July 21, 2025 • 21 mins
A seemingly perfect house becomes a nightmare in this jaw-dropping story of buyer's remorse that serves as a powerful warning for anyone considering waiving home inspections. We examine a case where homeowners discovered their recently purchased property contained extensive black mold, structural damage, and numerous hidden issues that emerged shortly after moving in. Louisville couple sues over house they bought in Alliance
This tale has all the elements of a real estate horror story - a house that sat vacant for ten years, was nearly condemned, then quickly flipped with cosmetic repairs that masked serious problems. The buyers, enchanted by new paint, flooring, and a "fantastic smell," made the critical mistake of waiving their general home inspection contingency. Once winter arrived and the heating system activated, black mold appeared throughout the home, their son developed health problems, and the true extent of the disaster was revealed - foundation cracks, bowing walls, and an estimated $323,000 in necessary repairs.
The consequences have been devastating: two housing payments, mounting expenses, and a complex lawsuit against multiple parties including the seller (who was also the real estate agent and flipper), the mortgage company, and the agency itself. Their story reinforces what home inspectors have long maintained - that for the modest cost of $500-800, buyers can protect themselves from financial catastrophe. As one investor testified, a single inspection saved her entire business from bankruptcy by revealing costly defects before purchase. Remember, some flippers simply "put lipstick on a pig," and only a thorough inspection can reveal what exists beneath the fresh paint and new flooring. Whether you're a first-time buyer or seasoned investor, let this cautionary tale motivate you to protect your investment with proper due diligence.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs.
From radon to mold towarranties For a great home
inspection, you really can't gowrong.
(00:21):
Visit homeinspectionsinohiocom.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey everybody, welcome to Stayin' Out and Hot
Podcast.
This is Jim and Laura, theoffice goddesses, here with me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Alright, laura, we got a story.
Yes, we do, don't we A story ofbuyer's remorse, and it's from
the Canton Rep.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Repository.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
C-A-N-T-O-N-R-E-P, dot com.
Canton.
Canton RepositoryC-A-N-T-O-N-R-E-P, dot com.
Canton.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Canton Repository.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah.
But, I think Alliance it's anewspaper.
This is online, yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I think Alliance is out of Toledo, Like it's not far
from Toledo.
It's not near Canton.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
There could be another one, because some of the
stories are about moving toLouisville, so I'm kind of oh
yeah, that's true, I'm confused.
It's still here in ohio is it?
Though, yes, yes, it is, yes,it is pretty certain, but anyway
this is a bajri moore storywhere they learned that their
alliance house that they boughthas black mold and they sue okay
(01:24):
, it was not just black mold.
There were other structuralissues and other issues that
Correct, correct, that was theheadline, but here's what they
said.
They found it in 2024.
They said look clean, smelledfantastic.
First of all, all right.
Here's my thought.
It smelled fantastic, dudeClean should.
(01:45):
Here's my thought.
It smelled fantastic.
Dude clean should not have anodor no, it shouldn't I mean
some people think, hey, I smell,I go in.
It smells like febreze andthat's awesome no.
And air freshener, and that'sawesome.
Like no.
That means they're covering upsomething perhaps, or they don't
care about the chemicals thatare involved in those things.
Anyway, it could be either, ora combination thereof so they
(02:09):
said clean, smell fantastic,kitchen was new, paint was new,
the flooring was new and it wasin uh, they said a pretty and
quiet neighborhood save for thehum of lawnmowers and few
traffic issues, since it is adead-end street.
So they bought the house from Iwon't name the company, but they
(02:29):
bought this house, they movedin and that wasn't so great,
they said once the weather gotcold.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And the heat kicked on.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
They said he came on and then they got black mold,
dry rot, crater, feces in thegarage, attic and other issues
were detected and, of course,not surprisingly, their son kept
getting sick.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And apparently he had issues with his voice and with
talking.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, so probably mold .
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Toxicity, mold and exposure.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
The sellers they were .
It was a flip.
They flipped the house.
It looks like the person whobought the house is a real
estate agent and did flippingalso, or maybe that's the main
thing to do.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
flipping and real estate agency is how they get
leased quickly or save a littlemoney so the listing agent was
also the owner of the house andthe owner of the flipping
company.
