Settlements and Suckers (?)

So I left another cliff-hanger on my last post, but my lack of follow-up has not been to build suspense (for all 6 of my readers) but because events and details have been constantly unfolding and taking all spare time that could otherwise be applied to writing. At this point we are in a holding pattern so I have time to catch things up.

Let me start with last summer when Eli and I flew to St. Louis for a whirlwind 2 day house hunting trip. We arrived in St. Louis at around 9am on a Friday, and in just one day we saw 11 different houses stretching over about a 20 mile area along the I-55 corridor South of St. Louis proper. We had allowed 2 days for this, but our realtor had suggested seeing as many on possible on Friday so that we could then have Saturday to make decisions or see more properties. It would turn out that our realtor would have many suggestions, and direct us in many ways, but I will get to that. I should also mention that I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant during this trip.

So we saw the houses. And most were out of the question, horribly dilapidated, outdated, damp or even dangerous. Perhaps 3 were possible, with only 2 real contenders. We knew with our budget that we were not going to have the creme de la creme to look at, but it was still very stressful. The realtor only showed us properties that were listed by her office, which also narrowed the field. After looking at all 11, we returned to the realtor's office to discuss our options. We mentioned the one that we felt was an actual option, and in short order we found ourselves making an offer on the house. It is not fair to say we were pushed, but given the situation and looking in retrospect I do think we were leaned on to some extent. Of course, we contributed to the situation ourselves because of our abbreviated timetable, but I do not think our best interests were being looked after by anyone involved.

So we made an offer, and with very little trouble it was accepted. We left St. Louis knowing that the next step would be the inspection and that we could still walk away if something bad turned up. The inspection report was given to us about 10 days later, and we were sent into another stressful situation. The house was built in 1967, and not surprisingly there were many things that were not updated. There was quite a laundry list of small, reasonable items, but three issues that caused great concern. 1) The roof was shot. 2) There was evidence that at some point the house had been treated for termites. 3) The inspector noted 1 foundation crack on the front of the house, and noted it as a facade crack.

We did not know what to do. I was sick at the prospect of trying to look for a new house less than 3 weeks before we were supposed to move, money was already tight and Eli still had work obligations to take care of. We talked to various people about the items on the report and ultimately came to the conclusion that we would require the roof be replaced by the sellers, require a history (with documentation) about the termite treatment as we were informed that is was from many years ago and there had been no recurrences, and finally, after strong suggestions from our realtor, a letter from the seller attesting that the crack listed on the inspection report had cause no water or settlement issues. All of these requirements were met and we continued with the sale.

So, fast forward a few weeks and find me, now 7 1/2 months pregnant, in the house alone while Eli was back in Baltimore finishing his work. Between moving in and that week I was alone we discovered the following issues that were not reported on the inspection: The en suite half bath toilet did not work, the master bedroom ceiling fan did not work, the master bedroom window was TAPED IN, the kitchen sink had a considerable leak, the garbage disposal did not work, the water line for the refrigerator ice maker did not work, half the outlets in the basement were not properly anchored in the walls, the downstairs sliding glass door (which they replaced before we moved in) had no working lock, and there was a hole in the finished portion of the basement ceiling. Now would also be a good time to mention that the owners mysteriously locked the keys inside the house on the day we were to close, and because the locksmith couldn't be reached, we did not get to do the customary walk-through before closing. So all these issues were discovered while we were unpacking or by me once Eli had returned to Baltimore. I called the realtor during that week and expressed my frustration about these issues, and my feelings that we had been misled about the condition of the house, and she basically told me my only option was to take it up with the inspector.

A couple of weeks after that we started noticing that when it rained we would get a tiny puddle of water in the unfinished portion of our basement. Eli tore down a section of peg board that had been put up as part of a workbench, and found a large crack in the wall- not the crack mentioned by the inspector, but another crack all together. We also found evidence of past water damage on the bottom of the peg board. We were both livid. We discussed taking the previous owners to court. We discussed the responsibility of the inspector, and even the realtor, who we had since found out had an unethical connection to the house. The seller's sister worked in the realtor's office. We discussed all these things and felt stupid and naive and like we had a sign reading "SUCKER" hung around our neck. We decided that we would have too hard a time proving fraud to go to court, and no money to spend on legal fees to even begin.

Fast forward again to Halloween of 2009. Halloween is our favorite holiday. We were so excited to spend the entire weekend in that mode, and couldn't wait to take pictures of Will in his bee costume. The week leading up to Halloween we had a historic amount of rain. Something like 13 + inches in 4 days. That Friday morning I got up as usual, and prepped my little bag of stuff to carry down with Will (who was barely 1 month old) and settle into the basement where we were spending most of our time at that point. I walked down the stairs and saw a large puddle of water in the unfinished part of the basement. It annoyed me, but didn't concern me because of our previous discovery. Then I walked into the finished area of our basement. I turned the lights on and discovered half of the finished basement was sitting in anywhere from 1-3 inches of water. I was so overwhelmed and upset. I called Eli and told him to hurry home and put Will in his playpen bassinet. I then began the task of retrieving both of our computers (still plugged in and running) from the standing water. Our cardboard file boxes of paid bills and other important documents, both our desks, our mini-fridge, 3 bookcases, and various other items were also standing in the water. I hauled and cried, and then Will began to cry. I couldn't pick him up because of the nasty water covering me, so at 1 month old he had to cry himself to sleep for the first time. It was horrible. Eli made it home in record time, stopping on the way to pick up a shop vac from Lowes. We spent the rest of the day sucking up water and trying to salvage our belongings. I don't think either of us have ever felt so horrible.

