Real Estate Blog - In a court of law....Is it a 5 BR/2car garage, or a 4 BR w/a secret room in the garage?

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In a court of law....Is it a 5 BR/2car garage, or a 4 BR w/a secret room in the garage?

In a court of law....Is it a 5 BR/2car garage, or a 4 BR w/a secret room in the garage?

AND THERE REALLY IS, NO ROOM IN THE GARAGE FOR A CAR - PERIOD!

How well does the information on the MLS sheets hold up and the pictures they post?

At the end of ours it says that - "Information is deemed accurate but not warranted."

SO - If the picture shows a fridge and there isn't one there, if there is supposed to be a pool filtration system and someone decided to break in and steal it, if the DW is there, but doesn't work.

EVEN BETTER: If is says its a 5 bedroom, 2 car garage...and it's a 4 bedroom with a strange box framed inside the garage and it has no closet - it's a 4 bedroom - RIGHT? and in this case there is no garage.

The listing says 5 BR/3BATH/2 CAR GARAGE...NOT, 5 bedroom - secret bedroom behind existing garage...so there really is no garage but there is a secret room there with no windows, no closet and no bathroom even relatively close...Listing is very misleading...

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THE LISTING AGENT - My customer is in the process of making an offer.

http://www.KarenMonsour.com, 954-464-4194

Posted by Karen Monsour,REALTOR® Broward,Palm Beach,Miami/Dade! 954-464-4194 anytime! on 11/08/2009 10:43 PM

Comments (24)

Untrue Listings and the Rediculous Agent in the ActiveRain Channel

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24 Comments on In a court of law....Is it a 5 BR/2car garage, or a 4 BR w/a secret room in the garage?

NOV

Some agents are more offended that you question them their misrepresenation of facts in marketing. Their comments to an agent questioning them "What's your problem?"

Jim,

Yes, so how do I handle comps, etc. in this situation? It's really a 4/3 without a funtionable garage with a strange room inside the garage. There is no garage and this room inside the garage has is taking up 2/3rds of the garage.

Comps are good no matter how you look at it, however it is an REO and she is not representing this property to the REO company nor us looking on the MLX.

Yeah someone needs to tell them they have gone beyond puffing and are misrepresenting the property.

But if you are about to write an offer for your client then it shouldn't be you or anyone in your office.

Just write the offer. If it's significant less then the list price you may want to run the true comps and let them know that your buyer views this as a 4bedroom, no car garage with a bonus room and here is the reason why.

Good luck.

Brian,

My customer wants the walls in the garage taken down and the garage put back in place.

I doubt there were permits on this room.

Thanks for your advice. It's an REO - who knows if they know the situation.

NOV

Their surprise comes when the property doesn't appraise. Buyer's agents need to be truthful to their buyers about these descriptions too.

My favorite has always been the 5th "bedroom" in the basement. It's often an interior room in a townhome with no window.

We need a new "feature" that says "cell".

LOL at Lenn's comment on cell.

I go by what it is....I tell the sellers we are going to be truthful or it will come back to bite us.

If something needs an explanation then we can add it in remarks or on the brochure we leave in the home.

Sometimes a formal dining room can be used for an office but it is not both at the same time but I see this too.

I just sent a friendly note to our MLS director in my area about this. I showed 6 homes saturday, and 2 of them were listed as 3 or 4 bedroom homes and they only had 2 bedrooms finished! The other bedrooms were only framed in!

Maybe the disclaimer "Information is deemed accurate but not warranted." would save an agents butt in court, but the local Board and MLS (not to mention the code of ethics) should kick their butt for misrepresenting it. It sure would have saved me an hour or two this weekend!

Karen, I would not worry about the listing agent, I would be sure that my buyers verify all facts that are important to them and not go by what the listing agent put in MLS. If the picture shows a fridge and there is not one...this one comes up all of the time....if your buyer makes an offer and it includes a frig and the seller accepts, then there is a frig, same for pool filtration system, this is where you as the buyers agents need to be very specific when presenting an offer.

I am 100% positive that there are mistakes somewhere on every listing entered into MLS, some are just WAY worse than others :)

LOL @ Lenn's cell comment as well.

Missy, this is not my listing. this is one I showed and we are offering on. Thanks for the comments.

Daniel,

This is absolutely rediculous, we have a place on our MLS where you can report errors on the MLS.

Jeff,

Yes, I wrote a very specific offer with very specific requests/specifications with the offer. We will see - by tomorrow afternoon.

Karen, somehow I knew that you had it covered!!! :) Best of luck!

Jeff,

Thank you. Will let you know the "end of the story!"

So do we, however my MLS here says that they do not have an "offical definition of a bedroom" so there is no way to verify or enforce such statement. What a load of c*&^!!!

Perhaps it was an attempt by the Realtor to have the property come up in more MLS searches. I don't know what your 5 bedroom inventory is like down there. I can honestly say we have about none here.

I once recieved and offer with a letter from the agent, and a whole bunch of comps saying that their offer was what it was because of the following. It wasn't accepted and I was being bullied but the idea could work if it comes to that.

Sounds like the agent is just hedging his bets and hope for the best.

Well, you could dig out your Code of Ethics and point out the section that talks about misrepresentation. What do these people think, that you are going to get to the house and not notice that it is nothing like the desrcription?

NOV

Daniel,

In Florida, you need a window and a closet to call it a bedroom. It's a creepy room and part of our offer, we requested it be removed and the garage put back in working order as - a garage.

David,

We have LOTS of homes here with more than 4 bedrooms - we even have a Penthouse condo with 15 bedrooms...we have whatever you want - for the most part down here...

We have mansions on Billionaires row - AKA the Hillsboro Mile that look more like hotels than homes.

We have home on the the way out of Port Everglades with 22 bedrooms....it's only listed at $28M.

Gene,

She has since changed....her listing and the pictures associated with the property - however, I still have the original that I pulled off of the MLS.

Janna,

As I said to Gene above, she has since edited her listing...I could have sent in a complaint to the board - I chose to wait and see if she fixed it. She did - sort of...

NOV

Wow. What an interesting situation. Enjoyed the blog.....

NOV

Karen.... seems to me if they are claiming 5 bedrooms then they need to have parenthese that the 5th bedroom occupies the garage space..... unless of course they DO have a bed on one side and a car parked on the other side....... kind of like a "mother-in-laws" room, but for a really disliked mother-n-law.

Also, I was always taught that if the room did not have a closet, then it was not considered a bedroom.

Sean

Sean,

The room in the garage is a 11X11 box without a window or a closet. A bedroom requires a window and a closet.

We made and offer and I think the bank took it, we got paperwork back today from the bank and they accepted our terms...one addendum - requires that so called room to be removed and the garage put back into a working garage.

:-)

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