Family can't move into house they bought

[tyecopeland]

Story involves covid eviction issue and California law so might end up in dc.

https://www.foxla.com/news/couple-bu...orium-loophole

Added article in spoiler for those who don't like clicking links.

Spoiler!

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - When Tracie and Myles Albert purchased a beautiful four bedroom house in Riverside, California they never realized that at the end of escrow the seller would suddenly refuse to give up the keys and leave.

"It’s just draining, emotionally and financially," says Tracie. On January 31, 2020, the couple purchased the home. More than a year later, they still haven’t been able get inside their property. Chris Taylor is the Real Estate Agent who sold the house to the Alberts from a man who wanted to sell immediately.

"He needed $560,000 from the sale of his house in two weeks and he called me on a Sunday, so in traditional real estate there's no way of doing that unless the buyer’s a cash buyer," says Taylor.

Since the house was free and clear and worth more than $560,000 the Alberts felt it was a great deal.


"It took us scrambling to get everything we had, our life savings put together and a hard money loan on top of it to make that happen," Myles stated.



During escrow they discovered there was a $30,000 tax lien on the house which slowed things down, but in the end, all parties signed on the dotted line and the sale was completed.

"We own the house, outright. That's our house and it's all in a contract, written, legal, done. He's been paid the money in his account. How could we have no rights to go into our home," asked Myles.

FOX 11 News tried to speak with the seller but when reporter Gina Silva knocked and announced herself, no one came to the door.

Taylor says, "It’s genuinely unfathomable to me that we live in a state where something like this is even possible. They closed escrow on this home January 31, 2020." The Alberts and Taylor have contacted authorities and tried to get the seller evicted but because of the pandemic, they’ve gotten nowhere.

"They have this case under a COVID tenant situation, of no evictions when it doesn't fall under that at all. This transaction went through in January 2020 before any of that, it isn't a renter who was getting thrown out. It's the guy who collected all of this money," stated Myles.


Eviction Attorney Dennis Block says, "This year alone, we’ve handled at least 7 maybe 8 cases of this exact type of situation."

He says people purchasing homes need to be extremely cautious, especially if they notice any red flags during the process. Block says what’s happening to the Alberts could happen to anyone.

"This person is not a tenant, it’s a previous owner who is enjoying the benefits of the money that was transferred to his account but of course doesn’t want to move out of the premises that he no longer owns," Block stated.

The Alberts filed an unlawful detainer but because of the California eviction moratorium, the case has been stalled. Time is simply passing by and the immaculate house they fell in love with is now becoming an eyesore.

Tracie says, "I tried watering the lawn one time and he came out and ripped my sprinkler lines, ripped all the wires. The Palm trees are dying, everything was beautiful and everything is dying."

Her frustrated husband says when he contacted law enforcement, they told him, "If you were in Arizona, if you were in Nevada, this wouldn't be a problem, you would just go take your house back. But in California, like our hands are tied, even though we're on your side, there's nothing we can do."

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Does anyone else get home value updates from Zillow? Zillow is loving my house right now. It just shot up almost 15 percent.

These home value estimates are all over the board so I don't put too much stock into them. Redfin is 25 percent lower than Zillow on my house, for example. But I think the Zillow estimate is much closer based on what I see in the neighborhood, and I'm tempted to sell it and go live on a yacht in Bali.

We get those as well. What I get annoyed with is the constant calls, texts, and flyers in the mail from investors trying to buy our house If I want to sell, I will do it when, through whom and for how much I decide.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Yeah, houses have been selling over the asking price in Denver for years. I guess supply just can't catch up with demand, and low interest rates are ramping demand up even higher.

I did a housing study for a city here in Colorado a while back, and we started tracing back what was causing the big increases. To our surprise, we're still feeling impacts from the Great Recession. Construction shut down for a while and population growth didn't. For states with positive in-migrant flows from other areas, it's created a wave of home demand (buying and renting) that keeps getting bigger, and losing basically two years of construction in the 2009/2010 time frame was a big deal that's still reverberating through the market today.

Ft Collins had that issue for a while and Colorado Springs is dealing with it now. I remember reading not too long ago about how the area is suffering a housing shortage as there are just not enough houses on the market and they can't seem to build them fast enough.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

He gone. Guy has to have the record for the most thread bannings in CP history.

Just 86 him for good and we can start telling fun hookup tales in the romper room thread again.

