In rural home purchases, the transaction is often subject to a
satisfactory home inspection being done. Any imperfections are
usually corrected during escrow. Now and then, however, a home
inspection uncovers severe structural problems. What happens
then? Structural Problems ? Small Rural Home With a small rural
home purchase, the discovery of structural problems can be more
problematic. Typically, neither the seller nor buyer has
sufficient funds to undertake major repairs. Still, solutions
such as the following one can be found. The house was a 3
bedroom, one bath, rambler built on a crawl space set on a
one-acre lot in a rural setting. The sellers were a husband and
wife both of who were disabled. I?m not talking about a ?slipped
on a banana peel? trumped up disability here. The husband had
been electrocuted at work, spent 14 days unconscious and
suffered a massive heart attack. The wife suffered from a
progressive problem with arthritis. The buyer was a young widow
with 3 children. The home inspection turned up old termite and
water damage. The termites had been killed and the drainage
problem fixed, but the sill plates and floor joists were
seriously damaged. The floors were somewhat soft and sagged in
various areas. The young widow could not afford and did not want
to deal with the problem. She asked to be released from the
contract. To complicate matters, the husband?s former employer
had declared bankruptcy and had not paid his medical bills. The
husband was borrowing money to pay the bills, but the medical
bills were still growing. The sellers discussed the situation.
They understood the buyer?s point of view, but did not know how
to fix the problem. Their mortgage lender declined to make a
second loan and the sellers didn?t have any savings left. A
business friend suggested the sellers ask a young builder friend
to evaluate the structural damage. The goal was to get a
ballpark idea of the cost to repair before throwing in the
towel. It turned out that the builder couldn?t remedy the
problem because the house needed to be raised to give room for
new sill plates and floor joists. The builder suggested a
house-moving firm make suggestions. The business friend also
gave the sellers the name of a lender who had been useful to
people in uncomfortable circumstances. The sellers contacted the
lender and were able to get the necessary loan. The house moving
firm and builder worked out a reasonable deal and the loan was
used to get the necessary work done. The deal closed, the
sellers paid off the loan, paid down bills and the buyer was
happy. The moral of the story? No matter what happens, don?t get
angry, don?t lose your cool and don?t give up. If you can keep
your head, behave like a reasonable adult, and keep
communication lines open, your chances of holding your deal
together are amazingly good.
About the author:
Raynor James is with
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