In June, I first made contact with Donna, the broker/owner of Team Walton Real Estate…read moreProfessionals, about a rural property she had listed. She referred me to her sister Melonie, who wasn't even listed as an agent at her website. Much later, I did a license search at the Florida state website and discovered that Melonie had only had her real estate license for three months.
Melonie was initially friendly and responsive to questions. She described the house as neat and clean, without any major issues, said the sellers were great people who would fix any problem that was discovered, and that a nearby house was almost never occupied by the neighbor. Based on her assertions, and the listing photos and description, I travelled to Florida to view the property and ultimately made an offer.
Once I was under contract, it quickly became clear that I had been told a number of untruths. Both the listing agent, Donna, and her sister Melonie had a serious conflict of interest not disclosed in the listing -- one of the property owners was a former employee of Donna's, and a friend to Melonie as well. The property itself had also been misrepresented.
On every visit I made to the property, the immediate neighbor (who I'd been told almost never actually lived next door) was home, and if it wasn't raining, he was burning a pile of trash in his yard, right next to the property line.
The owners claimed not to know if they still owned the mineral (subsurface) rights to their property, but Melonie assured me the title search would clear that up. She never actually contacted the title company for confirmation, however, and when I finally did that myself, I was told that they never confirm mineral rights ownership. So I wasn't ever going to know if someone might show up at the property one day and start excavating mines or drilling wells (for which, without owning the mineral rights, I would not have even received compensation).
The house itself looked nice enough on the outside, but corners had been cut in construction and maintenance had clearly been lacking for many years. The washing machine that the contract specifically noted would convey with the property was later revealed to be broken. Plumbing leaked, and there were water stains covering large areas of the ceilings and walls.
Most concerning, the ductwork for the HVAC system was lined on the inside with fiberglass (not duct board, but loose, fluffy fiberglass insulation of the type that is found in attics). After decades of being subjected to high pressure airflow in the ducts, this fiberglass was disintegrating and blowing through the ductwork, lodging in the air return vents in the ceilings. Whenever the air conditioner was running (pretty much all the time in Florida), tufts of fiberglass were blowing through the ducts, and anyone in the house was breathing these irritating glass fibers.
The air handler itself was located in the attic and access was blocked by multiple very large ducts, construction debris, and the owners' belongings. When asked when the HVAC appliances, more than two decades old, had last been serviced, the owners could not provide a specific date, or any service records or receipts.
After I terminated the contract, I received an email from Donna trying to make me feel guilty for all the "hard work" Melonie had put into the transaction. It was hard not to laugh.
