NetBret.Com: April 2009

The adage of “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” is so true when buying or selling a house in the Charleston or Huntington real estate market. As a Realtor, it is my job to prep both my buyers and sellers for all scenarios that can play out while we wait for that 30, 45, or 60 day close (let’s not even talk about the 120 day closing that I’m sure any full-time Realtor has experienced). Being knowledgeable and having the “killing the monster while it is small” mentality can save you and your client a lot of worries but sometimes there are just some things that a Realtor cannot predict. There are too many variables and too many people involved in the real estate process to be able to for see all that can go wrong! With that in mind, below are just a few glitches in the Real Estate Matrix that my fellow Great American Realty Realtors (say that 5 times as fast as you can) and I have experienced as a Realtor in the Huntington and Charleston WV real estate market.
1) Seller did not have the right to sell the house. This particular situation arose when listing a house for sale in the Huntington, WV Real Estate market. To give a brief summary to a long and drawn out process, it goes like this: My seller was not properly adopted more than 30 or more years ago by her step dad and since her real mother had passed away, all rights of survivorship on the house passed to her step dad. Once he passed away, she assumed the house would then go to her and she would have right to sell the house. Wrong! Although the court house had everything in her name after the process of probate , once we had the house under contract and the lawyer was doing the title search for the buyer, he found something different as to who rightfully owned the house. It turns out that since she was not properly adopted, the house went to 5 other surviving relatives of the step dad who lived out of state. It gets even more hectic! Some of those relatives had tax liens on their names and before they could sign the house away, that had to be resolved and they had to sign over everything to her so the house could be back in her name. So after almost 1 ½ years and 2 contracts, we closed the deal! Keep in mind I brought her the first contract within 45 days! By now I’d say she is an expert.
2) CRACKHEADS!!!! Well, I cannot say for sure that it was crack heads that made the next scenario make my list but who else would do what you are about to read? This scenario was from another Realtor in the Great American Realty Office . The GAR Realtor proceeded through all the contingencies within the contract (home inspection, termite inspections, etc) and was ready to close. As any good Realtor would do a day before or hours before a closing, they did a final walk-through to make sure the house was in the same physical condition it was when the buyers had made the offer. Well, not so fast!!! Thanks to some local crack heads (or those with nor regards to others property), all the copper and wiring had been stolen. I think they might have even busted some walls out to get to the wiring! The buyers certainly didn’t see that coming. Either way, they managed to get the deal closed. Moral of the story: DO A FINAL WALK THROUGH with your Charleston WV Realtor or Huntington WV Realtor!
3) Insurance Premium was through the roof! Thankfully in our Real Estate Purchase Agreements, we have a contingency that states the buyer must be able to obtain a satisfactory insurance policy on a home within a certain time frame before they can close. KEY WORD: SATISFACTORY. This scenario basically plays out like this…Buyer makes an offer on the house with the understanding from the property disclosure forms that there had been some water damage from a leak in the ice maker. The problem here was that “how much” damage was not revealed until the buyers went to get an insurance policy on the house and found there was almost a $60K claim against the house and the monthly insurance payment would have almost been equal to the house payment. The buyers found out that this “slight leak” occurred over a week or so while the sellers had been on vacation and ruined the kitchen floor and everything below. As you can imagine, they backed out of the deal and got their earnest money back.

The list of “odd ball” stories could go on and on and I’m sure other Realtors have worse horror stories. If anything, this should be a little more reinforcement as to why it pays to consult a Realtor. There is just too many things that can happen and if you are not protected your story could be on my next blog. As I have mentioned in previous real estate blogs(of which I’m sure by now everyone has memorized),I stay with my company because of the training and bond I have with my colleagues that help me get through such crazy scenarios as you have just read. “ I’m Bret Nida and I approve this message”
***This message has been paid for by NETBRET.COM and all things there of***

As a proud resident of good ole “Wild and Wonderful” West “By God” Virginia, I feel that it is important to give back to my community and stateJ. To give back, this past weekend I signed up for the 2009 Kanawha River Clean Up sponsored by Generation Charleston, a branch of the Charleston Area Alliance. In all, there were about 65 volunteers from around the Charleston, WV areas and the weather was wonderful! You can read the write up from WOWK 13 in Charleston, WV here if you like.
While walking up and down the river bank collecting rubbish, it really did irritate me all the random trash littering the bank I encountered. In my mind, I just envisioned some knuckle head driving past our state capitol tossing their random piece of trash out the window for someone else to deal with. There were a whole slew of items that just made you wonder what in the world this knuckle head was thinking when they were disposing of them. 40 oz beer bottles, laundry bottles, jackets, other items I will not discuss, and even sleeping bags. (I’ll have you know that my digging up and disposing of that sleeping bag got yours truly on the second page of The Charleston Daily Mail. You might not have recognized me because I was not in my Super Hero Realtor Outfit AND they spelled my name with 2 T’s ) In all, I collected about 2 trash bags of junk and also shoveled out the drain ditch on the sidewalks to allow the water to drain properly. It was good day I must say, not only did I help clean up and better our community, met some really cool people, but I also got in a great workout climbing up and down the river bank!
As a Charleston, WV Realtor and Huntington, WV Realtor, it is a very important part of my job to attract those wanting to buy a home or sell a home by getting out in the community and networking in such events as this cleanup. However, I am always one that puts others first before myself and would rather give than receive. This clean up was giving back to the community and gave others walking or jogging along the Kanawha Boulevard something better to look at rather than some empty Bud Light bottle or someone’s old fanny pack. (Plus I like to slay a big catfish from tim-to-time on these banks so that benefits me and my other fishing buddies too) So think twice next time should you be a litter bug and feel it necessary to dispose of your Yoo-hoo or Big League Chew Bubble Gum, I might have to clean that up!