1st home buying nightmare

What is the name of your state? WA
my husband and i made an offer on a house almost 3 weks ago. we never received a form no. 17 "property disclosure". we asked the sellers for it but they said that they put on th listing no form no. 17 provided, our agent neglected to tell us this. can we still get our earnest money back? also, on the addendum after the inspection, we wanted a "licensed" contractor do fix the lp siding and we found out he is not licensed, can we get our earnest money back from this? to this day we have not received full paperwork of our contract, is our agent liable for this? what about our agent conveying to as that if we write the offer up as conventional financing it will "look better" to the sellers and then we can switch back to fha financing before closing, we found out from the lender that we couldn't do this after the offer was accepted by the sellers, is our agent liable for this? we just want our earnest money back

[Souix]

Originally posted by Corit
What is the name of your state? WA
my husband and i made an offer on a house almost 3 weks ago. we never received a form no. 17 "property disclosure". we asked the sellers for it but they said that they put on th listing no form no. 17 provided, our agent neglected to tell us this. can we still get our earnest money back?

***What type of Disclosure/Disclaimer did they provide?***


also, on the addendum after the inspection, we wanted a "licensed" contractor do fix the lp siding and we found out he is not licensed, can we get our earnest money back from this?

***Did you specvify in writing that the contractor had to be licensed?***

to this day we have not received full paperwork of our contract, is our agent liable for this?

***Well agent is supposed to give you copies and have yoou sign an acknowledgement saying you received them. Just call the agent and ask for your copies***


what about our agent conveying to as that if we write the offer up as conventional financing it will "look better" to the sellers and then we can switch back to fha financing before closing, we found out from the lender that we couldn't do this after the offer was accepted by the sellers, is our agent liable for this?


***It can be done, however, the seller has to agree to it because of certain fees the seller is required to pay and the inspections and appraisal must conform to FHA guidelines. The house must also meet FHA guildelines, which are alot more strict than conventional financing***

we just want our earnest money back

***Call your agent and tell him or her that they did not give you a copy of your contract and that you would like to have one for your file. Then review yoour contract. You should have several escape routes in order to get your earnest money back. Be sure to use one of them otherwise the seller will think you are backing out for no good reason and want to keep your money. Also, in order for you to get your money back Cancellation Instructions will need to be prepared by escrow and Cancellation of Earnest Money Agreement (or whatever they call it in WA) will need to be prepared by your agent and signed by all parties before escrow can cut you a check.

A word to the wise, next time, interview realtors to see how much experience they have had with first time homebuyers. The one you have doesn't sound like they are protecting you or explaining things thoroughly enough***

[HomeGuru]

Writer, you have an idiot for an agent. Talk to the idiot's principal broker and get the mess ironed out.

Our agent has been helping first time home buyers for about 5 years. She advertises that she is a "first time home buyer" specialist. We thought we had a good agent when we interviewed her but you just never know until this happens to you. We have definetly learned lessons from all of this. So when we are ready to buy again we will be educated. It is in our contract in writing that the contractor that repairs/replaces the siding be a licensed contractor and he is not. They didn't provide any type of disclosure/disclaimer to us. They refused to supply us with one. We can't call our agent and have her supply us with copies because we fired her and her agency. Yesterday, we rescinded our offer on all of the conditions I have written here. We haven't heard back from the broker (her boss). We have told the broker all of these things about her agent but she seems to just want to get us of her back. I am sure that this broker won't discipline this agent at all. Can we report her? And where? Thanks for the help.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by Corit
Our agent has been helping first time home buyers for about 5 years. She advertises that she is a "first time home buyer" specialist. We thought we had a good agent when we interviewed her but you just never know until this happens to you. We have definetly learned lessons from all of this. So when we are ready to buy again we will be educated. It is in our contract in writing that the contractor that repairs/replaces the siding be a licensed contractor and he is not. They didn't provide any type of disclosure/disclaimer to us. They refused to supply us with one. We can't call our agent and have her supply us with copies because we fired her and her agency. Yesterday, we rescinded our offer on all of the conditions I have written here. We haven't heard back from the broker (her boss). We have told the broker all of these things about her agent but she seems to just want to get us of her back. I am sure that this broker won't discipline this agent at all. Can we report her? And where? Thanks for the help.

**A: call up your WA state real estate licensing department and they will give you the contact info of the property agency to file a complaint with.

