I got SUED!! Is this the end of Deerwood Realty???? Ep. 63

#realtor #lawsuit #crazybuyers

I got sued, we are going to go over the what, the why, and the result.

Subscribe Here https://www.youtube.com/c/Deerwoodrealtystl

What?

We listed a house for sale. It wasn’t any different than any other time we’ve listed a home for sale. This particular listing was out in the western part of St. Louis County.

We got an offer on the home the first day for full asking price. The house was beautiful, and the price was right so my sellers agreed to the offer.

The inspection period in the contract was 10 days. That meant that the buyers had 10 days to do whatever inspections they wanted to on the home. At the end of 10 days, they could either walk, negotiate repairs, or just move forward with the purchase.

On day 10, they submitted their report. It was ridiculous. There was all kinds of stuff. As an example, they were upset about the fireplace. If you’ve been in real estate in St. Louis for any amount of time, you know that the fireplace is never right….it always needs something. They were also upset with the septic tank.

The contract gave us 10 days to negotiate. We said we would fix a few things, but we knew that the septic tank had been installed only a year before so we would agree to fix $1,000 worth of the issue.

Now, understand that the septic tank world in St. Louis is dicey. Call three different septic tank people and they will come up with repairs ranging from 1,000 and 20,000 on the same unit.

While the inspection period was over, the buyers kept calling septic people to look at the tank. They called a plumber who didn’t even go look at the tank and said it would cost 16,000 to fix. So the buyers asked for $17,000 in repairs!

Sellers, rightly said no. And, as they didn’t come to an agreement, I just asked the buyer’s agent to submit a new offer without the inspection language and we would move on.

They submit a new contract and the inspection $ is still in there.

I immediately tell the buyer agent we are done, and they are free to get their escrow money back…I send him the signed mutual release.

The buyers refuse to sign.

The buyers ditched their agent.

The buyers personally look up my contact information on the website, tell me that I’m unethical and that they will never use me to buy a house…which is totally fine because these people are crazy and I never want to be their agent.

The buyers, I suspect, start shopping for a lawyer. No lawyer will take their case, so they go to small claims court.

They send over this notice, and every sentence starts with Whereas!

The amount they were asking for was more than what small claims would allow. They wanted damages, pay for inspections, etc and their escrow money back….which was stupid because they had the form the day the deal blew up.

I end up hiring an attorney. Because these people were crazy. The last thing I need is crazy in my life.

We go to court, the buyer has a 5 ring binder of information she is going to present to the judge. Judge is like, yeah, no….there’s nothing here. In fact, you made it more difficult for the seller to sell their house…they should be suing you.

What did I learn? 3 things

1. Follow the contract. The dates, signatures, and language are in there for a reason. I had known this before, but it was only reinforced with this situation.
2. People can do strange things when they are motivated. These people felt they had been wronged….and so they were going to do whatever they could to cause issues.
3. You aren’t ever going to make everyone happy. These people weren’t going to be happy no matter what. They were doing something I’ve noticed lately with some affluent and aspire to be affluent: They claim victim status. This couple was about to buy an almost 400,000 dollar house. They didn’t get the house, due to their own style of negotiation, and their first move was “feel sorry for me” It’s like “I might be wealthy, but I am ashamed of my wealth so you must view me as the victim”

Our word of the day is frivolous

not having any serious purpose or value

The court case brought against me was frivolous in nature.

Podcast call in number = 314-274-3964
media@deerwoodrealtystl.com

Check us out at https://www.deerwoodrealtystl.com/