[neech]

Originally Posted by tredadda

We get those as well. What I get annoyed with is the constant calls, texts, and flyers in the mail from investors trying to buy our house.

But they will pay you in cash!

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by vailpass

It would be frigging insane to be trying to buy a house right now. Buyers are offering well above asking price and waiving the inspection just to get an offer accepted. Can you imagine doing that?

We did that when we bought ours a little over a year ago, though I would say we bid slightly above asking. But yeah, we waved the inspection. But that was November 2019 before all this Covid crap started screwing with the market. We did it because our realtor whom we trust advised us to do so. We knew it was a little bit of a gamble but it was the home we had been searching months on end to find.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Lzen

We did that when we bought ours a little over a year ago, though I would say we bid slightly above asking. But yeah, we waved the inspection. But that was November 2019 before all this Covid crap started screwing with the market. We did it because our realtor whom we trust advised us to do so. We knew it was a little bit of a gamble but it was the home we had been searching months on end to find.

I’m glad it worked out for you, it’s great you guys got a house. It’s a definite plus you had a realtor you trusted.

It seems too risky to me but if I needed a house I might feel different. It’s so nuts right now. Houses here are getting multiple offers within an hour of listing and being sold the same day. Californians and Canadians.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Does anyone else get home value updates from Zillow? Zillow is loving my house right now. It just shot up almost 15 percent.

These home value estimates are all over the board so I don't put too much stock into them. Redfin is 25 percent lower than Zillow on my house, for example. But I think the Zillow estimate is much closer based on what I see in the neighborhood, and I'm tempted to sell it and go live on a yacht in Bali.

Wow! That is crazy. I just looked at my home on Zillow. We have only lived here about a year and a third. Zillow estimate is 36% higher than we paid.

[Bugeater]

Jeezus, my Zestimate has gone up $9244 in the past 30 days. Unfortunately the only person that benefits from all this is the county assessor.

[tredadda]

According to Zillow my house has gone up by over $100,000 since we bought in early 2018. And to think it's viewed as an "old" home by Colorado Springs standards and it was only built in 1997.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by vailpass

I’m glad it worked out for you, it’s great you guys got a house. It’s a definite plus you had a realtor you trusted.

It seems too risky to me but if I needed a house I might feel different. It’s so nuts right now. Houses here are getting multiple offers within an hour of listing and being sold the same day. Californians and Canadians.

I think low interest rates have as much to do with it as those two groups.

[vonBobo]

Originally Posted by Lzen

We did that when we bought ours a little over a year ago, though I would say we bid slightly above asking. But yeah, we waved the inspection. But that was November 2019 before all this Covid crap started screwing with the market. We did it because our realtor whom we trust advised us to do so. We knew it was a little bit of a gamble but it was the home we had been searching months on end to find.

Me too. Closed Sept 2019.
The homes that were available:
1: had too many problems and the asking price plus repairs didn't make sense.
2: had too many problems, exhausted roofs, old HVAC, old windows and doors, etc. But Iif there was fresh paint people appeared to overlook all the problems and pay asking price.
3: priced accordingly and sold for more than asking price by noon.

After my realtor drug me to 40 houses sifting through junk to make my dreams come true, I finally had to go all in plus to snag a house that would work ok but didn't check my main needs. Happy to have it now, but it was a compromise

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Jeezus, my Zestimate has gone up $9244 in the past 30 days. Unfortunately the only person that benefits from all this is the county assessor.

I challenged that a year ago. Saying I had done no improvements to my new house their valuation went up 20% They will tax us out of our houses someday

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

I challenged that a year ago. Saying I had done no improvements to my new house their valuation went up 20% They will tax us out of our houses someday

They're working on it here as well, my valuation went up $70k this year, a 30% increase. I'm fighting it, but with the way the market is going...it might not be that far off from reality.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by vailpass

It would be frigging insane to be trying to buy a house right now. Buyers are offering well above asking price and waiving the inspection just to get an offer accepted. Can you imagine doing that?

I was a Realtor for over a decade and I would never recommend this. Pretty bad financial decision.

The housing market is on a huge bubble. Rent for a year and then buy when prices go down.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

I was a Realtor for over a decade and I would never recommend this. Pretty bad financial decision.

The housing market is on a huge bubble. Rent for a year and then buy when prices go down.

I'm thinking the same thing...it can't maintain this pace. I love the place we're in now but damn, we could make a killing off of selling now...