could be why they are hurting.

There is not a lot of buyers in that price range. Especially those that bought their homes in the last two years are upside down and would take a loss selling their home in this market. But what if they need to relocate for their job what do they do. A division of the real estate company I work for has helped those owners find tenants to rent their home. We have been pretty busy with that. We have more tenants wanting homes then we have home right now. We are helping them find homes to rent.