Menlo Park - I agree with you. I made a serious mistake which was disrespectful to the Seller’s wishes. Going to back off and just concentrate on everything I can do from afar. However, I was not the one who went on property, and I did not give permission to someone else to go on property.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going to drive by periodically and see how things are going! Cannot contain myself. Just will not get out of the car
I am pretty sure that the minute that dumpster showed up in driveway and there are people moving stuff out, neighbors are climbing all over the brother. Asking a million questions, begging to buy the house or whatever. My understanding is that one of the neighbors in the houses above approached Sellers and tried to pay for Height Restriction (the kiss of death on the value of a property) and tried to buy the property outright, but at a low offer. Thank God they didn’t agree to a Height Restriction for quick cash. That would’ve been the kiss of death.
Down the street where I live there is a derelict semi-abandoned house with tattered curtains and beach towels over the front door. An aunt passed away and left the home to a ‘unique individual’ who comes to the house 2-3 times a week. He used to live there, but now he just comes and goes around on his bike and collects cans from public trash cans and the neighbor trash cans. He got so strapped for cash that he sold a Height Restriction for $15,000 to the next door neighbor. This gets recorded against the house. That property has now lost at least $500k in value (well, the land lost the value, house is not liveable). What this means is that, in the end, the neighbor will really be the only person who can buy the house because they are the only one in position to release Height Restriction (or they can release Height Restriction for a very hefty sum). Very smart lady… her house now has a huge increase in value because noone can go up in front of her and she is positioned to gain from the house next door.
Yesterday I received the last piece of information that I needed - Prelim Title Report. I was very careful in my contract to require a Title Report review. I wanted to make absolutely sure that someone a long time ago did not record a Height Restriction on the property or any crazy easements that were not disclosed. Title is clear, no issues.
So, I officially released $5,000 from escrow to be paid immediately to Sellers to help offset their costs for removing the trash and the occupant.
At this point, because all contingencies are released and money has been disbursed to Seller, we are locked in.
We sold a property that was occupied by a tenant once. The prospective purchaser kept going on to the property, even though we had specifically asked him not to and to respect the tenant’s privacy. The tenant would freak out every time she saw him and call us in a lather. It was extremely irritating. He, like your retaining wall guy, appeared to be simply oblivious to anyone else’s wishes.
As far as I can tell, house is still empty and not rented. They dropped to $4,900/month. I’m not familiar with how you find high dollar renters. I know that it is not listed in the MLS rental area.
It was very hard, but I restrained myself from even driving by the property all weekend. A friend who lives nearby did call me and tell me that there is now several derelict cars and vans in the driveway (surrounding dumpster). Maybe the brother has invited his friends over for a weekend visit or something.
Or maybe he’s trying to cover up the dumpster so that the neighbors stop coming over and bothering him with questions.
As long as the cars are gone before you close…it’s all fine. But if the brother leaves derelict cars there after he leaves for his trip…I would make sure there was something to make the sellers responsible for,the cost of removing!
I’m not sure if this is still the plan, but at one point the sisters were both coming on Jan 25-26 to clear out the house because we were going to close on the 27th or 28th (with the occupant holdover). One lives in Texas. I don’t know if that is still the plan because they postponed the close until after the brother vacates the house on 29th.
This week I am going to work on trying to get the transaction to close at the end of the day Friday. Because they selected Monday as a close date, this is problematic for my costs. As a rule, I would never allow a Monday escrow close because you have to deposit all your funds on a Friday in order to record and close on a Monday. This is especially problematic for normal home buyers because your lending bank will fund on a Friday and you are paying interest across 3-4 days with no possession of the property. Not a smart financial move.
And, on the other side, I really want to avoid selling on a Friday because the title company will take 3-4 days disbursing funds and I am still paying interest on any borrowed funds. If I can close on a Monday-Thursday then my escrow company will bust their butt to disburse early the next day.
Because I am borrowing a lot of funds this time, I am also going to have to pay interest across 3 days that I cannot start work on the project. I have estimated my carrying costs at
$250 / day !!!
This means that every single day is a lot of money down the drain. I don’t need to start the project already $750 in the hole without having any progress at all. I don’t see any reason why we cannot accomplish closing on Friday, since the brother will be leaving on Friday.
I am not concerned about ‘damage’. The interior of the house cannot get any worse than it is. At this point my only concern is the living room woodwork, the wood floors and broken windows (for security reasons - I would need to board them up)
Luckily the brother is not a teenager, I believe he is 60 yrs old. I’m hoping that a 60 yr old isn’t having a ‘rage’ in the house.
I wouldn’t worry so much about the cars. Presumably, if they just showed up, someone drove them there. Can’t imagine the brother had them towed there. So, they are at least drivable.
Also, around me there are lots of charities that will come and take a derelict car as a donation. They even tow it themselves. I’m assuming you have those type of charities in San Diego as well. You could end up with a nice charitable deduction!
