Publishing > Advanced RE Buying 101 > Chapter 3

• A Case Study is In Order
• Request for Investigations and Timelines
• CAR (California Association of Realtors) - Questions and Letter
• The Selling Brokerage - Questions and Letter
• ​The "Licensed Professionals" involved in the Transaction other than the Broker and Seller's Agent
  • ​General Contractor - Questions and Letter
  • Painter - Questions and Letter
  • Pre-Sale Home Inspector - Questions and Letter
  • Pre-Sale Termite Inspector - Questions and Letter
  • Transaction Coordinator - Questions and Letter
• ​The Seller's Agent - Questions and Letter  (Also includes Letter to his Attorney)
• The Seller - Questions and Letter  (Also includes Letter to his Attorney)
• Other 
  

A Case Study is in Order
You are going to learn more about all of this now via a Request for Investigations to numerous government and oversight agencies ALONG WITH  Questions that should be presented to each of the "Players" in our real world case study.  There are also individual letters to each "Player" and organization that provides a partial backstory too. ​

​Immediately below you will find the "Request for Investigations" and a Timeline for a toxic buying experience. 

Immediately below that you will find Questions and Letters for the Following:

1. The California Association of Realtors (CAR) 
2. The Selling Brokerage (the Largest National Residential brokerage in the US) 
3. Licensed Pro's hired by the Seller for pre-sale and in sale support
   1. Painter
   2. Pre-Sale Home Inspector
   3. Pre-Sale Termite Inspector
   4. Transaction Coordinator
   5. The Seller's Agent
4. The Seller

Request for Investigations & Timeline

For Groups with oversight responsibilities for Consumer Protection
Request for Investigations  || Timeline
​
The "Request for Investigations" and "Timeline" document represents the primary documents that have been shared with:

1. The California Department of Real Estate (CDRE),
2. California Association of Realtors (CAR)
3. National Association of Realtors (NAR)
4. California Attorney General and States Attorney
5. The United States Postal Service (office of investigations)
6. The US Department of Justice
7. The California Contracting Oversight Board
8. Home Inspector oversight boards and bodies (if we can find any that might actually be relevant)
9. An Insurance Board or a few (as it relates to an interesting tertiary thread)
10. Those Bankers interested in an "honest banking system", as well as those who are not...
11. ...and assuredly a few others....

A supplemental reference that may or may not be of interest can be found here:  

• ​Real Estate Brokerage Act -  4 parts - https://www.dre.ca.gov/publications/realestatelaw.html

The documents in the following sections represent supplemental documents all were given via link to this page some months ago, because all of the most relevant oversight groups have been following along since the escrow process in April and May 2021.  (Did you think I was writing all of that just for my own reference?)

Questions and Letters to the Transaction Contributors & Participants

1) California Association of Realtors (CAR)
Questions || Letter 

A review of the CAR contract used for residential brokerage transactions in Monterey County CA reveals:

1. A process that is different than all the surrounding counties. One that does not require a Seller to provide disclosure documents to a buyer prior to making an offer.  (NOTE: This can't be seen on the contract. You'd need contracts from the other counties to recognize this difference.)
2. A process that harms buyers and the entire marketplace by not managing Seller Disclosure processes in a healthy manner and one which allows the remarketing of transaction fails with no way to guarantee to the public that any problematic disclosure issues were rectified prior to remarketing. 
3. A process that  requires a buyer to give up legal claims for materially relevant items that were found during escrow that were not properly disclosed due to negligence or fraud that were not adjusted for by the seller.  

Simple reasons for the egregious contractual slant towards the seller's include: 

1. The Seller is paying for everyone's services
2. Slanting all legal coverage and benefits to the Seller makes everyone's job a lot easier.  

If a singular reason was sought for the additional contract malfeasance in Monterey County, it clearly facilitates more complex disclosure scams. With this system, Seller's have the ability to attempt to under disclose and there is a high level of protection from liability built into the dispute resolution process.  If a seller is caught in an under disclosure situation during escrow, Brokers on both sides seem biased to push the buyer out,  and with this system,  the home(s) can be remarketed without making any/all changes to their disclosure documents without anyone being able to verify new disclosure documents publicly during the remarketing process.  This facilitates a system in which a property can be marketed and remarketed over and over again until a proper "mark" is found.   