So let's, let's make sure weclarify that there too yep, so.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
so the they moved in had all these issues, and so now
they are suing the agents, themortgage company and the agency
itself.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And the seller.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yes, who is an agent?
So they're suing everybody,which attorneys are likely to do
Because let's just throw thatspaghetti and see where it
sticks see what sticks, becausethey know for some companies
it's so much easier.
Just let me just give you threethousand dollars just to be done
with it yeah, here, here's myeno coverage here and this is
(04:17):
not all attorneys, but well, wewere sued one time before and
their attorney is like well, weknow you didn't do anything, but
it's cheaper to pay this moneyout $2,500.
It's cheaper to pay this thanproving that you did nothing.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Which is still crap to me.
I think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You just prove I didn't do anything wrong and
then go after them for theexpenses.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
But insurance companies don't want to work
like that, so usually the onlytime wow, I don't know about
always, because we have not beenin a bunch of lawsuits, but
only parties are guaranteed towin in a lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Are.
The attorneys Are the attorneysyes.
Well, yeah, because they'reguaranteed 30% of whatever it is
that it is.
It's usually 30%, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So this house was bought at a sheriff's auction.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It was actually set to be condemned.
Let's be very clear about thatyes yes.
It was going to be condemneduntil they bought it and then
they took it off of thecondemned list.
So my question is if it was insuch rough shape that it was
condemnable, why wasn't it stillcondemned afterwards?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, because you know what?
Because, say we buy a condemnedhouse as soon as we bought that
, that doesn't change thecondition of the house.
It's still a condemned piece ofcrap house Right.
So I don't know why the citywould remove that.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I'm just taking that from the list.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, so they did a fungal test and this thing says
dangerously high concentrationsof toxic spores.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Which indicated a systemic fungal infestation
exacerbated by chronic waterintrusion.
Well yeah, it was vacant for 10years.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
This is attorney Attorney speak, attorney, speak,
all.
All right, you can say there'sthere's elevated levels of
spores.
Is what?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
we would say but at at any point in time, though,
you've got a house that satvacant for 10 years, you've got
people calling going from that,the windows are busted out you
can't tell me that that placedidn't have mold.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That was another factor.
The house sat vacant for almost10 years, which I think that'd
be an awesome thing to have onthe disclosure.
Was the house ever vacant orbank owned?
Would be nice things to know.
Yes, but I don't think that'spart of the disclosure form.
Good question to ask thoughmaybe so they all.
So they had an inspection acouple months ago and they found
(06:52):
cracks in the foundation bowingwall on the foundation, water
exposure, substandard roofrepairs, buck buckled floors and
soft spots which is that in theroof or the?
floors were new when they movedin, so that probably didn't
happen until after they livedthere for a little bit moisture.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It depends because what?
What if the floors hadn'tactually been leveled or taken
care of correctly and when theymoved in?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
well, when you put in wooden floors or laminate,
you're supposed to leave alittle especially anything wood
like a little bit of gap on theoutside so that it can flex so
it can expand and contract alittle bit.
So I we don't know.
There's no picture of thefloors in this thing, but here's
what this kind of comes down tois the flippers mainly did only
(07:43):
like cosmetic repairs, whichflippers are likely to do.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Because that's quick and easy and cheaper than
actually doing a legitimatefoundation repair or a roof
repair.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Because then you're going to lose money.
Yep so, but here's a little bitof a kicker in this Is the
buyers signed the form to waiveall inspections and buy it as is
no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They just waived the general inspection.
They didn't waive the termiteinspection.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
They didn't get one, but they should have they should
, because apparently there werea bunch of you destroying
insects here when you buy ahouse you should always get yet.
No, yeah, I want the choice tohave an inspection.
You don't always have to do it.
Why would you give up yourright to?
Anyway, the moral of this storyis they sign that form waiving
(08:34):
the inspection.
The agent is still being sued.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
All agents are being sued and the flipping company.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The flipping company the agent and the mortgage
company, which that sounds likesomebody's just throwing them in
there to see what happened.
Hey mortgage company, they gotinsurance.
