Okay, so picture a 54 year old, 5'2" well-dressed female Realtor running down a bank of damp red clay yelling "stop!" at the top of her lungs as a mightly bulldozer crushes it's way through what was supposed to be her client's back yard.  All I can say is thank goodness she wasn't wearing Manalo Blaniks!  But seriously, isn't it time for builders to stop bullying their way through a home sale and isn't it also time that we Realtors hold them accountable for their errors?

Yes, that Realtor was me...but let me explain.  My buyers, a dear young family, recently went under contract to purchase a modest home in a very large subdivision.  Their property was only one of three on the street that had flat back yards which they insisted upon having for the playset for their two toddlers.  There were no stakes indicating the lot boundaries but after their flat pad the lot sloped down about 10' to the yet-to-be develped rear property.  The sales office had no plat map.  Last week , just two weeks before closing, the supervisor told us that they had made a mistake with the original grading and that the lot was going to be re-graded to angle down to the rear property and oh, by the way, it is actually only about half as deep as the flat pad it currently had!

Well, guess what?  Two real estate attorney's later I found out what the builder was doing was illegal because:

1.  Once a contract is signed, a builder/contractor can not alter the lot in any way that would be detrimental to the buyer without their permission.

2.  The lot being flat was a material reason for buying this property.

I arrived at the property with the intention of taking pictures of the original lot pad when I found that despite my warnings the builder was in the process of bulldozing the lot!  Well, I was able to save the legal portion of the lot from any grading.  But you know what amazed me?  The builder has done this same thing numerous times before and not one buyer had known what their legal rights were and the builder still denies any wrong doing.  Will my clients take them to court?  No. But now I know that when something feels wrong...it probably is wrong and not to let a builder intimidate me or my buyers!