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A tool for the well informed Real Estate Professional or those involved in the Home Buying /Selling transaction.

Welcome to our Real Life Real Estate Stories.

	Your submitted stories and comments, whether good or bad can assist other people during their real estate transactions. If you have a real estate story that you would like to share, please go to our submission page. For sharing your story you will receive a Free Ebook download for The Be Aware of Real Estate Handbook.
Read Archived Stories Here.
"....Rob told them that he kind of owned the house...to sign it anyway...."
WHOSE HOUSE IS THIS ANYWAY? Anna and Larry decided they were ready to buy a house. They had finally saved enough money for a down payment. They lived in an area that was a beach community with many historical homes. A historical home sounded like such a wonderful investment. The homes in the historic area were in demand. A for sale sign would go up and within days there was a contract on the home. They had decided to stop thumbing through the classifieds and to just drive up and down the streets of the community to scout for home sale signs. They had tried working with realtors but found that the homes would just go too quickly. As they were driving, Anna noticed a new for sale sign on a beautiful cottage style home. They immediately called it on their cell phone. They found out that the price was in their range and were told that the house was available to be shown to them right this moment. They met the owner Rob out front and he showed them the grounds and the inside of the house. They told Rob they would go home and discuss it but the house was very nice. The next day they called Rob and asked him how they would go about putting in an offer. Rob asked Larry what was the offer and after hearing it accepted it. Larry was confused. What was the next step? Rob told him he would get a contract from the office supply store and they could meet that evening. When Anna and Larry arrived Rob had them sit at the kitchen table and look over the contract. Anna was confused. The name on the contract was Heidi and Dave as the sellers. She asked Rob who Heidi and Dave were and why Rob’s name was not on the contract. Rob told them that he kind of owned the house but they were on the deed. He asked them to sign it and then he would take it to Heidi and Dave. Larry was uncomfortable with this and asked that he take it to his lawyer first. Rob assured them that it was fine and that they could just sign it. Larry told Rob that he would be more comfortable if he could meet Heidi and Dave. In Larry’s mind he wanted to see these people sign this contract himself. Actually now he wasn’t even sure WHO owned the house, if any of them did? Rob was very indignant and almost acted insulted. He reminded them that the sign was up and they may lose their purchase opportunity. Anna was so distraught. She had already fallen in love with the house. She asked Rob for the Smith’s telephone number. Rob gave her the number and told her if she called them she would see for herself that everything was fine. They left and told Rob they would contact him in a couple of days. When Anna got home she telephoned the Smiths and explained the situation. To her shock she was told the following: Mr. Smith told her that Rob was NOT the owner but he was a tenant. He had wanted to lease option the house and had promised to give a down payment and still had not entered into an agreement with him. He told her that last week he had driven past his house and noticed a for sale sign on the lawn. He asked Rob why there was a sign on the lawn. Rob told him, “Well I put it up to get a feel to see what the market is, maybe I can sell it for you and then we BOTH can make money. If I sell it for more than you are selling it to me for then I can make a profit. Mr. Smith had told Rob that he had no right to put up a For Sale sign, and that he was not the owner and actually the house was in Heidi’s name and she would be furious! He also reminded Rob that he had not even entered into a lease purchase agreement. Rob had become angry with Dave and asked what the big deal was, everyone would make some money. Dave told him to take it down and drove away. Mr. Smith told Anna that he was shocked that he had still pursued this. He apologized to Anna and told her that he was not ready to sell the home for another 6 months. He explained that he and his family were relocating the following summer. Dave called Rob and informed him that Anna had called him and he did not understand why he was trying to sell a house that he did not own. Rob became angry. Dave told him to take the sign down and hung up the phone. A week later Dave was driving by and there was the sign still on the lawn! He knocked on the door and Rob was not home. Dave was shocked by the behavior of this tenant. He took the sign and put it in his truck and drove home. When he went home and told Heidi what had happened, she exhaustingly stated, “You know if he tries to sell it and signs our names on a contract or whatever, we won’t have to worry about him anymore. He will be arrested and put in jail for fraud and it will end.” This is a true story as unbelievable as it sounds. Rob had ordered some kind of info commercial real estate course and somehow he thought he was doing some creative selling. When he ended up getting evicted for non payment of rent (not a surprise) he left some items behind including that. That is the conclusion we came up with. I can’t give you any suggestions on this one folks. When we enter into real estate contracts do we all start asking for deeds to be sure we are dealing with the sellers or buyers? In this world yes we have heard stories like this one and others similar of real intentional scams of entering into agreements with unscrupulous individuals which resulted in big losses of money. If you have a computer you can always check the property tax collector’s office, clerk’s office, or the recorder’s web site in your area, or just give them a call. Real Estate property owners are public information.

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