JUST SOLD! Victorian Diamond in the Rough

I just closed with some buyers on this property at 2241 Eccles Ave. in Ogden:

My clients came to me wanting to purchase a historic grade property.  After looking at a number of homes that fit that bill, we settled on this one.  The home, built in 1892, has 4 bedrooms, 1 bath, and sits on .15 acres.

The seller of this home acquired it in at a bank auction after the previous owner foreclosed.  As a self-proclaimed house flipping 'guru', the seller put his minions to work rehabbing the house.  This photo was taken just a couple days ago.  As you can tell from the copious amounts of over spray paint on the windows, this guy did a half-baked job.

This poor attention to detail was also evidenced in our transaction experience.  We negotiated a sales price of $76,500 with the seller paying $2,250 in closing costs while getting an FHA loan.  The seller agreed to make any FHA necessary repairs.  As it turns out there were many.  The seller received and signed the repair list on May 3rd.  No work was done on the home for over a week.  With our due diligence and appraisal deadline looming on the 15th, we extended them to give the seller more time to complete them.  Some work started but the appraiser went back to review the work and discovered that most of the work had not been done.  We had to extend our deadlines again to May 30th.  Finally, the appraiser was able to sign off on the completed work.

In the midst of this whole repair fiasco, the seller defaulted on his financing on the property.  That was a big red flag regarding this seller's ability to perform.  The seller also had other houses in the area that had notices of default filed against them as well.  I expressed my sincere concern to the listing agent and in response I received a direct email from the seller blasting me for calling his credibility into question.  It appears that we were all supposed to turn a blind eye to his lack of performance on his mortgage obligations.

Then came the final coup de grace at closing.  For a week prior, the seller had been calling the title companies everyday wanting to know when closing would happen.  (It seems he really needed the money as quickly as possible.)  To accommodate the seller, my client's lender worked extra hard and pulled some strings to get the transaction table funded.  The benefit would be that the buyer and seller wouldn't have to wait for a full day after closing for the transaction to fund and record.  Rather, closing and funding would all happen on the same day.  So what happens?  After all that effort and agitation, the seller leaves town unannounced on the day of closing and fumbles the paperwork.  This last minute surprise meant my clients had to reschedule their moving party and work schedules.

So, the bottom line is my clients are glad to be in the home now.  They will be restoring the property and bringing it back to its full historic potential.  Congrats to my buyers on their purchase!  And the added bonus is we are all much wiser now.