Short Sale Nightmare For Home Buyer

Recently, as a Sacramento Short Sale Realtor®, I was working with home buyers who decided to purchase a home in West Sacramento that would be large enough for their family of eight.

They were delighted to meet the Short Sale seller who was present at the home inspection. Which frankly, I ask the sellers I work with, not to be present.  This usual is not a good idea in my opinion for many reasons…but let’s get back to the nightmare.

The house at that point had limited furniture since the Short Sale sellers were obviously in the process of moving.  However, attached items are to stay with the house unless it is noted in the MLS that the seller is removing an item and it will not stay with the home for sale.

During the home inspection, the seller very nicely approached the home buyer in front of me and reassured the home buyer that everything would stay with the house and he had no intention of taking things that were attached.  The seller went on to ask the home buyer if there were any items the home buyer wanted the seller to fix.  Of course on a Short Sale, a seller is selling the home as-is but the home buyer responded by asking if the short sale seller would fix a burned out plug in one of the bedrooms.

Once the home buyer and I were away from the house, I explained to the home buyer that this home was being sold as-is and the seller was not required to fix anything even though he offered.

As per the Purchase Contract, 5 days before close of escrow, the home buyers and I went back over to the house to take a last look and found the seller had not only not cleaned, left trash but had also taken the dining room fixture, the Family fan and fixture as well as the MasterBedroom fixture.

It should be noted that the homebuyer has the right to take the seller to small claims court to be reimbursed for the fixtures and the garbage that the home buyers had to pay since photos had been taken of the before and after as proof.

But the story doesn’t end there…the seller had turned off the Sub-Zero refrigerator which stunk as well as the water for the lawn which was burned to a crisp.

Short Sale sellers are to keep the property in good shape and all utilities on as per the contract so this seller blatantly disregarded the contract.

There were many more challenges with this particular Short Sale home for sale throughout the escrow.  One being that the seller told his agent that the buyer asked him to make repairs but never informed his listing agent that he had made the first offer.  Since I was present during this discussion I know how the discussion went.  Just another very good reason for a seller never to be present at the home inspection.

The good news is that the home buyer who are now homeowners have moved in and are making improvements to the house as well as some great memories.  There can be challenges when buying a Short Sale.  As long as the home buyer realizes what some of those challenges are and are prepared to accept them or deal with them at a later date then Short Sales may be the way to go for some home buyers.

If you are interested in purchasing a Short Sale, just click on Sacramento Real Estate Neighborhoods to see all the Short Sales,  Foreclosures and Traditional homes for sale.