Re: HR, which attny. told you that? … - Posted by Vic
Posted by Vic on May 27, 2000 at 21:52:18:
Hal,
Your points are well taken & I can see your concern.
First, before I respond to your concerns though, let me metnion, that I did not read his book from cover to cover. I did however skim through it about a month ago, mainly because the title caught my attention. I wanted to get the main gist of it, which I’m pretty sure I did. I thought his technique was interesting, but it wasn’t something that made me say, “Wow, I’ve got to try this”. To me it just seemed like another technique to sell a house. Maybe because I’m in the biz & have seen so many ads proclaiming so many different techniques that I just thought, oh well, here’s another one. I just kind of put it in the back of my mind.
I would think that your concerns about not doing what you said in your ad (mainly not selling), would lend themselves more to being accused of false advertising (if even that) as opposed to being locked into a real estate contract that you don’t want. If this is your concern, I would think that all you would have to do, is do like some of the auctions do & have a reserve price. If your min. price isn’t met then you don’t sell. (I’m not sure if this would violate the rules of the book, but if I was going to use this technique I would defenitely want to make this a condition, just in case some idiot decided to report you for false advertising).
I would also print up a sheet that lists the terms & conditions of the sale & explain how the auction works. I would list the conditions in such a way that you always have an out if you want one. In other words, insert some weasel clauses like you might use in a purchase agmt. I’m sure you can think of many such weasel clauses that you could insert into this “terms of sale” sheet that you would give to potential buyers. Some that come to mind besides the reserve price, are you must receive a certain # of offers in order for the auction to be official. Perhaps another weasel clause could be that the buyer agrees to buy the house in “as is” condition with no repairs. Perhaps another clause could be that the high bidder must meet all of “your” financial qualifications in order for there to be a successful auction, and so on. I think you get the point.
Let me ask you a couple of questions to kind of put this into perspective:
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What happens if the highest bidder doesn’t qualify to get a loan for the purchase? What happens then? In a situation like this, wouldn’t you then have a way out? Wouldn’t you then not be selling to the highest bidder? Could you be accused of false advertising? Of course you can be accused, but would it stand up? I think not.
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What if you accept the highest offer, and later after inspections the buyer asks you to make certain repairs that you really don’t want to - does this mean that you couldn’t tell him no, because if you did & the deal fell apart, could he then accuse you of not acting in good faith? Again, I think not.
Now I understand your concerns about not wanting to spend all your time in court. But isn’t it true that if somebody wanted to, they could sue you for just about anything. Just by being in this biz, you put yourself at risk everyday of being sued. It seems to be the nature of the biz. I do agree that you should do everything you can to avoid being sued, & that’s why I reccommended that “terms of sale” sheet.
The bottom line though is that if someone decides they want to sue you, for whatever reason, there’s not much you can do to stop them. This can also happen when a property is sold the normal way. Fortunately though, the costs involved with a lawsuit will stop most folks, before they get too far, especially if you have good documentation. I think the key is that you deal fairly with people, make sure you have your paperwork in order & don’t try to deceive anyone. Even though I’ve only met you a couple of times, you certainly seem honest & so I’m sure you already do all of this.
The situation with all that junk (I mean worldly possessions) is interesting. I’ll give you my take on it. If the lease was only verbal, as apparently it was, then you have nothing to worry about. A verbal lease in La. is considered month to month. That means that if a tenant doesn’t pay on the lease as agreed, then whatever the eviction process is in relation to stuff left behind would apply here (I’m not real sure what the eviction process calls for in regards to this). Since the lease was not recorded, then how would you know what the terms called for? Therefore, how could you be responsible. You had no knowledge. The way I see it, it definitely goes back to either Fred or Barbara.
In your purchase agmt. was any mention made of the lease or was any mention made of what to do with this stuff? If not, then I think you’re probably OK. I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over this. I think you’re OK. I mean all you did was get rid of stuff that you thought was left behind that nobody wanted. Seems like common sense to me.
Let me ask you this though, if that was everything that the woman owned, how did she survive the last few mos. without it? Surely she knew that the property was being sold, right? If not, where has she been?
I think if this went to court, there is a good chance that the judge would say that no lease existed at all, at least not while you were the owner. All you can do with situations like this is shake your head & wonder how people get by from day to day.
Let me know how this turns out. I have a feeling that it will just fizzle out. She’s probably just lying anyway.
One of the good things about this biz is that it’s never dull. Every deal is so different & you never stop learning.
If you decide to do that 5 day sale thing, let me know how it turns out. I’d be real int’d in seeing how it works.
Before I did it though, I’d consider the type of buyer you would attract. If that property is in a bad area, it might be best just to sell it the regular way cuz you’d probably have a hard time finding qualified buyers anyhow. That means you might need 2 bazillion offers to get it sold instead of one.
Oh well, another interesting day.
Hope some of this helps.
Vic