[Souix]

Originally posted by Corit
Our agent has been helping first time home buyers for about 5 years. She advertises that she is a "first time home buyer" specialist. We thought we had a good agent when we interviewed her but you just never know until this happens to you. We have definetly learned lessons from all of this. So when we are ready to buy again we will be educated. It is in our contract in writing that the contractor that repairs/replaces the siding be a licensed contractor and he is not. They didn't provide any type of disclosure/disclaimer to us. They refused to supply us with one. We can't call our agent and have her supply us with copies because we fired her and her agency. Yesterday, we rescinded our offer on all of the conditions I have written here. We haven't heard back from the broker (her boss). We have told the broker all of these things about her agent but she seems to just want to get us of her back. I am sure that this broker won't discipline this agent at all. Can we report her? And where? Thanks for the help.

***Yes your state real estate agency takes reports and makes investigations. First call the principal broker again and tell them you will go to the state regulatory board if you don't get some help NOW! Good luck ***

[HomeGuru]

Also ask the broker, "do you have E&O insurance?"

What is E&O insurance? Thanks.

[HomeGuru]

Professional liability coverage commonly called errors and omissions insurance or E&O.

We received our mutual recission agreement by fax today. The seller's agent crossed out the $1000 going to us and put it to the sellers. She also crossed out every reason why we wanted our earnest money back and put N/A. Don't they have to draft a completely new mutual recission agreement before they send it back to us? Where does our earnest money go when we give it to our agent? They cashed the check on the 9th of this month. Can they do this before we even have the mutual recission agreement signed by both of us? Can't we call the escrow people and tell them not to give this money to the seller because it is in dispute? Thanks.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by Corit
We received our mutual recission agreement by fax today. The seller's agent crossed out the $1000 going to us and put it to the sellers. She also crossed out every reason why we wanted our earnest money back and put N/A. Don't they have to draft a completely new mutual recission agreement before they send it back to us? Where does our earnest money go when we give it to our agent? They cashed the check on the 9th of this month. Can they do this before we even have the mutual recission agreement signed by both of us? Can't we call the escrow people and tell them not to give this money to the seller because it is in dispute? Thanks.

**A: time to consult with an attorney.

[url]http://www.dol.wa.gov/realestate/refront.htm[/url]

[HomeGuru]

Writer, what did you find out?

We found out that our earnest money in escrow is going to stay there and will not be dispersed to either one of us until a judgement in court is made. We are filing a small claims suit. We have all of our documents now finally...22 days after signing all of the paperwork so we can use this in court. I made a claim to the Attorney General's office yesterday. We are writing letters of complaints to the Board of Relators here in Washington and to the Department of Licensing on our fired real estate agent including the company she works for. We are also going to put in a claim at the better business bureau. We don't want this to happen to any other first time home buyers and that is the clientele she advertises for. It's too bad we had to go through this experience for our first home because now it has left a bad taste in our mouths and we don't want to buy a home right now until that bad taste is gone. We just hope that we get our earnest money back. We do have an awesome case so I am pretty confident that we will. I have looked up the laws in our state that pertain to our case and we will bring those into court with us. Plus we have a purchase and sale agreement that states in writing that the sellers were suppose to use a "licensed" contractor to do the repairs/replacement of the siding and he was not licensed, he said he was doing it on the side for the seller's agent. Thanks for the advice and support.

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by Corit
We found out that our earnest money in escrow is going to stay there and will not be dispersed to either one of us until a judgement in court is made. We are filing a small claims suit. We have all of our documents now finally...22 days after signing all of the paperwork so we can use this in court. I made a claim to the Attorney General's office yesterday. We are writing letters of complaints to the Board of Relators here in Washington and to the Department of Licensing on our fired real estate agent including the company she works for. We are also going to put in a claim at the better business bureau. We don't want this to happen to any other first time home buyers and that is the clientele she advertises for. It's too bad we had to go through this experience for our first home because now it has left a bad taste in our mouths and we don't want to buy a home right now until that bad taste is gone. We just hope that we get our earnest money back. We do have an awesome case so I am pretty confident that we will. I have looked up the laws in our state that pertain to our case and we will bring those into court with us. Plus we have a purchase and sale agreement that states in writing that the sellers were suppose to use a "licensed" contractor to do the repairs/replacement of the siding and he was not licensed, he said he was doing it on the side for the seller's agent. Thanks for the advice and support.

**A: ok, good luck to you.