How we kept a buyer from making a BIG mistake
Monday, September 10th, 2007On our quest to show you that buyer agents really do make a big difference in your home buying process (even for new construction properties, when you may think you don't you need any representation), we have a perfect example to share with you.
We had a buyer who was very (very) interested in putting an offer on a ~$1MM single family home in Washington, DC.
We requested the disclosure from the seller. Buried in the disclosure was this text (click to enlarge):
Apparently, the previous owners of the property had put an addition on the property, but had overstepped their lot boundary when adding the addition, and thus, the addition was "too close to the property" line.
The listing agent told me "not to worry about it" because the sellers had secured an easement in perpetuity from the neighbor whose lot they were encroaching on. (An easement is a "right of use" of the land).
This seemed fishy to us. Our agent, representing the buyer, asked the listing agent for a copy of the easement, which the listing agent provided us. But we still weren't satisfied. We figured that the fact that an addition was built that violated a property line must mean that the proper permits had not been pulled when it was constructed. And that would mean that if the DC zoning board were to find the addition in violation at any point in the future, our client, the buyer, would be liable for the addition. That would be a really big liability for the buyer. So, we called the DC zoning board. Below is an email we sent our buyer after after talking to the zoning board:
ØØØØØØ - recommend you not make an offer on ØØØØØØ. Here's why:
Just left you a VM.
Talked to the DC zoning board... there are 2 potential violations for this property:
1) violation of code: built w/o permits
2) built over lot line: another violationThere are no permits on file for this property.
If a violation is found, you would have to go before the board of zoning adjustments to request an exemption; 6 month process & may not be approved because over lot lines. If not approved, you would have to remove addition.
Spoke to ØØØØØØØØ @ Zoning board: 202-442-4576
The buyer agreed with our assessment: It was just too risky to put an offer on this property. If the zoning board came calling, the process to have it approved retroactively would be very expensive and time consuming, and if it were not approved (which it likely would not be, since it violated lot lines), the addition would have to be torn down.
How does one quantify the amount of money, time & headache we saved our client in this transaction? Would a buyer without an agent have caught this issue? Maybe, maybe not. One thing we can almost guarantee you is that if you were to have the listing agent help you with the paperwork (i.e., you go into the transaction without an agent), the listing agent would not have called the DC zoning board, since their clients were truly the sellers, not you, the buyer.