We talked to our insurance company, and found that such water damage is not covered by our policy. We also were told that many, many peoples' basements were flooding, and that it was more to do with the historic amount of rain than anything else. So once again we sucked it up and tried to make the best of it.

Fast forward a few more weeks to Thanksgiving, and we had a water problem of another sort. Our sewer line began backing up into our basement. As we found out later, the previous owners had also had problems with this, and instead of hiring a professional to correct the problem, they got a friend to come over with a bobcat and tried to fix it themselves. Clearly that did not work. So we had to have a plumber come out and snake the line, and discovered that they had run the wrong type of connector out to the main sewer line, and that it would have to be replaced if we wanted our entire line snaked. So we spent Thanksgiving weekend with plumbers digging in our yard and the shop vac sucking up the worst kind of yuck from around our basement drain. Thankfully the backup did not get far from the drain and none of our things were contaminated.

After that catastrophe things did calm down considerably. We did have to have a tech come out and do some work on our heater, but I believe that was routine maintenance. On top of the cost of the sewer line repair and basement cleanup, we took on several projects to improve the house over this last year. We replaced all the upstairs windows with super energy efficient windows, we replaced the broken ceiling fan in our room (we had the toilet repaired and the kitchen sink taken care of within two weeks of moving in), we added 5 feet of base cabinets and counter top in the kitchen, and a range hood was added over the stove top. We have done what we could to make the house better.

This brings us to present, specifically to the 9th of this month. Eli and I had gone downstairs that Thursday night after Will went to sleep so we could watch some television and relax. It had been raining most of the day, so on our way up at the end of the night we checked on the exposed crack in the unfinished part of the basement. Noticing it was leaking more than usual I went back into the finished area and found a small amount of water pooling at our baseboard. Eli and I were so upset. Eli immediately began preparing to attack the exposed crack with hydraulic cement, and we made the decision for me to cut away some of the drywall in the finished area to try and see what was going on back there. I grabbed one of Eli's wood chisels and set to work, only to find that I kept running into wood. I had specifically chosen the spots to cut in order to avoid hitting studs, so I didn't understand why I kept finding wood. Eventually I pulled off a strip of baseboard and chipped away at the drywall at that bottom of the wall. I uncovered two things- 1) the previous sellers when finishing the basement had backed the drywall (or just used drywall to cover) old 1/4 inch paneling, which kept the drywall from showing water damage and 2) the paneling was covered in mold. I stopped what I was doing to avoid uncovering any more mold, and Eli and I decided to start calling foundation repair companies the next day. We knew it would be expensive, but we also knew we couldn't allow things to continue as they were.

So here we are, almost 2 weeks later, and no work has been done. We have had 3 estimates ranging between $12,550 and $17,000 to repair what has universally been recognized as "significant foundation settlement". The foundation is cracked on both sides of the house and half my house is sliding down the hill it is situated on. This is horrible news, but made worse (yes it is possible) by the fact that we do not have the cash to correct this problem, and being in the house only 14 months have not nearly enough equity for a home equity loan. I don't know if you dear readers are aware, but we are in a recession, and the banks have all but eliminated most types of personal loans, and majorly reduced the maximum for home improvement loans. So we have one option available to us: a HUD backed 203(k) loan, typically utilized by companies rehabbing multi-dwelling structures. It is a loan program established to allow buyers to update and maintain the country's existing housing inventory. It is actually a wonderful type of loan, because it will allow us to finance based on the future value of the home after the repairs are made. However, in order to get this loan, our house has to appraise at a certain value in order for us to be able to get the money we need. If it appraises too low, we don't get the loan and we are out the $400 for the appraisal. This is very scary, because while we did at least pay less than the appraised value of the house last year, the market in this area has continued to decline, and all home values are down. If this option does not work out for us, we do not know what we will do next.

So writing all of this, and then reading it back, I feel like a huge sucker. There are so many points where I know you would say, "well you should have done something then" or "you should have known by this" and it makes me feel sick. We are not stupid people. I think we may have been a bit naive to put our trust so completely in the realtor, and all the other people associated (recommended by the realtor) but we are not stupid. We did as much as we could possibly do remotely. I did research on the area, we both read articles on things to look for, we carefully reviewed the inspection report, such as it was. Despite all of that we were taken advantage of. In getting these estimates and talking to countless banks and mortgage companies, two points have been raised time and again. The foundation people have all agreed that this damage was concealed purposefully, to the point the one contractor has offered to serve as an expert witness at no charge should we decide to pursue a legal case. The other is that we were maneuvered by a shady realtor. One loan officer guessed who our realtor was without me providing and specific information, and I when I confirmed her guess she said "That realtor is a terrible person, and if you want me to I will contact a lawyer who works with us to see what kind of case you have." Evidently the realtor is purported to work unethically at the expense of new home buyers. It just figures that we would end up with such a person after trying so hard to be smart. I can't decide if I feel better or worse knowing that we aren't the only ones to fall into this trap.

Anyway, enough of this for now. We will be dealing with this process for the next several weeks, possibly months, and I cannot dwell on it constantly or I will make myself sick. So we are going on with life. We have taken precautions to make sure that the tiny amount of exposed mold is contained, and Will does not go into the basement at all now. I am trying to do normal things with him and for myself so I am not dominated by this situation. Luckily, we have a very special birthday to celebrate this Saturday, so I can focus on that, the turtle cake I plan to make, and the friends we are having over for the occasion. That is the best we can do for now.