First Time Buying a House, A Horrors Tale

[spherica]

After reading 12noons renovations, and IMing with another fellow that just bught a new house I thought I would share my first time TRYING to buy a house.

I had moved to Alberta, after being transerred to a new division while being a mechanic. I had looked around for rentals, and came across a rather good deal on ahouse, was nice looking, needed a little bit of work, but the price was good.

So I contacted the lady from the Realestate agency (sorry a per legal, can't reply on which one, and it really doesn't matter)

I gave her the deposit of $2700, she was really helpful on getting a morgage. She came to the banks with me, but unfortunaly I had never had a credit card before and thus no go, due to NO credit.

So when it was all done and had no chance at getting the house, I asked here for my deposit back. This is where it gerts good, well bad.

She had told me that due to a tempory secritary that was fired for missing funds, my money had been stolen, but if I could wait a few day, I would be re-embursed. So I waited a week or so, and called her again, she said the money hadn't been recovered yet, but would only be few more day. Things started burning in my brain.

So I gave it 1 more week. Called her again, and still the same song and dance. SO finally my bad temper got the best of me. I stolled on into that realestatem agency and DEMANDED to talk to the manager. I was cursing and freaking. $2700 is a lot of cash to be with out, specially when you have 2 kids, and still looking for a rental.

When the manager finally came out to talk to me I stated, "Whether my money was stolen or not from some temp, I can't see you guys not having money to pay me back what was given for the down payment"  He kind of looked at me funny and asked what the hell I was talking about.

I told him the whole story, AND showed him the recipt for the 2700. He left the room for about 5 minutes, came back and asked me to follow him. He asked me to double check photos that were on the wall of employees and point to the woman, so I did. He immedialty took me over to the secretary, whispered something to her, the next thing I know I had a check in my hand and was asked not to go to the media and signed something. Of course afgter looking at the check I hyad no trouble signing anything. The check was for a conciderable amount more. I got a call a while later saying that the agent had used the money for personal use, which means she stole it, actually never turned it in, and had been fired.

To this day I have still not bought a house.

[Queen Bee]

Wow, what a story. Sorry you had to go through all that trouble, but it's nice to see you were recompensed (Even though it was probably not worth it).

My house story is a bit different, but not too interesting. We ended up paying about $15,000 over market value for it, and to top it off it also needed a bit of work (Which ended up costing even more because we got poor and/or overpriced workmen to do the jobs.) I don't even want to go into how several of them ended quitting and dragging a few of our belongings with them....

Anyway, it worked out alright because the area we're living in has gone way up in value, and we'll end up getting much more than we originally payed. Not too bad

[12noon]

I was very lucky when i bought my house 3 years ago. I managed to get it £5000 less than the asking price and the lady who was selling it to me also paid for a new roof putting on it.
 
In the 3 years i've had my house, the price of it has trebled. It's now worth 3 times what it was when i bought it.

[SensoVision]

wow man, that was a fascinating story, I'm glad you get your money back and hope amount of the check was much more bigger than original one. BTW could going to media could bring you more money or it's only happen on films(I really don't know how law is working there and is there any reason to make noise about happening, as here it wouldn't help at all).
BTW I'm glad I didn't have to buy a house yet, anyway I have no money for even small one yet

[Queen Bee]

BTW could going to media could bring you more money or it's only happen on films

Hmm... I don't know. I guess you'd say "I have some juicy news on this real estate agency, and I want $123456 for it." That might work

[spherica]

the minute I signed that document, I probably could have been sent to jail. Plus the amount I got was pleasing enough, especially at the time.

[susieq]

Yes, I know where you're coming from.....on buying this house, I moved in and immediately needed another water heater, then  the roof was leaking (only of course when it rains - I was informed) on the inside of the verandah....and it can be those endless little jobs that take the finanancial toll 

Taken from Reply#7 Home Improvements

[Andy]

How is the real estate market in your areas of the world lately?

In the UK the house prices have gone up alot in the last few years like around 3 times in 10 years. But now 1st time buyers are struggling to borrow enough money. The government are keeping interest rates low to keep voters happy. Lenders are ignoring incomes with self-certification mortgages so you can borrow any amount regardless of income. The buy-to-let industry is booming. Investment in equities (shares) is not popular. Retirement planning is poor. There is talk of a credit bubble burst (the average credit-card debt is approx crazy £8,000). Mothers begin age 12. Compensation culture rife. We are paying benefits to people who oppose British way of life. etc...

Buying houses is a big issue world wide that opens up many areas of interest for discussion.