Real Estate: What You Need to Know

Real Estate provide lucrative business opportunities and there are many ways to make it your field of expertise.

Once in awhile, things can go wrong. When they do, you want to make certain the ‘coast is clear’ to get out of the deal unscathed.

The way to protect yourself is to protect yourself going in. If you don’t, by the time you figure out there is an issue, it can be too late.

Here is a scenario one buyer encountered:

Looking for a horse property, a couple found a nice one. It featured a nice house, a barn and pens, a pool — all fenced, gated, landscaped and sitting on five acres and listed for a price they found acceptable.

The seller was a woman with a background in real estate sales. She had acquired the property through her business endeavors in that area and she listed the property as a FSBO: For Sale By Owner.

She ‘offered’ her ‘expertise’ in handling the sale and quickly began to ‘bully’ the buyers using strong arm tactics that should not have been necessary in such a standard transaction.

To delineate further the reason the buyers grew concerned, she required a $20,000.00 ‘ernest money’ deposit — not unusual, and something the buyers had anticipated. What was unnusual is that the seller started hammering home the point that the deposit ‘go hard in 20 days’, meaning that the buyers — should they change their minds about the property — would be out $20,000.00.

This was clearly a ‘red flag’ that initially made the buyers suspicious.

They put up the $20,000 and set about the business of having a home inspector [one recommended by the seller] look the property over, have a well driller inspect the integrity of the well. The reports were positive: the property stood up to inspection.

Still, the position of the seller was a point of contention in this transaction. Repeatedly, the seller reiterated their directive that the ‘earnest money deposit’ would be irretrievable if the sale didn’t happen.

The buyers contacted the inspector and advised him of the tight timeline on the $ 20,000. deposit. They asked him his opinion and entered into a conversation with him about the property, the area and any possible information that might be available to them to explain the actions and activities of the seller.

The property inspector, even though he was known to the seller, agreed with the buyers that the stipulations concerning the $ 20,000 deposit were ‘over the top’.

He, too, felt that the actions of the seller indicated that there was something amiss with the property. The buyers asked about whether or not the ‘historical’ issues with radiation pollution in the area might have contributed to the seller’s demanding demeanor.

He assured the buyers that he had been involved in the sale of many properties in the area and had never encountered such an issue — but this did little to quell the climate of suspicion on the part of the buyers.

Finally, the buyers felt impressed to research the words ‘cancer cluster’ online. Bingo! The property was in a town that had Digoxin [Agent Orange] contamination due to the use of the defoliant in cotton fields where they subsequently flushed the fields following harvest, washing massive amounts of Digoxin into the aquifer.

The result? Not just any cancer cluster: a cancer cluster involving a most aggressive and terrifying form of cancer — one that takes hold quickly and aggressively, leading to a swift, miserable death.

Any animals that would have come to live on the property would have faced a similar fate.

Had the buyers proceeded, they would’ve faced a lengthy legal battle while over $ 500,000.00 of their own monies were tied up in the property — which, for them, would have been unsaleable specifically because they, as Christians, would not have even considered dumping the property on another, unsuspecting buyer simply for financial gain.

When you face these and similar circumstances, it’s critical that you understand the obstacles and obtain the assistance you need.

We’re here when issues arise — even if you’re entirely sure what specific issue you face.