📰 STORY TIME!
Just wanted to share some happy (but tumultuous) news with everyone as well as the new knowledge I've gained from a recent transaction I've been working on, and hopefully increase our awareness of all the things that could go wrong. Yay! I'll give you the bad news first, then the good news.
My client had went under contract after weeks of searching and when you are looking for a home here in Houston, one of the first questions is "Has this house ever flooded before?" which a lot of homes unfortunately have (we live in a swamp and our roads are basically floodways). So this home had some previous water penetration and on the Seller's Disclosure, it was written that it was due to "drainage back flow during new construction" and that there was "previous flooding due to a natural flood event." Doing my due diligence, after the showing I called the listing agent to ask for further explanation on the flooding history, to which they confirmed that it was due to the construction of a Dept. of Public Safety across the street behind the home, and that due to drainage issues during construction, there was some ordeal with the pipes and such which caused the back flow to flood the backyard. I even further asked them to clarify whether or not it had to do with any natural flood events, since it was checked on the disclosure, to which they responded "no, it had nothing to do with natural flooding, it was just the new construction." 🙄
Now with all things considered, we decided to go under contract with a cash offer, short option period, and closing in 14 days. With such a short time frame, we immediately scheduled an inspection and sent in the option and earnest money. At inspections, the seller's were present and were very kind, friendly, honest folks, and we got to chatting. They openly and eagerly disclosed that the house had flooded TWICE, during Harvey (2017) and Imelda (2019). It did have to do with the DPS because it had never flooded prior, must've been all the concrete had caused the houses next to it to get the water runoff whenever it rains, however this means the likelihood of it flooding again is significantly higher, and it occurred during two flood events! This drastically affects the value and condition of the property! 😱
I let my buyer know of this shocking information, and he decides he wants to terminate, and although sad that he had spent $200 on the option period, $375 for the general inspection, he had a very positive attitude and took it as a learning experience.
I felt very upset by the fact that we wouldn't have gone under contract in the first place, had we known of the full picture of the flooding history, and now my client is $575 down the drain. We wouldn't have even known of the two flooding had the sellers not been present at inspections, and thank goodness they were. I went back to my manager, told her of this issue, and she contacted the broker on the listing side and requested that we were refunded the option money, as well as the inspection fee. And guess what?? We managed to get our option money back, as well as reimbursed for the inspections!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Woo hoo! Bless my sweet manager and we will of course send over the inspection report to the sellers so that they can have that to help sell their home to their next potential buyer.
I am very happy to say that I was able to protect my client's best interests, and although the transaction fell through, it is the little wins that keep us going towards the mountain top. 🏔️
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