I would wish that I could correct my misspellings, but I dont want to waste another one. Thanks for understanding.

Several lessons.

One, do not fall in love with a house before the offer. Buying a home is the biggest expense most people incur---buy with your wallet and not your heart.

Two, never assume anything and be ready for anything. She was smart enough to get a competent inspection---which showed the deception practiced by many sellers/agents.

Be ready to just walk away when sellers/agents use stall tactics---that is a very good sign there are other problems.

Before we would even consider putting a bid on a house, we are going to check it out fully. This includes going in the basement / crawl and attic. After reading about strategically placed furniture, I'd also consider moving some away from the wall & looking with a flash light.

My guess is that the seller knew exactly what was going on which is why they haven't been able to sell it. If it's possible, have your agent check if any bids were placed on properties. In some cases it means nothing in this market, in others it does.

Good luck

We've had so many offers that the sellers didn't honor the deadlines. Realtors always had an excuse and frankly unless we wanted to get out of a contract, the date problem was annoying and bothersome and stressful but eventually we worked through date issues. Once when selling we received an offer that was presented to us on a Sunday evening at 8 p.m. and they wanted an answer by Sunday at 9 p.m......totally unreasonable and we ignored that request and got back to them Monday night instead and that deal went through.

I think that people lie on their disclosures regularly and it's unfortunate that there isn't more of a penalty or fine on them for doing so. Just be thankful you had an inspector that found the problem and you could legally get out of the contract before you were stuck with problems the seller refused to disclose. I personally think there should be some kind of sanction against an agent that knows they lied on their disclosure. We've always had agents that were very diligent about making sure we put everything on a disclosure possible.

Good luck in your house search. Now you know just how valuable an inspection is.

I think that people lie on their disclosures regularly and it's unfortunate that there isn't more of a penalty or fine on them for doing so. Just be thankful you had an inspector that found the problem and you could legally get out of the contract before you were stuck with problems the seller refused to disclose. I personally think there should be some kind of sanction against an agent that knows they lied on their disclosure. We've always had agents that were very diligent about making sure we put everything on a disclosure possible.

I have to agree and in this case, since there is a known issue that sounds safety related, it should be disclosed.

I think being very firm with your Realtor and explaining that a deadline is a deadline. If it is missed, you are on to the next house... with a different Realtor.

As far as the lying on the disclosure - do you have a Real Estate Attorney? If so, contact him/her and find out what the penalties for lying on a disclosure in your state are. There may be nothing, there may be something that would entitle you to reimbursement of your current sunk costs.

In my area there IS a penalty for Realtors who lie about known defects. Of course, you have to PROVE they knew.

Unfortunately, the burden of proof and expense of proving it is upon the buyer. We had major problems with our last house and evidence that the agent and and seller were aware of the problems. It would have cost us several thosand dollars to go through with a lawsuit. We still could have lost in court. We ended up cutting our losses.

You have to remember the the agents, both the listing and the buyers, want the deal to go through. Most lying is done as lies of omission. I once had REAs show me a house that they said "didn't show well" because of paneling and such. The reason was because the house was full of lead paint and was covered up. Which they both knew.
As for times and dates I think if both parties are interested it shouldn't be an issue.
Inspections protect you so that's really what's most important.

I don't know if it's the same in every state, but in Texas once a formal inspection has been done, the seller has to provide a copy of that inspection to future buyers. Was the house ever under contract previously that you know of? If so, and there was an inspection, you should have gotten a copy of it.

Canobeans, in any state we've lived in the seller does not have to provide a copy of an inspection done by former prospective buyers to future buyers. I would think though that since it's been "discovered" the seller would certainly be remiss in not putting it on their disclosure form, and unethical to boot.

Canobeans why would the sellers have a copy of the buyer's inspection report? The sellers aren't paying for it. Does Texas law mandate a buyer paying for something, owning it, and turning it over to someone else for free? Or do the sellers have to pay the buyers for the report?

I don't believe that the seller has to produce the actual report, but the seller does have to disclose the significant findings from the inspection because s/he can no longer deny their knowledge of same (basically the information gets added to the disclosure sheet).

Whoa! Didn't the prospective buyer go into the basement BEFORE making an offer? If the basement was in such a mess, couldn't she see it? Or her BF?
If it was THAT bad, why was an offer made?
Just curious.
Kathy G in MI

Hmmm. Well, when we bought our house, we got copies of all the prior inspection reports (there were two other contracts on the house that fell through before we came along). I think that helped the seller in our case because we could see that any issues the house had were minor -- it gave us the confidence to make an "as is" offer (though contingent on our own inspection) which is probably why our offer was accepted over another offer they had pending. We ended up not asking for any repairs at all (don't you all wish we were your buyers!). I've also sold three (hopefully soon it will be four) houses in Texas and for one of them we did have to provide a copy of the inspection report on a failed contract to future buyers. For another, my realtor said it was better that the buyer who canceled hadn't gotten an inspection done or I'd have to disclose it to future buyers. Which is so weird, I don't know what she thought was so bad about the idea of disclosing known defects. In any case, certainly anything found by a licensed inspector should be considered a known defect for future contracts, regardless of whether one turns over the actual inspection report.

