aspisak
(Allan Spisak, B.A. Law, Mech Eng Tech,)
1
So today tentatively scheduled to go in to the house at 1pm with the client to inspect the house before offers are presented at 5pm. The Realtor texts me, Sorry the seller/sellers agent will not allow an inspection before offers"
Then later this afternoon at another inspection discussing the above restricted inspection the agent I am with says “Oh yes we don’t allow inspections on any of our listings before offers come in, because they will still offer the same amount and we don’t have to disclose any problems the you may find”
Well this whole scenario now is starting to smell pretty rotten to me.
Offers are only accepted with NO inspections and NO inspections are allowed before offers.
Time to ring some bells soon people…
Allan Spisak
ACISS Home & Commercial Inspections www.aciss.ca
I’m not Canadian, but as a homeowner/seller, I wouldn’t allow window shoppers to bring an inspector into my house before I had a offer/contract and confirmed that they were a qualified buyer either.
In a busy market with lots of buyers and not enough homes for sale, people inspect before making an offer so that they will feel confident when they wave the inspection contingency clause. Its actually better for the seller because the closing process is shorter.
Sounds like Hamilton Alan, the market there is smoking hot I have done a couple inspections with a buyer before the offer because they have to make their offer fast or lose out!
REA’S have too much power…tell your MP! Now is the time!
It was commonplace to inspect before making an offer up until the crash about 2006-2008. Everything changed and went to hell when all the realtors starting losing their paychecks and couldn’t figure out how to stop the bleeding. They began refusing pre-offer inspections to “lock in” the buyers and make it difficult for them to change their minds and walk away by forfeiting their down payments.
The Hamilton Market is seeing some anomalies that need to be reported to RECO. Allan has identified one. I’ve heard of two others recently too. Listing Realtors giving inspectors only 2 hours to inspect, and Realtors who demand the inspection report for the buyer is handed over to the seller if the deal falls through.
Both are violations of either the Code of Ethics of Realtors or Inspection contracts with our clients.
I am collecting these occurrences and OntarioACHI will be working with the other Associations in Ontario to raise this to the attention of the regulator (RECO) and the ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
Any Inspector who has anything like this happen, please let either myself know at secretary@ontarioachi.ca, Allan at PHPIC, Murray Parrish at OAHI or Claude at the NHICC.
This is another example when working together we can protect our professionals and ensure they can continue to protect our clients.
It was never common in my area AFIK. I did this only on one occasion back around 2006 or 2007. It was for a DEA seized estate that was being auctioned off. It seems pointless to me as in the bidding war, the person who knows the defects in the home will almost never be the highest bidder. There was a period here where many buyers were waiving inspections in order to snag the overpriced house of their dreams. Many paid a very dear price for their foolishness. It’s funny how little regard we seem to have for history, even very recent history, at that.
All bubbles will burst at some point.
I think I would start marketing to all the fools who bought houses with no inspections that had serious defects that were not disclosed by sellers and their agents.