Weird Real Estate Stuff: IRS Lien Kills Sale

Back in the 1980s, in Roseville, California, I was working with a young builder who wanted to buy a lot and build a spec home.

Even better, I had a buyer lined up for the home he planned to build.

We found a nice lot for $36,000, got it into escrow, and my builder/buyer signed final papers as we prepared to close on the lot.

Title companies are pretty smart; they always run a last-minute lien search on the buyer, seller, and property before closing an escrow.

This time was no exception.

On closing day, I got a call from my escrow officer, informing me that the IRS had filed a lien on everything the builder owned the day before closing.

That killed the deal because the title company couldn’t issue title insurance with the IRS lien in existence.

 

Weird Real Estate Stuff: Selling Grandma’s House

One of the first things I do when listing a home is to get a “listing package” from one of our local title companies.

A listing package includes legal documents for the property, including assessor’s data, property taxes, deed history, and other useful information.

Many years ago, in the course of completing my due diligence for a property I was about to list, I noticed that the person wanting to list the property wasn’t the legal owner.

So, I called my supposed client and discovered that I was talking to the granddaughter of the actual elderly owner who was in a nursing home.

The bottom line?

The granddaughter thought it was okay to sell grannie’s house because she wasn’t going to need it anymore.

If Grandma knew about her granddaughter’s intentions, she apparently didn’t approve, because I never heard from the granddaughter again after informing her that she actually had to own the home in order to sell it.

There’s never a boring day in real estate! 🙂

 

Weird Real Estate Stuff: Seller Took Light Bulbs!

One of my very first transactions, about 40 years ago, involved the sale of one of my listings in San Jose, California.

Everything went smoothly, my seller moved to Minnesota before closing, and the buyers decided to forego doing a walk-through for various reasons.

Escrow closed, I delivered the keys to the buyer’s agent, and everything went as planned.

Then, I got a call from the buyer’s agent, who informed me that his buyers had begun moving in, only to discover that there was no power on in the house.

I assumed that my seller had taken the utilities out of his name and that the buyers had failed to order the utilities transferred to their name.

But, that wasn’t what had happened!

The real reason?

My seller had removed all of the light bulbs in the house and took them with him to Minnesota!

Now you know why it’s standard practice for buyers to do a final “walk-thru” before closing!

 

Weird Real Estate Stuff: The Angry Raccoon

About ten years ago, I listed a beautiful spec home that was being built by one of our area’s best custom builders.

As it neared completion, another broker in my office sold it and the offer included a provision for a home inspection.

My seller/builder was indignant that anyone would question the integrity of his construction, but had no choice but to allow the inspection.

Late in the day of the inspection, I called the buyer’s agent to see how the inspection had gone and, to my amazement, he said “we have a problem”.

I couldn’t imagine how we could have a problem with my builder’s masterpiece of construction quality, but I listened attentively as the buyer’s agent informed me that the inspector had discovered a family of raccoons in the crawlspace.

I was amazed to learn that the angry mama raccoon had actually cornered the inspector in the crawlspace for more than two hours until he was able to escape.

The cause?

The builder’s landscaping subcontractor had knocked off a foundation vent while grading the lot.

 

Weird Real Estate Stuff: Buyers File For Divorce

It was 1977 and we had decided to realize our dream of moving to Grass Valley, in the California foothills.

More specifically, we had purchased a home under construction in Lake Wildwood, a beautiful planned community with a private lake and golf course.

I listed our home in San Jose and it sold immediately to a couple who were moving to the area.

Our purchase in Lake Wildwood was contingent upon selling/closing our home in San Jose, so we had a lot on the line, but everything seemed solid as we approached our closing date.

We hired movers to pack and move us and the truck was being loaded on the morning of closing.

The buyers were to meet me for breakfast, then we were planning to go to the title company for closing.

I arrived early at the restaurant, sipped my way through my first cup of coffee, then began to get a little anxious when the buyers were 15 minutes late.

I finally called them to see if they were running late and learned they were not only running late, they had decided to get a divorce!

So, I asked where they were and told them I would be there in a few minutes.

Long story short, I rendered some of the best marital counseling ever, put them in my car, and took them to the title company.

We closed later that day ~ after the moving truck had already departed for Lake Wildwood with all of our possessions.