They should have some money tohelp pay for your stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
They should have made sure that they did an
inspection on this house andthey didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
It's going to be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So now the people are not living there, they're
living somewhere else, expensespiling up.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
To mortgages two this , two that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, a rental place paying the mortgage.
They're saying it will costthem almost $323,000 to fix this
place.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I really wonder how bad the foundation is.
Is most of that a foundationalrepair?
I would love to inspect thishouse just for my own curiosity
it sounds like just a moldy messyes.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
So all right.
Foundation say you need tosteal eye beams right there.
I don't know, we'll guess likesay five, there's a little bit
on cheap end, but let's say fivehundred dollars each one okay
use like five to six turn overhere, but say five hundred each
one.
Let's say you did five on thefront wall, five on the back, 10
, then 12, 13 let's say four.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Let's just say you get 20 total yeah, let's just do
five on each wall and call it agood so you got 20 total beans,
which is a pretty big basement,right, all right, that is a big
basement.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You're looking at ten thousand dollars so where are
they?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I wonder if the if that is, uh, including mold
remediation, because if thatincludes mold remediation I
could see that then becausethat's not going to be cheap to
do remediation.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wow, if they do it right.
Well, which is another topic.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
That's another topic that we could get into that.
We've seen that's been a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So this, this crazy expensive and I can see somebody
going jumping that number up go, hey, we have percentage of
that, we're still good.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Right.
Well, and not only are theysuing for all of their money
back, they're also suing to havethe sale voided out where it
would be as if they had neverpurchased this property at all.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Like an annulment.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Like an annulment.
It's going to be interesting tosee how this plays out in court
and what ends up happening withthis, because this case could
set a precedence in the rest ofthe state, yeah, so anyway, I
think the whole moral of thisstory is.
Get an inspection.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Don't be an idiot.
Have the house inspected.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Whether it's a flip or whether.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Especially if it's a flip or whether, especially if
it's a flip.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
We've seen horrible flips like you did that one, so
jim did an inspection one that'sbad a couple.
Well, I'm thinking about thisone because like it's the
biggest one that I think of andhe's in the back two bedrooms
and he's walking on the floorand he's like they don't feel
right to me.
So he's looking outside and hemoves away bricks and he sees
(11:54):
that the deck is taken all theway down to the dirt, but on top
of that deck are the twobedrooms that the flippers added
those that on the outside,because also there's like the
siding didn't look right yeahsomething just didn't look right
to you.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I looked underneath there and I'm like, oh, it's a
deck and I go inside and theyjust put carpet on the deck.
They put walls around the deck,put carpet over top of the deck
, boards, no insulation, noventilation was now a crawl
space underneath there.
This is the same house wherethey did duct work and routed to
(12:32):
those rooms to get some heatback there, but at the same time
they disconnected the exhaustpipe for the water heater and
the furnace, because they justdid shitty work.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But they wanted to add that deck to say hey, we got
two, two more.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
We got two more bedrooms back here yeah, let's
just, let's bubble up, but let'snot tell you that these last
two bedrooms are right over adeck and they're going to get
moist.
They're going to have watercome up into the carpet, it's
going to start getting moldy,it's gonna start smelling and
(13:12):
it's just.
It's gonna need torn down likeso I?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I was it was just my guess a legal layman here.
I doesn't know too much aboutthe law, but this real estate
agent, who was also the seller,the person who bought the house
and did the renovations- that'sgoing to be a problem she's in
deep shit.
Yeah, Because legally she knewthe condition of the house she
(13:38):
owned it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Okay, probably I don't know what she disclosed
anything.
She probably said, nope, wenever lived there, don't know
anything.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Right, which is still bullshit, because obviously
you're in there, you'rerepairing things, you're fixing
things.
You see the condition of that.
You're covering it up.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, and she's a licensed real estate agent, so
therefore she's more of asubject matter expert.
So she should know better thanallow these people to do this
(14:14):
stuff like, hey, it was you orat least your, your uh
subcontractors that you hiredthrough your company to spray
paint over all the mold andstuff that was down the basement
and you cut and you covered upthings.
