HomeSmart Scottsdale

Very professional and responsive

This is a warning for buyers who may be dealing with agents or brokers at HomeSmart who are representing the seller in your transaction... I recently bought a modestly priced condo. Ross Maghami of HomeSmart represented the seller. Trudy Moore is the broker on record at HomeSmart (i.e. his boss). During the sale, Mr. Maghami applied a lot of pressure to my agent to shorten the inspection period. He also relayed to my agent that the seller was frustrated because he thought he could now get more for the condo than list price (i.e. what I offered) and that if I brought up any issues with the condition of the condo, they would/could possibly pursue another offer for more $. This was *after* their acceptance of the purchase contract... totally unethical. After the inspection there was a list of things wrong with the property because the seller fixed it up himself and didn't do things to code. Of course, if there are problems with the unit, an ethical seller's rep might encourage the seller to take care of them before selling the property (one, to do the right thing, and two, to protect the seller against claims). However, Maghami didn't do that. There's dry rot on about 1/3 of balcony floor (wood planks) that were hidden by fresh carpet and an accordion type hose under a bathroom sink instead of a real pipe... "lipstick on a pig" is what a contractor I spoke to later called the property. There were also things that were not disclosed during the sale as required by law. Whether they were known or not by Maghami isn't clear, but after being notified of some of these problems afterward, Maghami didn't take steps to rectify the non-disclosure issue. Worse, after I notified him and his boss Trudy Moore, he never responded to my letter. Immediately after the close of escrow and when I'm first given the keys, I discover that the front door deadbolt has no strikeplate and goes into a hole into the doorframe. The only thing securing the deadbolt is a 1/5" thin ring of wood in the doorframe. Anyone could just kick it right in. Apparently that was OK by Mr. Maghami. Having handled the keys to the unit many times, he just let that slide... In addition, before close of escrow, some deadbolts at the condo had been swapped out to cheaper, non-matching locks, none of which had keys. How could I tell? The seller had dolled up the unit for sale by painting everything... but when the sale was complete and they gave me only 1 working key to one of four deadbolts, the other deadbolts had rings of exposed wood around them -- meaning that when the condo was painted to sell the unit, there was a different, larger deadbolt on the doors, but after escrow closed, the seller had swapped out smaller, cheaper deadbolts that left a ring of unpainted exposed wood. It appears that the seller had gone through the unit and taken back some of the embellishments he'd installed to sell the unit once it sold. Again, unethical, and his agent Ross Maghami didn't seem to stop him. All of this may sound trivial, but there was a bigger, even more serious issue of a bad laundry room faucet that was rusted and corroded. The day I moved into the unit, a company set up the washing machine and turned on that corroded laundry room faucet, which proceeded to leak. The leak wasn't discovered for more than a day and by that time, there was $10,000 worth of damage to the condo. At the time of writing this review, I've still not been able to live in the unit due to water damage and mold growth even though escrow closed almost 2 months ago. I sent Maghami and Moore a letter regarding the serious omission from the disclosure at time of sale and they never responded. A sharp agent would've caught that problematic faucet and advised their owner-client to do something about it, to avoid opening themselves up to claims. According to the Arizona Association of Realtors, if something was "working" at the time of contract acceptance but is broken when the buyer takes over, the seller must repair it. The seller did not disclose that the faucet was broken and represents that it was working when they last checked. If that's the case, then the Association of Realtors rule applies and they still need to fix it, but Maghami and Moore are not only denying this industry rule, they're ignoring my correspondence. Now it's time for an attorney. The AAR says that this is an ethics issue and I'd say that if you're buying a property and Maghami or Moore are representing the seller, be extra vigilant with the condition of the property you're buying. Do NOT let them pressure you to accept something that doesn't seem right and don't let them pressure you to shorten the inspection period. Check locks to see if they're working, check faucets to see if they leak, look under freshly installed carpeting... after reading about what happened to me, you should have a better idea of their M.O. when it comes to doing the right thing during a transaction.