Goodbye House

We had to cancel our contract last week with the house we were trying to buy. We had all agreed to get an engineering report, and the sellers supposedly ended up picking the engineer saying that our choice didn't seem fair. Well, no engineer came to the house - it was some guy who collected data, wrote the report and then had the engineer look over the report. He said he would put recommendations for repair, measurements, etc. in the report and that it would have an engineer's stamp.



We got the report and it was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. It had no data, it referenced repair recommendations and an elevation diagram that were not there and it had absolutely NO substance whatsoever. And, I find that a bit strange considering the house was slanted off the level by over 4 inches. Our realtor, Jeff, called their realtor (whom I'll refer to as RH from now on) about this. RH said he spoke to the engineer and that he didn't want to get sued and in the middle of anything so he basically didn't say anything. I"m not sure how putting repair recommendations in a report is a bad thing, but whatever. I think what is more likely is that RH asked the engineer to make a vague report that he would be able to give to future buyers and not scare off. We are thinking about filing a report with the BBB.



Jeff tried to call the engineer to no avail. So, as a last resort we wrote a letter to the sellers themselves and explained that we love the house, would actually still like to buy it if the repairs could get taken care of and outlined all the inconsistancies and problems we've had with RH. It was a good letter. They actually replied saything they live out of the country so sometimes communication is slow, but that they would address our concerns with RH. We replied and said that we would still have to cancel the contract because we cannot proceed further this way, but please let us know if and how they would like to move forward. So the ball is in their court and we are just waiting I guess.



In the meantime, RH wrote Paul and e-mail that was supposed to go to his client that was totally misspelled and claimed we had missed our deadline for canceling the contract without penalty. Paul wrote back (cc'd the sellers and Jeff) and attached the contract that very clearly showed that we did not miss the deadline. Then Jeff wrote to RH saying how difficult this has been to work with him. RH also called Jeff and as Jeff was voicing his complaints about this whole deal RH hung up on him. I think Jeff is also going to file an official complaint about RH. He has been totally unprofessional and ridiculous to work with. He kept mentioning to Jeff a backup offer that he had, and so when we sent the contract cancellation we were sure to attach the foundation report we had gotten that says this house has major problems and an engineer is needed. That will have to be disclosed to any future buyers. Hopefully if anyone else ends up buying the house they will see what a serious problem it is.



I guess there is a small chance that the sellers will want to work with us and see that their realtor really screwed some things up. But, I'm really disappointed - it's a great house that we were really going to be able to make our own, it has an amazing huge back yard and it's the perfect location. Otherwise, I suppose it just wasn't meant to be.