So it's like it's all right,this is.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
this is bad for that agent well, and not only that,
but depending on how they didthat spraying of the mold and
all of that, you could havemycotoxins floating around now,
because the mold wasn't killedand it started to try to protect
itself.
So there is so much crap thatcould be wrong in addition to
that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
With this house, it should just be condemned yes,
yeah, well, yeah, it wassupposed to be condemned.
Well, it was condemned beforeand I should probably put it
back on there.
And yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I don't know why the city went to follow it up on
that.
I, I and you know.
Maybe they should have thrownthe city into this, because why
would the city take it off ofthe condemned list?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I don't know, the people did pull permits for
electrical work.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, they pulled one permit for electrical work and
that was it.
So at what point in time doesthe city not come in and say you
know what?
This house sat vacant for 10years.
What exactly are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So that tells me that all they did was cosmetic,
which like listen, if you'rebuying a house, do not take the
flipper's word on it, don't takethe seller's word on it, on how
they claim their house isfantastic condition.
They likely do not know or carethey may not care and there's
(15:38):
so many, so many differentpeople.
We did an inspection one timeand, and after the new people
moved in.
Between our inspection and thenew people moving in, the
sellers changed out out thewater heater, took out the new
one and put in an old piece ofshit water heater.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And we had our pictures and the model and
serial numbers.
Well, here's the serial number.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It's not even the same one, is it?
No, michael, they took it fromyou.
And then I had a seller onetime I visit.
I think I was doing I don'tknow why I was there I was doing
doing something helping anotherinspector out and Sewer scope
the buyer.
Well, I don't know if there'sthat, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, the buyer was there andthe buyer and the seller were
talking.
When the seller bought thathouse, like say 10 years ago,
(16:23):
before he moved in his, thepeople sold it to him, changed
out all the kitchen appliancesand that's not.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
According to the, the contract, that's not supposed
to happen.
What's in that house issupposed to stay there, unless
it's specifically listed that itdoesn't.
Because that's what we did withour house, like we left,
whatever we left there, stayedthere, and we put specific
things in that we were taking x,y and z with us yes, so it's.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It's sad you can't trust people.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
100 and I would also add, if you've got an agent
acting as a dual agent not thatthere necessarily is a problem
with that, but the only personin all of the whole transaction
of a home sale that is neutralis the home inspector.
(17:16):
They don't make money if thehouse sells.
Their job is not contingentupon that house.
Selling like a real estateagent is especially as a dual
agent.
So you want to not get rid ofyour inspection contingency.
You can say, listen, I want theinspection and we could still
(17:39):
take the house as is.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
For information only.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Information only, but I still reserve the right to
walk off of the inspection if Iwant to, and you can still buy
it as is.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But you need to protect yourself because I think
the way the contracts arewritten, they can get out no
matter what.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It's easier for a buyer to get out than a seller.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yes.
So if I was the buyer I'd gohey, I want to do a home
inspection, just for informationonly.
I'm not going to ask any kindof requests for remedies.
Get your inspection done andthen something serious comes up
you could drop out yeah, saveall the heartache.
Avoid having to sue the realestate agents.
The seller.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
For what?
Five to 800 bucks, depending onwhat all you get To get out to
get out of a 300,000 to $500,000home.
That's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well, I guarantee, wow, these people thousand
dollar home, that's well worthit.
Well, I guarantee, wow, thesepeople would have wanted it.
They wish they wish they hadhad it now.
But who knows if they're?
If they're, I mean, let's justsay they're being so strict and
trying to save every littlepenny and not spend money to
protect themselves.
I don't, I don't know they maydo it again, but this has been a
(18:52):
very costly, painful lesson forthem to learn that you do not
waive the home inspection evenif the house looks good, because
, as we call it, you could havea flipper that just put lipstick
on a pig.
It's still a pig, it just hasfresh paint on.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
There was a woman that we did an inspection for.
She had just started a companyand when we did our inspection I
think when she got estimatesshe came to us because we did
another inspection for her, tous because we did another
(19:32):
inspection for her, and she toldus that if she had purchased
that first house without theinspection, that her company
would have gone bankrupt rightaway because of the amount of
stuff that would be needed tofix in that house to make it so
that she could rent it orwhatever I don't remember that
story yeah I think she wrote outa, a review for us at one point
, but she said that it saved.
