Ben Franklin Properties

My wife and I had been looking for property in Poway for almost a year. We found nothing in our price range that sparked our interest until my wife spotted a new listing on the east end of the city. I was on my way home from a half year deployment when my wife sent me the link. The day after I returned, we drove by the place. My wife called Troy at BFP (he was an old friend), and Troy set up a showing for the next day. Later that afternoon, Troy was on the phone with the listing agent working out an offer. We submitted, they countered, we accepted. Closing was set for 1/14/11. Troy was dealing extensively with the listing agent, and she let him know on the 5th that the sellers were considering backing out of the contract. Troy and BFP broker Ben Greenway sent the seller a letter on the 6th via the listing agent stating that withdrawing from the contract would have serious legal consequences and advising him to comply with the contract. The seller delivered a notice of cancellation on the 7th. The story has a lot more color to it including the seller threatening his agent, showing up at my house, and repeatedly committing fraud in his attempt to cancel the sale. We found out later that he was himself a licensed real estate agent, and that he wanted our closing date to pass so he could list the property again in the summer for a higher price. The important part to understand is the dogged determination, patience, and skill with which BFP committed themselves to serving the needs and desires of their clients, us. Troy even offered to take a cut in his commission when it looked like the seller was coming up short. Closing day came and went, and so began an 18 month legal battle. We spent tens of thousands on this paying folks who bill by the hours, but all along the way, BFP stood by us, investing countless hours on our case, with no promise at all of payment at the end. Troy worked day and night to try to find another property, and we saw several, and even made a bid on a place we thought we could live with, but it bid up out of our range. We wanted the house we had on contract. Each time it appeared we were close to a settlement, BFP would fire up the machine again, and try to pull it through, but each time the seller failed to comply. Once we had the seller squeezed against a rock with the fast approaching court date, the log jam finally broke. The seller did everything he could to slow the process in order for us to fail to meet the deadlines of the deal the lawyers had struck, but it was the energy and commitment of BFP working with title, escrow, the sellers mortgage holder, and our loan originator at all hours that brought sale to close on 5/8/12. Nobody could believe that my wife and I wanted this house that much, because it was in bad shape from the start, and as soon as we started fighting him, the seller really let it go. When I had a truck pull up to dump a full load of trash into the yard on 5/10, I found out that the seller had been hiring his property out as a dump, just to make it worse for us. If I can find a way to appropriately rate the seller himself, I surely will. I learned from the neighbors, who were all very happy to have the seller gone and us as their neighbors, that the seller had breached three previous sales contracts. We were just the first ones who decided to stay and fight. The guy still has people that I recognize as family and associates drive by the house and take pictures. I will have to educate him on the laws against harassment and stalking in this state. Fast forward over two months and we are still in the repair and renovation phase, but will be moved in by the end of this month. We are planning to host an "It was worth it!" party in the fall, and Troy and Ben will be the guests of honor. If you ever intend to buy or sell property in San Diego County, your first stop should be to Ben Franklin Properties. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Thank you Troy and Ben!