wouldn’t you want to know

Last week when the house at 5771 N Campbell Ave went to contract, for the 5th time, I mentioned it on the blog – 9th time’s the charm

And the agent representing the new buyers called me to express his dismay at that blog post. As he explained it, he was upset because what I said was ‘negative innuendo’ and it upset his buyers. Certainly my intention was not to upset his, or anyone else’s buyers. And I’m sorry if I did.

And keep in mind, this blog is read by many people interested in Foothills real estate, and it was written for their benefit, and not meant specifically for his buyers.

But, to try and understand, I asked what part of what I wrote was negative innuendo.
He said, the line, “ If I were a buyer looking to put a contract on this house I’d want to know why it’s fallen out of contract every time it’s gone in in the last 10 months.”, was the the offending, negative innuendo.

Well hell, the fact that it fell out of contract every time it’s gone in in the last 10 months would very likely, and reasonably so, be construed as negative. It sure as hell isn’t positive. But asking why it did, is reasonable and necessary and just common sense.

So I didn’t, and still don’t, see the negative innuendo, not at all.

I think it’s pretty clear that any house that’s gone in and out of contract a few times warrants an explanation of why that’s happened. In my experience, buyers are interested in knowing, and they should be, what caused a house to fall out of contract if it happened just once. And I did my best to explain that. And he explained that the reasons it fell out were fairly innocent, and mostly had to do with the lender. Oh, OK great, that’s a good thing to know when you’re involved in a short sale or foreclosure. 
So now the buyers know it and hopefully can avoid those roadblocks this time round.

And I was hoping that that was that. But still he persists, now via email, accusing me of negative innuendo.

OK, but remember, this isn’t just any old house I was talking about. This is the spec home that sold for $2.2 in April 07, was back on the market about 10 months later as short sale for $1.1 and, since then, has gone in and out of contract 4 times. And in the course of it’s short life was apparently abused by it’s owner, as indicated by the listing agent herself, who at one point described it, in the listing, as;

”Short Sale- Great opportunity, house needs a lot of work. The roof is leaking in several places and has damaged the ceiling, all the appliances are gone, parts of kitchen & bathroom cabinets are missing, parts of the flooring need replacing. There is also a partially finished pool, bring your contractor & make an offer.”

If you were the buyer, wouldn’t you want to know

Comments

[Howard Dean]

I am amazed the listing agent had the gall to publish/post pictures that were not representative of the property. What does that say about the listing agent?

[Kelly]

The truth hurts!!!! The fact is that there are A LOT of negatives about this house. #1 being that is has fallen out of contract so many times. I won't list the other negatives from my perspective, don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

[Dan]

Correction to last post... in the first paragraph I meant buyers agent.

[Dan]

Perhaps your reasonable and thoughful post will save this sellers' agent from a negligence claim, or save the buyers from walking into something that their agent doesn't want them to know in the interest of making the sale go through.

If I were these buyers I would certainly want to know, and in fact I would expect a case history of each time it fell through before I would even think of making an offer.

It seems that some Realtors think that it is okay to operate on emotion, intimidation and illogic. If we could rid the profession of these types, I think we would see a faster balancing of prices and inventory, and the profession's image would, as a whole, move back towards professional and helpful from pushy and predatory.

Negative inuendo? Strange and frightening at the same time. I have three words for buyers agents who think like that: "Do your job!"

John, keep calling it like it is, and don't let people like that guy slow you down!

[BD]

Absolutely! Keep up the high standards! All realtors should have as much integrity as you do.