(19:53):
It saved her company, becauseshe she would have lost
everything if she had boughtthat house, and that we weren't
deal killers.
We were.
How did she word that?
Nightmare, nightmare preventersand that she would never go
without an inspection from hereon out, because of that first
(20:13):
experience where she almost gottaken advantage of and just by
the grace of God she happened toget an inspection on that and
found that that really wouldhave been not pleasant.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
All right.
Well, that's it for this one, Ibelieve.
Thank you everybody.
Hey, if you're in Ohio, contactHabitation Investigation for
Home Inspections.
Thank you everybody.
Bye guys.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
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Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
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For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
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(20:58):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs.
From radon to mold towarranties For a great home
inspection, you really can't gowrong.
(00:21):
Visit homeinspectionsinohiocom.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey everybody, welcome to Stayin' Out and Hot
Podcast.
This is Jim and Laura, theoffice goddesses, here with me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Alright, laura, we got a story.
Yes, we do, don't we A story ofbuyer's remorse, and it's from
the Canton Rep.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Repository.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
C-A-N-T-O-N-R-E-P, dot com.
Canton.
Canton RepositoryC-A-N-T-O-N-R-E-P, dot com.
Canton.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Canton Repository.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah.
But, I think Alliance it's anewspaper.
This is online, yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I think Alliance is out of Toledo, Like it's not far
from Toledo.
It's not near Canton.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
There could be another one, because some of the
stories are about moving toLouisville, so I'm kind of oh
yeah, that's true, I'm confused.
It's still here in ohio is it?
Though, yes, yes, it is, yes,it is pretty certain, but anyway
this is a bajri moore storywhere they learned that their
alliance house that they boughthas black mold and they sue okay
(01:24):
, it was not just black mold.
There were other structuralissues and other issues that
Correct, correct, that was theheadline, but here's what they
said.
They found it in 2024.
They said look clean, smelledfantastic.
First of all, all right.
Here's my thought.
It smelled fantastic, dudeClean should.
(01:45):
Here's my thought.
It smelled fantastic.
Dude clean should not have anodor no, it shouldn't I mean
some people think, hey, I smell,I go in.
It smells like febreze andthat's awesome no.
And air freshener, and that'sawesome.
Like no.
That means they're covering upsomething perhaps, or they don't
care about the chemicals thatare involved in those things.
Anyway, it could be either, ora combination thereof so they
(02:09):
said clean, smell fantastic,kitchen was new, paint was new,
the flooring was new and it wasin uh, they said a pretty and
quiet neighborhood save for thehum of lawnmowers and few
traffic issues, since it is adead-end street.
So they bought the house from Iwon't name the company, but they
(02:29):
bought this house, they movedin and that wasn't so great,
they said once the weather gotcold.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And the heat kicked on.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
They said he came on and then they got black mold,
dry rot, crater, feces in thegarage, attic and other issues
were detected and, of course,not surprisingly, their son kept
getting sick.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And apparently he had issues with his voice and with
talking.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, so probably mold .
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Toxicity, mold and exposure.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
The sellers they were .
It was a flip.
They flipped the house.
It looks like the person whobought the house is a real
estate agent and did flippingalso, or maybe that's the main
thing to do.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
flipping and real estate agency is how they get
leased quickly or save a littlemoney so the listing agent was
also the owner of the house andthe owner of the flipping
company.
So let's, let's make sure weclarify that there too yep, so.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
so the they moved in had all these issues, and so now
they are suing the agents, themortgage company and the agency
itself.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And the seller.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yes, who is an agent?
So they're suing everybody,which attorneys are likely to do
Because let's just throw thatspaghetti and see where it
sticks see what sticks, becausethey know for some companies
it's so much easier.
Just let me just give you threethousand dollars just to be done
with it yeah, here, here's myeno coverage here and this is
(04:17):
not all attorneys, but well, wewere sued one time before and
their attorney is like well, weknow you didn't do anything, but
it's cheaper to pay this moneyout $2,500.
It's cheaper to pay this thanproving that you did nothing.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Which is still crap to me.
