ROBINSON REAL ESTATE SVC

Although the agent at this firm initially demonstrated competence and a very helpful willingness regarding an offer I wanted to make on a foreclosure, I received a counter from the owner/seller (a bank) that I was unable to accept, and my pursuit of the foreclosure was terminated when I refused the seller's counter because not only was I not going to be allowed a prior inspection of the property (which did look to have some serious water damage in the kitchen), the seller/owner also stated that they would not make repairs to the house EVEN IF my lender required such repairs for financing. This could have resulted in me losing my earnest money with no way to finance the house. Since I had no idea what the amount of the repairs would be, and I did not know what else might be structurally or otherwise in disrepair or deficient (plumbing, electrical, etc.) I did not bother to make a counter, and my realtor notified the representative for the seller/owner that I was no longer interested in the house. This house had to be purchased using a conventional loan since it did not meet FHA or USDA standards for financing. The agent then showed me 4 properties, and while one showed promise, it needed far too much in immediate repairs for me to purchase it and live in a bare minimum of comfort in the house since what I had saved for a home purchase COULD cover the down payment, the closing costs, and the prepaid items without difficulty, but I did not have the $ on hand to make what were very necessary repairs for me as a disabled person to be remotely comfortable in the home upon closing. This house "supposedly" met FHA financing requirements, but again, the disclosure sheet was inadequate, and I initially put in a low offer on the house, which essentially went nowhere since the seller's agent said that the seller was not willing to accept an offer that low at that time (the house had just come on the market), so after finding out on my own, for example, that the HVAC was 26 years old, I concluded that this was a deal breaker. My agent insisted that the HVAC could be negotiated, but this was on top of the repairs that I had already identified that I would need to make, and my agent was deaf to my needs regarding the repairs that I knew would have to be made, and this was the first crack in our relationship, since she continued to push me well after I had made the decision that I was NOT interested in the house. Then I found a house with possibilities in a much smaller town about 15 minutes away, but the disclosure sheet provided by the seller's agent (which had been completed 16 months ago) also did not list at least 3 items which were substantive that had to be repaired in order to be able to finance the house via the USDA Rural Loan program. I put in an offer through my agent since I foolishly trusted the disclosure sheet provided by the seller's agent (never again!), and there was a counter by the seller and her agent that tried to CAP the $ amount of repairs the seller was willing to make, with the counter from the seller's agent being made in the form of an addendum, which stated that the addendum would override the part of the contract that it addressed. What was AMAZING was that the addendum attempted to "override" sections of the contract that could NOT be overridden, namely the USDA Rural Loan Program requirements that all repairs identified via a USDA appraiser/inspector HAD TO BE MADE and HAD TO PASS another inspection by a USDA representative AFTER all the necessary repairs had been made, including the receipts showing what materials had been purchased for the repairs that had been made. The situation became infuriating when my agent said I needed to see an attorney about the addendum, when I had clearly seen and printed and studied the requirements from the USDA financing website, which I emailed to my agent, who obviously did not read anything I sent her. The USDA Rural Development Loan Program CANNOT be overridden by counters via an illegal addendum that violates the financing and repair requirements of the USDA program, so I was unable to sign this RIDICULOUS addendum that the seller's agent should have had MUCH more sense to not even put into the contract in any shape or form, proving that the seller's agent had a serious knowledge deficit about USDA. Then, in a most bizarre reaction to the addendum by MY AGENT, I was told to contact an attorney and spend $ for NOTHING since I already knew the addendum would not pass muster with USDA, not to mention my lender.. Then my agent "updated" the contract again, and completely omitted my right to my own inspection for reasons unknown to me other than to keep me from discovering yet other problems with the house and to keep the seller's costs down regarding having to fix the house with what my inspector found. Thus my OWN agent had proven that she was not looking out for my interests at all while she clearly violated not only USDA requirements inside the body of the contract, but essentially attempted to invalidate paperwork I had already signed that guaranteed me my own inspection. There was also a question about the seller, who was not listed as the owner of the house. I was lied to, and told that the seller (who turned out to be the wife of the owner) had bought the house herself as a rental property! I turned up evidence that not only had the husband purchased the house, but that he himself had lived in the house. And then, in researching the seller, I discovered that the seller (the wife) was using FOUR DIFFERENT names, and two of the names she signed on the same contract weren't even the same. So, I asked my realtor if this seller had a POA giving her the rights to sell the house, and I received an insulting answer that completely killed the deal and destroyed my trust in this agent and the seller and the seller's agent and I knew at the point that I was walking away as a result of dishonesty, incompetence, along with my own agent abandoning the representation of MY interests over the seller's interests and the seller's agent's interests. And I then told my now-former agent that she could forget it, and that I wasn't looking for another house until at least until after Halloween. From now on, any house I consider buying, will require that the seller prove the truth of the disclosure, prove that the seller has the "right" to sell the house if he/she is not listed as the owner of the house, and I will perform as much research as I need to, before signing anything in order to proceed with purchasing a house in the future.