I should have, perhaps, entitled today's blog entry either, "The Home Inspection from Hell," or, "Your House Knows You're Abandoning It." I wish I was joking.
Three days ago, our buyer had her home inspection. From that point on, pretty much everything went to hooey.
First of all, the buyer, her realtor, the inspector, and others who I am not entirely certain who they were or why they were there all showed up an hour early without any sort of notice. Her realtor, if no one else, carried with him a cell phone with our realtor's cell number available to him. When I called our realtor in a panic, since the girls had just finished their lunches and I still had a few chores left to accomplish before leaving with them, our realtor was just as surprised as I was. I left the house in the responsibility of the buyer's realtor while my realtor did what he could to get someone from our team over there.
I should point out that our realtor was the one who did not want us there. He said there were too many times where he has seen the seller get bamboozled by the buyer and home inspector if the seller was actually present. Why agree to things because you can't handle saying no in person? That's what lawyers are for. Leave the naysaying to them. The fact that the buyer's realtor wanted me to stay also made me feel the need to leave. He gave me the impression that he would make slick used-car salesmen look like they are all on the up-and-up.
I probably should have stayed. Upon my return, I discovered my microwave (which is not involved in the sale) had been used and the time set. We never set the time on that thing, and the clocks we have around the house are all set fast to help my husband get to the train on time. They set the microwave to the correct time instead. They broke our indoor-outdoor digital thermometer (also not part of the sale), which we were thankfully able to finally fix after exchanging all of the batteries and letting it completely reset. They shut off our basement dehumidifier (once more, not part of the sale). They messed around in the back of the toilet tank so it did not flush properly (Okay, fine. The toilet technically comes with the house. But why mess around with its innards?). It took me two days to figure out the problem and correct it. But the worst was yet to come.
Yesterday, we received a copy of the letter our buyer's attorney sent to our attorney. In it, we were told she had some demands to make before any of us even received the written inspection report. One of the things sounded as if she was going to demand a termite treatment based on the claim that they found an old mud tunnel in our detached garage. First of all, we get termite inspections yearly, and nothing has ever been spotted. We do use a pest control service to receive quarterly spraying to try and prevent creepy crawlies from entering our house, but we never had to treat for termites. Secondly, an old mud tunnel might have been there for decades, even since before we bought the house. It does not imply any termites are currently in residence. Thirdly, I called our pest control service immediately, and they sent someone out to investigate. No evidence of past or present termites was discovered, including any mud tunnels. Regardless, since this was something we are sure they put in the inspection report, we have to have the property treated because the mortgage company will demand it even if the buyer does not. That's over fifteen hundred bucks right there.
While I was outside talking with the termite guy, I decided to take a look at our back porch, or what we call our Florida room. The buyer's attorney had claimed there were active carpenter ants and water damage that needed to be addressed. Well, we already had the pest control plan, so it was easy to just place a call and schedule a treatment day. However, we were baffled by the claims of water damage, so I went to look around our Florida room to see if I could spot anything or if we would have to wait for the official report. Boy, could I see it!
It turns out that someone for the buyer, whether it was the home inspection person or their bug guy, had pried up these metal siding slats at the bottom of the Florida room. They physically pried the siding away from the exterior of our house and left it pulled out like that. They even bent one of the pieces, so it is not likely to ever look normal again. Sure, we can now see how there is rotted wood there, which we did not know about previously, but they took away just about every option we had towards getting it fixed.
If they had simply knocked on the siding and said it sounded hollow so they suspected water damage, or bug damage, or whatever, then we could have just told the buyer we'd give her a credit of some monetary amount and it would be her problem. She could decide to back out of the deal if that didn't work for her, but at least we would not have three of the four sides of our back porch now exposed to the elements. We now have to get it fixed before it rains. Not only that, but because of the location and the damage the company did, it is likely to be a much larger problem and cost more to fix than it would have before they ripped everything open. For example, I honestly cannot see any water damage down one of the three sides they opened up, and it is only minimal damage on the second side, yet we now have to fix all three sides, which is likely to require a complete overhaul of our Florida room.
The rest of the house, upon hearing me on the phone all afternoon with our realtor, the inspection company, and their bug guy, suddenly realized what this all meant. We are trying to abandon it, at least in its inanimate mind. It got back at us. Our less than three-year-old bathroom fan just up and died. I suppose it's possible the home inspection people messed around with it, too, but we have no proof of that as nothing is noticeably out of place like we have with the glaring gaps around our Florida room's border.
Oh, and our buyer also wants a new hot water heater and the right to add whatever else she wants to add upon receipt of her written inspection report.
I'm about ready to tell her she can take a flying leap and hope I can make this all up to my house before it completely goes kablooey on me.
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