I think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You just prove I didn't do anything wrong and
then go after them for theexpenses.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
But insurance companies don't want to work
like that, so usually the onlytime wow, I don't know about
always, because we have not beenin a bunch of lawsuits, but
only parties are guaranteed towin in a lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Are.
The attorneys Are the attorneysyes.
Well, yeah, because they'reguaranteed 30% of whatever it is
that it is.
It's usually 30%, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So this house was bought at a sheriff's auction.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It was actually set to be condemned.
Let's be very clear about thatyes yes.
It was going to be condemneduntil they bought it and then
they took it off of thecondemned list.
So my question is if it was insuch rough shape that it was
condemnable, why wasn't it stillcondemned afterwards?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, because you know what?
Because, say we buy a condemnedhouse as soon as we bought that
, that doesn't change thecondition of the house.
It's still a condemned piece ofcrap house Right.
So I don't know why the citywould remove that.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I'm just taking that from the list.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, so they did a fungal test and this thing says
dangerously high concentrationsof toxic spores.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Which indicated a systemic fungal infestation
exacerbated by chronic waterintrusion.
Well yeah, it was vacant for 10years.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
This is attorney Attorney speak, attorney, speak,
all.
All right, you can say there'sthere's elevated levels of
spores.
Is what?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
we would say but at at any point in time, though,
you've got a house that satvacant for 10 years, you've got
people calling going from that,the windows are busted out you
can't tell me that that placedidn't have mold.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That was another factor.
The house sat vacant for almost10 years, which I think that'd
be an awesome thing to have onthe disclosure.
Was the house ever vacant orbank owned?
Would be nice things to know.
Yes, but I don't think that'spart of the disclosure form.
Good question to ask thoughmaybe so they all.
So they had an inspection acouple months ago and they found
(06:52):
cracks in the foundation bowingwall on the foundation, water
exposure, substandard roofrepairs, buck buckled floors and
soft spots which is that in theroof or the?
floors were new when they movedin, so that probably didn't
happen until after they livedthere for a little bit moisture.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It depends because what?
What if the floors hadn'tactually been leveled or taken
care of correctly and when theymoved in?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
well, when you put in wooden floors or laminate,
you're supposed to leave alittle especially anything wood
like a little bit of gap on theoutside so that it can flex so
it can expand and contract alittle bit.
So I we don't know.
There's no picture of thefloors in this thing, but here's
what this kind of comes down tois the flippers mainly did only
(07:43):
like cosmetic repairs, whichflippers are likely to do.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Because that's quick and easy and cheaper than
actually doing a legitimatefoundation repair or a roof
repair.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Because then you're going to lose money.
Yep so, but here's a little bitof a kicker in this Is the
buyers signed the form to waiveall inspections and buy it as is
no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They just waived the general inspection.
They didn't waive the termiteinspection.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
They didn't get one, but they should have they should
, because apparently there werea bunch of you destroying
insects here when you buy ahouse you should always get yet.
No, yeah, I want the choice tohave an inspection.
You don't always have to do it.
Why would you give up yourright to?
Anyway, the moral of this storyis they sign that form waiving
(08:34):
the inspection.
The agent is still being sued.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
All agents are being sued and the flipping company.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The flipping company the agent and the mortgage
company, which that sounds likesomebody's just throwing them in
there to see what happened.
Hey mortgage company, they gotinsurance.
They should have some money tohelp pay for your stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
They should have made sure that they did an
inspection on this house andthey didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
It's going to be interesting to see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So now the people are not living there, they're
living somewhere else, expensespiling up.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
To mortgages two this , two that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, a rental place paying the mortgage.
They're saying it will costthem almost $323,000 to fix this
place.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I really wonder how bad the foundation is.
Is most of that a foundationalrepair?
I would love to inspect thishouse just for my own curiosity
it sounds like just a moldy messyes.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
So all right.
Foundation say you need tosteal eye beams right there.
I don't know, we'll guess likesay five, there's a little bit
on cheap end, but let's say fivehundred dollars each one okay
use like five to six turn overhere, but say five hundred each
one.