I've always been as honest as possible on disclosures I've filled out. Why not? Chances are an inspection would turn up any defects anyway, and if not, I wouldn't want to take the risk of being sued.

Thanks for all of the responses.

There was nothing particularly special about the house other than it was affordable, somewhat clean, and in a decent (safe) enough area. It wasn't "the one," it is just a house that could be quite a step up from living in an apartment building.

I don't know if the house had been under contract before.

I certainly wish I went under the house before the offer but thought that it was unaccessable without removing a skirting panel from the outside (which I imagine I could'nt just bring my crowbar and do), I later learned that there was an access pannel had been cut in the corner of a utility room. The "basement" is not supposed to be there at all - the house had a crawlspace and I examined it as best I could from the perimiter and vents. The construction of the foundation was not uncommon for the age of the house or area - the fact that it had been corrupted beyond reasonable repair was. I don't believe that I would have been allowed to take a ladder along and check out the roof, climb into the attic to check the wiring and leaks, take the cover off of the furnace to check the condition ot the heat exchanger, use the appliances, or take the cover off of the breaker box or electrical outlets either before an offer was made and accepted and the inspection period began (+the use of a licensed and isured inspector).

My girlfriend is getting pretty down about the search and is starting to think that she will not be able to find a house that is even livable. We visited another house today with her agent that was quite a bit more expensive and smelled like someone had died in there with their cats. She makes a little above the median household income for our area but cannot afford even the lowest of starter homes. There are over 1 thousand homes on the mls in our zipcode but only 30 in her price range and that inludes many that she can't justify in her budgeting but would be approved for and "fixers" (which should say someting like "fixer" or "as is" in the agent accessable portion of the listing) that don't qualify for traditional bank loans. It does not make any sense to me- who is living in all these houses? Do they get to eat too?

-Offer was made Thursday afternoon -apparently too late to expect a response by Friday evening... so the offer was written to expire at the end of business on the following Monday.

I don't get why you couldn't give just 24 hours for the seller's response. We never give more than 24 hrs. The shorter the time, the less the buyer agonizes.

Also, if you/she find another house, I'd suggest that you get a monetary credit so that you can have repairs made yourselves. Sellers are known to get the cheapest, band-aid type of fixes. If you control the repair process, you can get it done to your satisfaction. Just something to think about in the future.

My girlfriend is getting pretty down about the search and is starting to think that she will not be able to find a house that is even livable. We visited another house today with her agent that was quite a bit more expensive and smelled like someone had died in there with their cats. She makes a little above the median household income for our area but cannot afford even the lowest of starter homes. There are over 1 thousand homes on the mls in our zipcode but only 30 in her price range and that inludes many that she can't justify in her budgeting but would be approved for and "fixers" (which should say someting like "fixer" or "as is" in the agent accessable portion of the listing) that don't qualify for traditional bank loans. It does not make any sense to me- who is living in all these houses? Do they get to eat too?

Maybe looking at a house that may foreclose? Go to the link below, it allows you to look at foreclosures in your area. There may be other sites, you'll have to look around.

One person at another site I go to is building a Katrina Cottage from Lowes. From what he says they are pretty inexpensive, he still has to find land. I've asked if he has a ballpark figure of what it's costing but haven't heard back.

The best way for her to find a place is to do a lot of serious looking. She should sign up at the major sites as well as local agent sites, we have a few here that aren't associated with a big name. Their listings may not show on realtor.com for what ever reason.

Here's a list of a few

Caldwell Banker
Century 21
Craigslists - she needs to click on her state
ReMax
Exit Realty
Foxtons
Realtor.com main search - click advanced search to get more options
Prudential Fox & Roach
Weichert
NJ MLS
Yahoo Real estate - even though it is Prudential, you still need to sign up independently. You can check foreclosures there also. It's a pretty decent list. You can also find an agent through their Home Gain.

Also check google for for sale by owner in your area. In my area all of the real estate magazines that I get free at the supermarket are online.

If you want to post the state you are in, there may be other agencies she can sign up at.

Make an account at all of the sites. Put in your search criteria then save the search. You will get emails when new listings come on as well as price drops. Every site is different and in order to find a house, you may have to sign up at all because sites like C21 do not get picked up at other sites, nor do they show anything but their own.

My favorite site is Remax for ease of use. I actually save all homes I'm interested in from other places in my Remax home finder. I will copy the MLS # searching at Remax.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yahoo real estate