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."

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

had a voice mail saying they were looking to buy my house. It was just a spam call. Never gave any specifics.

I figure that any business calling to buy your home wants to give you a below-market offer so they can flip it for the market value. No way would I sell to a business.

That said, I know someone who (long ago) got a letter from an individual that said, "We want to buy a house in your neighborhood. Are you considering selling?" It turned out that my acquaintances had been pondering a move and hadn't told anyone. They ended up selling the house and moving.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

It is called Foreclosure. There will be a Lot of them in the coming years when all the free money dries up and hyperinflation fully kicks in.

Nah, they'll go to Short Sales long before foreclosures, especially if you're talking $750k and above.

[tyecopeland]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

We bought at last house in 2001. Houses were moving fast. when the market "crashed" in 2007-8, we still could have sold our house for more than what we bought it. Sure, not as much of a profit, but still with equity.

Rode it out, refinanced. Waited and sold at a good time when our development started. Don't think you ever really lose on a house unless the areas around you go to hell for some reason.

I bought my first house in 2009. It was one of the better houses in a white trash neighborhood. Lived in it for 4-5 years then rented it out for a couple of years. Ended up selling it for almost exactly what I paid for it. But even then when you factor in what I would have spent renting for 4 years I came out ahead.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Inspections. Not appraisals.

Appraisals are ordered by the financing company but pre-Zillow/Trulia/Redifin, I paid for a few appraisals out of pocket for a few properties I considering purchasing.

As for inspections, they aren't the end all, either. We hired a supposedly "great" firm to do the inspection on our home but the guy missed all kinds of stuff, including a super leaky flat roof, a balcony that leaked into our laundry room and all kinds of electrical that wasn't even close to code.

When I asked our realtor about this crap six months after purchase, he said that there's nothing the inspector could have done because they're not allowed to perform any leak detection or electrical inspections.

Fortunately, we found all of the issues early on because we basically tore it down to stud, which is probably the same plan for those that are purchasing without inspections as well.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by tyecopeland

I bought my first house in 2009. It was one of the better houses in a white trash neighborhood. Loved in it for 4-5 years then rented it out for a couple of years. Ended up selling it for almost exactly what I paid for it. But even then when you factor in what I would have spent renting for 4 years I came out ahead.

Plus, the mortgage interest write-off is worth it on its own.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

When I bought my house 25 years ago, I stood on the front porch and noticed a sign up on the corner. "What does it mean that we're in a historic district?" I asked my Realtor.

It was sheer luck, but it's awesome. There's notable redevelopment to our west and our southeast, but nothing can change in our neighborhood. So we get the benefits of development in terms of services and property values, and we have no risk of someone wanting to plunk a high-rise down on our block. Plus, the development is eliminating single-family homes in favor of multi-family, which decreases the supply of houses like mine.

When we bought ours 20 years ago, the back of our lot was adjoined to a golf course on the right and federally protected wetlands on the left. I don't play or give a shit about golf, but it was a much better view than the backs of other homes. In fact, we paid an extra $5,000 for it in the purchase price.

Unfortunately, the golf course was poorly run and had mob ties. One day they rather foolishly saw fit to have a hooker/stripper event, which involved scantily to non-clad women wandering the course (I was at work that day and missed it). But several residents complained, and from that point on the city was up their asses like a rocket. Not long afterward the liquor license for the clubhouse was pulled, and from that point on the course deteriorated and eventually went under. I hoped that someone else would take over, but instead it was sold to developers, and now there are houses there. The only good part is the area closest to us is too low and marshy for buildings, so there aren't houses right on top of us; but still, the nice view is history and instead I see the backs of homes a couple of hundred yards distant. And of course there will be no reimbursement coming for the loss of our view from our original builders, an LLC which ceased to exist as soon as our neighborhood was completed.

[tyecopeland]

Zillow has never had my current (soon to be former) house priced correctly and has fluctuated like crazy in the time Ive been in it. But since January of 2020 when it was shown at its lowest, its gone up 45% in valuation according to them. Thats about where it was actually appraised for 6 years ago though.

The house I bought at auction in August, was shown on zillow for 50% more than what I paid, but appraised at only 10% more. Zillow shows that it went way down in value when I bought it but climbed back up past its peak in the last 3 months. Im a few months away from getting it appraised again for a new loan for more improvements.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by neech

Well good luck with that, in many cases I’ve heard you need an appraisal paid by you to get them to budge. I don’t know what they cost these days.