Let's say you did five on thefront wall, five on the back, 10
, then 12, 13 let's say four.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Let's just say you get 20 total yeah, let's just do
five on each wall and call it agood so you got 20 total beans,
which is a pretty big basement,right, all right, that is a big
basement.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You're looking at ten thousand dollars so where are
they?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I wonder if the if that is, uh, including mold
remediation, because if thatincludes mold remediation I
could see that then becausethat's not going to be cheap to
do remediation.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wow, if they do it right.
Well, which is another topic.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
That's another topic that we could get into that.
We've seen that's been a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So this, this crazy expensive and I can see somebody
going jumping that number up go, hey, we have percentage of
that, we're still good.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Right.
Well, and not only are theysuing for all of their money
back, they're also suing to havethe sale voided out where it
would be as if they had neverpurchased this property at all.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Like an annulment.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Like an annulment.
It's going to be interesting tosee how this plays out in court
and what ends up happening withthis, because this case could
set a precedence in the rest ofthe state, yeah, so anyway, I
think the whole moral of thisstory is.
Get an inspection.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Don't be an idiot.
Have the house inspected.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Whether it's a flip or whether.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Especially if it's a flip or whether, especially if
it's a flip.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
We've seen horrible flips like you did that one, so
jim did an inspection one that'sbad a couple.
Well, I'm thinking about thisone because like it's the
biggest one that I think of andhe's in the back two bedrooms
and he's walking on the floorand he's like they don't feel
right to me.
So he's looking outside and hemoves away bricks and he sees
(11:54):
that the deck is taken all theway down to the dirt, but on top
of that deck are the twobedrooms that the flippers added
those that on the outside,because also there's like the
siding didn't look right yeahsomething just didn't look right
to you.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I looked underneath there and I'm like, oh, it's a
deck and I go inside and theyjust put carpet on the deck.
They put walls around the deck,put carpet over top of the deck
, boards, no insulation, noventilation was now a crawl
space underneath there.
This is the same house wherethey did duct work and routed to
(12:32):
those rooms to get some heatback there, but at the same time
they disconnected the exhaustpipe for the water heater and
the furnace, because they justdid shitty work.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But they wanted to add that deck to say hey, we got
two, two more.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
We got two more bedrooms back here yeah, let's
just, let's bubble up, but let'snot tell you that these last
two bedrooms are right over adeck and they're going to get
moist.
They're going to have watercome up into the carpet, it's
going to start getting moldy,it's gonna start smelling and
(13:12):
it's just.
It's gonna need torn down likeso I?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I was it was just my guess a legal layman here.
I doesn't know too much aboutthe law, but this real estate
agent, who was also the seller,the person who bought the house
and did the renovations- that'sgoing to be a problem she's in
deep shit.
Yeah, Because legally she knewthe condition of the house she
(13:38):
owned it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Okay, probably I don't know what she disclosed
anything.
She probably said, nope, wenever lived there, don't know
anything.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Right, which is still bullshit, because obviously
you're in there, you'rerepairing things, you're fixing
things.
You see the condition of that.
You're covering it up.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, and she's a licensed real estate agent, so
therefore she's more of asubject matter expert.
So she should know better thanallow these people to do this
(14:14):
stuff like, hey, it was you orat least your, your uh
subcontractors that you hiredthrough your company to spray
paint over all the mold andstuff that was down the basement
and you cut and you covered upthings.
So it's like it's all right,this is.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
this is bad for that agent well, and not only that,
but depending on how they didthat spraying of the mold and
all of that, you could havemycotoxins floating around now,
because the mold wasn't killedand it started to try to protect
itself.
So there is so much crap thatcould be wrong in addition to
that.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
With this house, it should just be condemned yes,
yeah, well, yeah, it wassupposed to be condemned.
Well, it was condemned beforeand I should probably put it
back on there.
And yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I don't know why the city went to follow it up on
that.
I, I and you know.
Maybe they should have thrownthe city into this, because why
would the city take it off ofthe condemned list?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I don't know, the people did pull permits for
electrical work.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, they pulled one permit for electrical work and
that was it.
So at what point in time doesthe city not come in and say you
know what?
This house sat vacant for 10years.
