All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

banks don't know the conditions and don't care to know the conditions of the property.

You as the buyer assume the risks. You are going to sign a whole bunch of REO addendum saying you acknowledged the bank not knowing anything about the property and any disclosures you might have you bear the responsibility to verify accuracy.

I had a FNMA property last year. Had contract executed, and my attorney couldn't get the attorney on their end to send us the title commitment and hud-1 to review up to the day of the closing. I was out money for inspection, survey, HOA application, HOA govern doc order, and other fees.

On the day of the closing they called my attorney and said oops can't close, your client's revealed an error in the legal description currently filed, which turned out to be a typo in the legal going back many many owners. They said it cannot legally close, they have to contact previous owners to get them to sign something. They weren't able to locate previous owners, so they had to reforeclose. Amazing huh?

I wasted close to $1000 for nothing.

But six months later the property got listed again. I contacted them and they said they would honor my original contract it I wanted. On I said provided that I can do a walk through of the property at that time to make sure it hasn't changed.

I went to the property with my agent it was on supra. Property was dark no electric no water. Smelled musky. You can imagine what happens in south Florida when AC is turned off and the bathroom fixture trap seal dried up for six months.

I saw termite droppings and wings. I also saw one wall "bowed". Kitchen cabinets along that wall bulged enough to visually appeared crooked. After some investigation by myself it turned out the other side of that wall has an outside wall light fixture and it was busted and knocked loose, rains every day in the summer here, water got inside the electrical box and leaked down the conduit to the junction box, from there the inside wall, cabinets, window frame...and my concern was mold. I got a mold company out, tested positive for black mold very high concentration. They gave me a $10000 quote for mold remediation, that does not include fixing and replacing the kitchen walls.

I told the listing agent we found high conc of black mold. She said "oh no we can't legally sell homes with black mold. Can u send me a copy of the report?" I said sure.

Meanwhile I told my agent, let's propose to FNMA two options. One, to extend the contract same terms but until they fixed the mold issue. Or two, they hire they own mold test company to verify my results and we work out some reasonable credit, forget about the termites I will tent it.

When my agent contacted them to propose what I instructed, their agent's turned 180 degrees. First, contract terms stay as is, no fix, no test, no delay, no anything. Take it or leave it. Second, do not send in mold test report, don't want it, can't read it, if I have already sent it they will not open it. Conditions of property is as is.

I got so fed up I cancelled.

sorry for being long winded here but here you can see even in this extreme case where the defect is documented, verified, and caused by their own negligence (if they paid the electric bills the AC would be running and the moisture penetration wouldn't have escalated into a toxic black mold issue) and I had a contract with them prior without the mold and termite issues, even then they didn't care.

Hope this helps.

@Jon, understood.

The reason I started this topic wasn't to complain, but more to get a better understanding.

Are there so many landlord threads in the renters forum because those are in the wrong place? Or is there some background that lead to that being the case, such as most here are landlords and investors so they use both interchangeably?

I could see a possible confusion is if a relatively newer member scroll down the list of forums and see "Renters" under "General Real Estate" they probably would assume that's the forum for landlords to post about "renter issues". To that end I think it makes more sense to have "Landlords" and "Tenants/Renters" to be both under the "Landlords and Tenant Forums" and everyone would immediately see which forum to go for what. IMHO probably would remove the majority of the posts being in the wrong place as far as landlords and renters go.

My 2 cents.

@Bill, that's what I thought. I really never looked into the renters forum.

The forum description is clear: "

This is the forum for renters. Lets talk about dealing with landlords, leases, and other issues."

So the landlords post here, the renters post over there.

I found it odd these two forums are not organized side by side.

But I noticed a topic that was a landlord topic, and went into that forum and on the first page, every single topic seem to have been initiated by landlords. Hence the confusion.

Seems to me there are many "landlords" type threads on the Renters forum and there are some "renters" threads in this forum.

Is this primarily due to the Renters forum being tucked under the General Real Estate umbrella and not side by side with this one under the Landlords and Tenants Forum so many didn't see one or the other? Or has it been this way so both are now serving the dual purposes since that's how many used it?

curry is nothing.

wait till you experienced the smell of fermented fish.

I nearly fainted.

I have a good one today.

Caller said I want to ask you about the the property for rent, can you tell me more about it?

I said sure and gave her a brief overview but then I asked her where she found out about the property.

She said she saw a sign with my phone number. I said OK, next to the sign is a box containing some single sheet flyers with some detail information.

"Oooo I see it now".

She went on to ask me "could you tell me what's on that flyer so I can decide if it's worth it to get out of my car to go get it?"

I told her it has all the basic information, how many bed, bath, square footage, a few pictures, restrictions and a floor plan showing room dimensions and exact layout, and a QR code and link pointing to a website with many more full size pictures.

"Oooo but you are asking 1100 a month?"

I said yes, and I said 2/1s in that neighborhood ranges from 895 to 1250 depending on many factors.

"Now I just called another place they have a 1/1 renting for 750 so you are not being truthful."

I asked her where, she told me.

I said 15th Avenue is a through street. EVERYONE driving through Riverside Park comes in through 15th Avenue. We are one block from the river on a deadend. It's a 2/1 and not a 1/1. Location does matter.

She said she will get out of the car now to get my sheet. I told me to call me back if she needs further assistance. Not even going to bother to answer if she called back. I don't need someone calling me at midnight asking if it's worth it for her to reach out to the toilet paper on the wall.

be careful.

I have done that fairly frequently years ago but less and less now a days. Getting old.

Also construction work doesn't lend itself to long hours. I can do physical work, then sit down and do some brain work, but it's hard to keep going. What my concerns would be when it gets to a point that it affects your reflex and control...then don't operate a drill press, a table saw or chop saw, or run electrical wires...a small mistake can do big bodily damages.

One was 12 days past due on rent and the excuse - he was too busy. NOT that he forgot or he didn't have the money, but he was too busy.

Wrong city in the address is fairly common down here in South Florida where cities are all clustered together. I often seen homes in Plantation listed in Fort Lauderdale, and homes in North Miami Beach listed as Aventura, or homes in unincorporated Miami Dade County listed as City of Miami. Sometimes zip codes have transposed digits. I don't pay much attention to city, just look up and verify the legal description and sometimes have to map it a bit different to find the right city.

@wayne, they city treasury department told me it's not a super priority but the lien will survive the sale, but right after the new owner pays a $500 to have them release the lien and that's it.

Based on that I submitted an offer, but I know if the bank accepts my offer they will come back with a ton of addendum, hold harmless, waivers etc...and at such time I will engage an attorney since I do have a due diligence period in my offer to look it over.