Not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but here goes...

Had some pretty bad problems with closing on a house on Friday and was wondering if anyone had been through a similar situation and had some advice on how to handle this.

This last Thursday I was suppose to have a pre-close walkthrough to make sure everything was all right with the house. My agent told me that the sellers had asked to postpone the walkthrough till Friday morning due to having a professional cleaner come to the house and clean on Thursday. I was scheduled to close on Friday at 9 am and they wanted to do the walkthrough at 8:30 am. Since the couple was nice, the house was in good shape overall, I really didn't have a problem doing this. (first time home buyer here) When I arrived at the house, I immediately noticed a huge rip in the carpet in the center of the living room, along with several deep stains throughout the house. I could also tell that there had not been a professional cleaner there, since several items were still left out along with "filth" left in several obvious places. I was not a happy camper. My agent did not appear to be shocked or anything at all. There had been furniture and rugs covering the areas were the carpet was stained and ripped. The inspectors did not notice any of this, and neither did I.

Giving that I only had less than 30 minutes till I was suppose to close, I was not sure what to do. I had NO idea the carpet was in the shape it was in. If so, I would have asked for some money to replace it. My agent said that 500 dollars would be enough to replace the carpet. I had to sit in the office and seriously think about this due to not being sure what to do. Since my agent was suppose to represent the buyer and had not steared me wrong yet, I believed her and went on with the closing eventually. She had told me to go to Lowes and get a quote to replace the carpet. Needless to say, 500 dollars was NOT going to come close to cover the price or replacing the carpet. I was highly upset at this point. The agent then told me that she would find someone to come clean the carpet and then "repair" it. I said, well, as long as it looks good, I'm ok with that. So with the sellers 500 dollars, we hired someone to come clean and repair the carpet.

To make a long story short, the cleaners could not get out the stains, and could not repair the carpet. I expressed to my real estate agent how upset I was and I did not pay for a house to have to come in and replace the carpet with my own money. I have contacted her broker, and I am supposed to hear back from her tomorrow. I was advised by my parents to contact the Texas Real Estate Commision and USAA(I used the Mover's Advantage Program) to inform them of what is going on.

I really feel like I got the raw end of the deal here. The carpet was an undisclosed problem and I feel like my real estate agent should have stopped closing untill we could get a quote on replacing it, or make sure they could fix it. Instead, I felt like I was kinda pressured into closing, even though I was uneasy about it all. I still signed the papers though, thinking the 500 dollars would replace the carpets. If the carpets looked good elsewhere in the house, and it was just the rip, I honestly could have "lived" with it and just placed a rug over it. Everyone is telling me that I'm being too nice about it all, and something really has to be done.

Anyone had similar problems? If so, or if not, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Erich

what is the difference in price between the $500 that did not fix your carpet, and the cost of replacing those sections of carpets? And yes this is the right forum to ask

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Thanks for the response =)

Apparently, the carpet is older than the sellers said. Around 10 years old. The quote I got to replace just the living room was around 1200 w/installation. (16x19) If they actually had some carpet left, or I could find carpet that matches it, replacing those sections is certainly an option. The 1200 dollar quote does not include the dining room attached to it, or the hallways. I didn't get a quote for two of the bedrooms carpets that have heavy stains. I have been really conerned with the huge rip in the living room.

I hate to say it and many here will disagree but some times you have to say wtf and move on.

Say you spend 5 hours filing complaints with this or that agency, isn't your time worth something? How about the amount of stress worrying about it?

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I've actually thought about this. If anything I will probably just file the complaint with TEC and USAA and move on. I might just have to bite the bullet here.

didn't you do a Home Inspection ?
if not always do it, doesn't matter if home was built 1 year ago.
Always. I wouldn't deal with agents who doens't want me to do home Inspection on a home my client is getting, never. That's the first thing as agent I tell my clients to do.

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Yes I had a home inspection done. But due to rugs and furniture being over the "problem" area's, they did not find them.

The problem is, the deal has closed. There are no "easy" solutions to a problem once the deal has closed.

Sure, the seller was petty and deceitful in not disclosing the carpet problems. That sucks.

Replace the carpet.

Then, if you are so inclined, go to small claims court and see if the court will award you money. Take plenty of pictures and document your problem. Keep the Transfer Disclosure Statement that shows no one disclosed the ripped and stained carpet. Too bad you don't have "before" pictures so you can show how the seller purposely concealed the undisclosed problem.

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I've had many last minute problems regarding small items that didn't work (leaky pipe, burner on stove not working, etc.). We use lawyers to close & if this is something we find during final walk-through we give it to the buyer's attorney to try to work it out with the sellers & their attorney. Most often it's worked out at the closing table.

Inspectors & agents do not move furniture to look for rips or stains on carpet. Your agent really only made the mistake of giving you a "quote" for carpeting. She shouldn't have done that. She should have let the attorneys do the talking (I know some areas don't use attorneys at closing so I can only go by how it works here in IL).

Here's the big question: would you have walked away from this home on the day of closing because of some bad carpeting? In my house, 10 yr. old carpet means it's time to buy some new carpet because of stains & wear. You received $500 "towards" buying some new carpet for that room. I know you feel like you got a bad deal but this stuff happens a lot, unfortunately.

You didn't have a lot of time to think as the walk-through was right before the closing. You can either move on & accept it as a learning experience or spend time & money trying to get more money through the seller and/or agent by filing a complaint.

Here's a story I went through personally. I had a great rapport with a young couple buying their first home. We went through a home where there was a strong urine odor. The owners had an older son who was mentally challenged & the odor was definitely from his bedroom. The buyers had an inspector. We all assumed the odor was from the son's bedding & clothing.

They closed on the house & moved in & couldn't get rid of the smell. It was later found that the son shoved clothing, paper & other stuff down the heating duct. They think he urinated into the duct, too. The inspector didn't check the ductwork as this is not a routine part of their inspection.

These kids spent every last dime on this home. They found that because of what had happened the ductwork was rusted & really needed to be replaced. They paid for it to be cleaned but it still smelled. I'm sure my buyers partly blamed me, even though there was no way I could have known. I'm sure I did mention that it was probably from his bed, though, which I shouldn't have guessed at. They also thought the inspector should have found this but I told them that I've never had an inspector check ductwork.

I encouraged them to sue the sellers and I even tried in vain to write letters to the attorneys and the selling broker to no avail. I suppose they could have tried to sue me, too. But they didn't do anything further about it. I'm unhappy that this happened to them & I doubt I'll ever receive a referral from them because of this unfortunate event. Sometimes if we could only start over...

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