What exactly are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So that tells me that all they did was cosmetic,
which like listen, if you'rebuying a house, do not take the
flipper's word on it, don't takethe seller's word on it, on how
they claim their house isfantastic condition.
They likely do not know or carethey may not care and there's
(15:38):
so many, so many differentpeople.
We did an inspection one timeand, and after the new people
moved in.
Between our inspection and thenew people moving in, the
sellers changed out out thewater heater, took out the new
one and put in an old piece ofshit water heater.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And we had our pictures and the model and
serial numbers.
Well, here's the serial number.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It's not even the same one, is it?
No, michael, they took it fromyou.
And then I had a seller onetime I visit.
I think I was doing I don'tknow why I was there I was doing
doing something helping anotherinspector out and Sewer scope
the buyer.
Well, I don't know if there'sthat, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, the buyer was there andthe buyer and the seller were
talking.
When the seller bought thathouse, like say 10 years ago,
(16:23):
before he moved in his, thepeople sold it to him, changed
out all the kitchen appliancesand that's not.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
According to the, the contract, that's not supposed
to happen.
What's in that house issupposed to stay there, unless
it's specifically listed that itdoesn't.
Because that's what we did withour house, like we left,
whatever we left there, stayedthere, and we put specific
things in that we were taking x,y and z with us yes, so it's.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It's sad you can't trust people.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
100 and I would also add, if you've got an agent
acting as a dual agent not thatthere necessarily is a problem
with that, but the only personin all of the whole transaction
of a home sale that is neutralis the home inspector.
(17:16):
They don't make money if thehouse sells.
Their job is not contingentupon that house.
Selling like a real estateagent is especially as a dual
agent.
So you want to not get rid ofyour inspection contingency.
You can say, listen, I want theinspection and we could still
(17:39):
take the house as is.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
For information only.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Information only, but I still reserve the right to
walk off of the inspection if Iwant to, and you can still buy
it as is.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But you need to protect yourself because I think
the way the contracts arewritten, they can get out no
matter what.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It's easier for a buyer to get out than a seller.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yes.
So if I was the buyer I'd gohey, I want to do a home
inspection, just for informationonly.
I'm not going to ask any kindof requests for remedies.
Get your inspection done andthen something serious comes up
you could drop out yeah, saveall the heartache.
Avoid having to sue the realestate agents.
The seller.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
For what?
Five to 800 bucks, depending onwhat all you get To get out to
get out of a 300,000 to $500,000home.
That's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well, I guarantee, wow, these people thousand
dollar home, that's well worthit.
Well, I guarantee, wow, thesepeople would have wanted it.
They wish they wish they hadhad it now.
But who knows if they're?
If they're, I mean, let's justsay they're being so strict and
trying to save every littlepenny and not spend money to
protect themselves.
I don't, I don't know they maydo it again, but this has been a
(18:52):
very costly, painful lesson forthem to learn that you do not
waive the home inspection evenif the house looks good, because
, as we call it, you could havea flipper that just put lipstick
on a pig.
It's still a pig, it just hasfresh paint on.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
There was a woman that we did an inspection for.
She had just started a companyand when we did our inspection I
think when she got estimatesshe came to us because we did
another inspection for her, tous because we did another
(19:32):
inspection for her, and she toldus that if she had purchased
that first house without theinspection, that her company
would have gone bankrupt rightaway because of the amount of
stuff that would be needed tofix in that house to make it so
that she could rent it orwhatever I don't remember that
story yeah I think she wrote outa, a review for us at one point
, but she said that it saved.
(19:53):
It saved her company, becauseshe she would have lost
everything if she had boughtthat house, and that we weren't
deal killers.
We were.
How did she word that?
Nightmare, nightmare preventersand that she would never go
without an inspection from hereon out, because of that first
(20:13):
experience where she almost gottaken advantage of and just by
the grace of God she happened toget an inspection on that and
found that that really wouldhave been not pleasant.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
All right.
Well, that's it for this one, Ibelieve.
Thank you everybody.
Hey, if you're in Ohio, contactHabitation Investigation for
Home Inspections.
Thank you everybody.
Bye guys.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
or visit the website of thebest Ohio home inspection
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
(20:58):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
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