Our home was just appraised two years ago when we purchased it. They know what we paid for it, they know what the condition was because the pictures were available online for over a year. They have no goddamn excuses. But I certainly don't have my hopes up too much with values skyrocketing the way they are.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

A lot of the homes are being purchased by investors because the interest rates are so ridiculously low right now.



Yeah but that's bound to happen when you're pricing out millions of people from affordable homes.

That makes a lot of sense then.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I think that interest rates will "rise" at some point but it won't be to levels that we saw around the year 2000, in which they're 6%-9%.

I'd be surprised if they even reach 4% before the end of the decade because it would leave millions homeless and without the ability to own a home.

Agreed. I believe these ridiculously low rates can't last forever, but at the same time high rates would be even more devastating and lead to economic bloodshed as well. 4% seems like a good balance.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Frazod

When we bought ours 20 years ago, the back of our lot was adjoined to a golf course on the right and federally protected wetlands on the left. I don't play or give a shit about golf, but it was a much better view than the backs of other homes. In fact, we paid an extra $5,000 for it in the purchase price.

Unfortunately, the golf course was poorly run and had mob ties. One day they rather foolishly saw fit to have a hooker/stripper event, which involved scantily to non-clad women wandering the course (I was at work that day and missed it). But several residents complained, and from that point on the city was up their asses like a rocket. Not long afterward the liquor license for the clubhouse was pulled, and from that point on the course deteriorated and eventually went under. I hoped that someone else would take over, but instead it was sold to developers, and now there are houses there. The only good part is the area closest to us is too low and marshy for buildings, so there aren't houses right on top of us; but still, the nice view is history and instead I see the backs of homes a couple of hundred yards distant. And of course there will be no reimbursement coming for the loss of our view from our original builders, an LLC which ceased to exist as soon as our neighborhood was completed.

I like watching those shows on HGTV where people are shopping from homes in different cities. There'll sometimes be comments made like, "this is open space so there'll never be houses there".

I don't trust those statements. Things change all the time. Unless it's a national park, and maybe even then, it just takes a vote of a random council or committee to change things.

On that same note, it just takes a vote to eliminate our historic district around our house. I hope it'll be around for my lifetime at a minimum, but it wouldn't shock me if some powerful developer eventually screws the district over.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

He stated Both in his post.

Sorry, I thought you were replying to my post.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

It is called Foreclosure. There will be a Lot of them in the coming years when all the free money dries up and hyperinflation fully kicks in.

Man I hope you are wrong on that. No good can come from that economically. The last time we had a huge rash of foreclosures the market tanked.

On another note why would there be a rash of foreclosures when people are getting into loans at low rates? The last crash if I remember correctly had people financing at much higher rates. It would lead me to believe that with people locking in low rates they would be more able to afford their loan long-term.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I like watching those shows on HGTV where people are shopping from homes in different cities. There'll sometimes be comments made like, "this is open space so there'll never be houses there".

I don't trust those statements. Things change all the time. Unless it's a national park, and maybe even then, it just takes a vote of a random council or committee to change things.

On that same note, it just takes a vote to eliminate our historic district around our house. I hope it'll be around for my lifetime at a minimum, but it wouldn't shock me if some powerful developer eventually screws the district over.

We were first time homeowners, and certainly learned some lessons from the weasels we bought from. The most important is that sellers are only interested in selling. A few things they told us about the area that were beyond their control ended up being pie in the sky. We're still here, and I'm generally happy with the house and location, but if the time ever does come to relocate I'll damned sure know what questions to ask and what answers to question.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Frazod

We were first time homeowners, and certainly learned some lessons from the weasels we bought from. The most important is that sellers are only interested in selling. A few things they told us about the area that were beyond their control ended up being pie in the sky. We're still here, and I'm generally happy with the house and location, but if the time ever does come to relocate I'll damned sure know what questions to ask and what answers to question.

Gonna need some deets here.

I recently caught some sellers who turned out to be pretty untrustworthy IMO.

"We cleaned the sewer line. It looks good!"

Plumber: "Yeah this is going to cost you $6k to fix."