​We are going to ask CAR for any and all logical reasons for this Monterey County exception.  Based on our full reading of the contract, we don't believe they will be able to provide a single beneficial reason for the Buyer, but we will find out soon enough.  

2) The Selling Brokerage
Questions || Letter         12BV_05 
​
The Selling Brokerage is the largest national brokerage in the United States. The Broker in Charge of the office that handled the sale seems to own and/or manage between 4 and 6 offices across a 100-120 mile tall and 30 mile wide area.. HIs primary residence and/or primary office seems to be centrally located to that area. These questions focus primarily on perceived procedural and managerial problems at the Brokerage Level. This letter is extremely long. It is the only correspondence directly shared with him that details the experience in totality.  

•  ​

3) The "Licensed Professionals" involved in the Transaction other than the Broker and Seller's Agent
Each of these licensed professionals was brought into the Transaction by the Seller as a recommendation made by the Seller's Agent.   The Seller's Agent is a very part time Agent. He made reference to some of these being resources used by others in his office. The Pre-Sale Home Inspector, Pre-Sale Termite Inspector and Transaction Coordinator are all people would would generally rely on Realtor referrals for steady income. The General Contractor and Painter may or may not cater to Real Estate Agents and/or their clients as a steady base of income. 

• General Contractor  - Questions || Letter  
  • Referred by Seller's Agent to Seller. Work overseen by Seller's Agent in Seller's absence for 10 months ​
• Painter  - Questions || Letter 
  • Referred by Seller's Agent/GC/other. Work overseen by Seller's Agent in Seller's absence.
• Pre-Sale Home Inspector - Questions || Letter
  • Referred by Seller's Agent to Seller for creation of Pre Offer Discovery/Disclosure Doc
  • Seller's Agent was at inspection in place of Seller
  • Seller seems to have been unaware of some items conveyed in report. Evident via conflicting disclosures and dialogue. 
  • Additional Documents:  Inspection Analysis​
• Pre-Sale Termite Inspector - Questions || Letter
  • ​Referred by Seller's Agent to Seller for creation of Pre Offer Discovery/Disclosure Doc
  • Seller's Agent was at inspection in place of Seller
• Transaction Coordinator - Questions || Letter
  • ​Referred by Selling Agent to Seller    ​

4) The Seller 
The Seller is a family man who graduated college with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering in the mid 1980s and a  Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering from a very prominent engineering school in the early 1990s .  At the time of the transaction he worked at a High Tech Biomedical implant company in Silicon Valley paid approximately $50k in construction and inspection services and approximately $50k in Brokerage fees to market and sell a home that was made to look move in ready, but was not by most standards. 

• Seller -  Questions || Letter (anonymized version)
• Seller's Attorney - Letter w/ Questions Embedded An "Esquire" overstepped his bounds w/o proper protocol or invitation.

5) The Seller's Agent
The information provided here was gathered via internet and personal dialogue with him. Some dates/time frames may be a little off and the details are only as good as what was provided.  The Seller's Agent seems to have been licensed with the same national brokerage since about 2004 or so.  He was first licensed in the Northeastern United States. Around 2008, he and his family moved from the North Eastern United States to Pacific Grove, they purchased a home. They seemingly had no jobs or work lined up. It was just a good move for them.  He has an interest and experience working on Antique Cars and this is a popular area for others with similar interest. At some point he got his California Real Estate License and then affiliated with the same national brokerage. He appears to have handled about 1 transaction per year on average, since obtaining his first real estate license.   

• Selling Agent - Questions || Letter          

Other

Educational Documents

1. The "As Is Condition" is (should be) a Physical State "defined by Seller Disclosures" not Buyer Discoveries  - view

Kickoff Tweets... 
2/26/2022 - ​ To Barbara - view
2/26/2022 - To UC Berkley - view  
2/26/2022 - legal, sharks - view
2/26/2022 - panetta - view

Other...
Too many to index...